It may be difficult for owners to share their company’s financial information. If the business has been run as a sole proprietorship and the owner(s) keep the information very private, this is often the case. It is as personal as a person’s net worth, investment strategies and expenses.
I started my first company in 1997 and was very proud of my small successes and wanted to share this with friends and business associates. We’ll discuss “Mentors” in a future article and the role they play.
As the company grew, I became more reluctant to share too much and played my cards close to my chest. Only my accountant and my wife knew how well we were doing and I felt it was for our eyes only.
Asset Business Consulting and iMotion Marketing, which I started in 2003, had some good years and some lean ones. I share this information with very few people.
A Business Plan is a great way of taking very private details of the business and putting them on paper. I have said previously that if you put a Business Plan together, it can be empowering. Once you have the strategies, tactics, financials and goals on a 10-20 page document, it feels as if the business has evolved. It can be a snapshot of the history of the company. It can also be a score-card to measure things you projected to happen that may not have and to appreciate the unexpected things that surprised you.
The company that I started in 2003, has gone through a few iterations. It started as a newsletter application, evolved to web design and further, into a Consulting business. We no longer provide newsletters and now we can offer many technical and marketing solutions to companies looking to advance their business.
A Business Plan absolutely requires financials in order to pull it all together. You may be working with a Business Plan Consultant in order to put on paper, the goals and direction of the company. Most often, the Business Plans we work with are used for potential partners, banks or for mergers.
Banks and lending institutions will look at the charts and the numbers in order to process the value of the company, how organized they are and are they competent owners. We use the costs of doing the business and the sales numbers to paint a picture of the business.
How do you do this work if you are busy running the company? You likely outsource some of the marketing, sales, social media and advertising. A Business Plan isn’t any different. Hiring an expert such as Asset Consulting releases you from work it takes and focuses you on the business implementation. The hours saved make you more productive.
We’ll spend more time on Business Plans in upcoming articles.
Asset Business Consulting and Coaching
phone/text 250.580.5250
craig@assetconsulting.ca