Wednesday, June 3, 2009

SMEs - Step 9 in the business planning process

SMEs are renowned for missing the detail, but this is a detail step that makes it all worthwhile.

Once you have completed the business plan, especially Step 8 which is the Operational Strategy, you must assess the projected financial position, and then decide if the business will achieve your harvest plan. If not you have to decide whether to accept less or whether you will look elsewhere.

This important step cannot be avoided or ignored, because to do so, is to do so at your own peril. Doing this with a client once, he realised it was impossible to achieve his harvest plan with this business. His decision was to "learn to live with less". This is not an entrepreneur speaking, and frankly it is quite likely he will get exactly what he asked for, or less. Remember, it is seldom that targets are achieved or exceeded, so aiming low is a recipe for disaster.

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