for you, after all. But you can ask them to fine-tune the look of your web page, for example, or review and critique your financial projections.
www.score.org) has a free online newsletter and provides free email counseling. The group also has local chapters around the country, with retired businesspeople ready and willing to help.
Finding friendly advice
Many local communities have organizations of businesspeople who convene to share ideas, exchange contacts, help each other out, and just plain socialize. Lots of research shows that Americans especially seem to love this sort of clubbiness, but it’s definitely not limited to one demographic. Some groups consist of folks who’ve worked in the same industry or firm in the past or share mutual interests, and other organizations focus on helping specific groups like women, recent immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ people, or freelancers. Thanks to the Internet, you can find business groups that regularly schedule either online or in-person support meetings.
Assembling Your Planning Team
A new start-up: If your business is just out of the blocks or about to launch, then there’s no question that the key founder(s) has to do the work. That means you. But don’t fret: Who better to create a view of the future and set business goals and objectives than the person responsible for reaching the goals and making the future happen?
Small businesses: If your business is only yourself and a couple of other colleagues, making a plan for the company is your responsibility. You might have one or more trusted insiders or external mentors who can offer wisdom, but in reality, something as critical as a business plan can’t be outsourced. Own it.
Medium-size companies: If your company is a bit bigger, the process of creating your written plan requires more organization — and more people. Putting together a plan is a big job, and involving all your key people has a certain advantage: Everyone involved in the plan has a stake in making sure that your company succeeds. And they will appreciate the inclusion.
Large corporations: If you’re part of a big company, you may need to bring in people who work on business planning full-time, if they’re not already there. Make certain, however, that you don’t create an independent planning staff: You don’t want your plan to take on a life of its own and get completely divorced from what’s happening with your business and those who make the day-to-day decisions. You have to make sure that your planners don’t create the plan all by themselves. Your planning staff should always work alongside the managers and owners who actually have to execute the business plan. (See Chapters 16 and 17 for details on implementation.)
Setting the ground rules
Identify key steps. Typically, the process of writing a business plan includes five distinct steps: research, first draft, review, revised draft, and final review. You can specify as many or as few of these steps as you think you need. Just make sure that you spell them out up front.
Clearly assign duties. Everyone involved needs to know exactly what you expect from them. You can use the key steps you identify to create separate sets of tasks, and then you assign each task to members of your team (see the next section).
Establish a schedule. Although writing up a business plan is a big job, the process doesn’t need to be a long and drawn-out affair. A business plan has to be timely, responding to the current business environment — not the way it looked six months ago. After you complete the preliminary research, the rest of the steps are fairly straightforward. To keep your project on track, set specific due dates for each component of the plan and each step in the process. Assign the members of your team as much time as they reasonably need, but no more, and be fair but forceful in having them meet deadlines.
Delegating responsibility
If your company is large enough to boast a management team, you should divvy up the work involved in putting together your written business plan. We’re not suggesting that you delegate responsibility just to make your job easier (although it certainly does). Different people bring different insights to your plan. With a team in place, you have a wider array of people and perspectives ready to read and review drafts, offer suggestions, and fine-tune the document to make it as good as you possibly can.
Keep your team lean and mean. Too many planners are like too many chefs in the kitchen — they get in each other’s way. A bloated team can mean endless meetings and too many points of view. Involve only the number of people you think you really need to get the job done.
Appoint people who want the job. Sure, you may have trouble finding volunteers who jump up and down at the chance to work on a business plan. But you need to make sure that whoever you choose is at least willing and able to complete the task. To spark your people’s enthusiasm, take time to explain why creating a written business plan is so important. See Chapter 2 if you need help convincing your team of the importance of a plan.
Organize
