How to Update Your Business Plan
Once you have a business plan, it is necessary to keep it up-to-date. A business plan helps you stay focused on what you need to be doing, who you need to focus on to be the most successful, and where you should focus your time and resources.
To update a business plan, ask:
- Are you selling the same products and services?
- Are you selling to the same people?
- Have your methods of delivery changed?
- Have your marketing efforts changed?
- Is the profit and loss statement current?
- Have your billing methods changed?
- What customers are providing the majority of your income? Hint: Focus there.
- What are you doing to follow-up with your customers?
Sometimes we cannot “see” our business as well as other people. Find some trusted collaborators and help each other analyze what is working and what is not. Sometimes talking through various aspects of your business with a mastermind group or a team of friends or a business consultant clarifies what you need to do.
Good luck!
First of all, getting lots of smaller companies to even finish their business plans is a challenge. But getting them to update them? If only they knew the value of doing so!
Thank you, Sharon! Yes, I have a lot of business owners who are operating without a plan. Think of how much more profitable they would be WITH a plan!
I think it is important to get something down on paper to get it out of your head. A business plan makes the business more real.
Carol,
I agree 1000%! Getting the plan on paper DOES make it more real. Posting it when you see it everyday helps too! Thanks for your kind comment.
Warmly, Mary