Understanding Business Plans: Startup Marketing
Understanding Business Plans: Startup Marketing
Understanding Business Plans: Startup Marketing
Although they're especially useful for new businesses, every company should
have a business plan. Ideally, the plan is reviewed and updated periodically to
see if goals have been met or have changed and evolved. Sometimes, a new
business plan is created for an established business that has decided to move
in a new direction.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Operating without a business plan is not usually a good idea. In fact, very few
companies are able to last very long without one. There are definitely more
benefits to creating and sticking to a good business plan—including being able
to think through ideas without putting too much money into them and,
ultimately, losing in the end.
A good business plan should outline all the projected costs and possible
pitfalls of each decision a company makes. Business plans, even among
competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. But they all tend to have
the same basic elements, including an executive summary of the business
and a detailed description of the business, its services, and its products. It
also states how the business intends to achieve its goals.