By definition, a business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable and the plan for reaching those goals. They are used in both primary and secondary programs to teach economic principles. A business plan having changes in perception and branding as its primary goals is called a marketing plan. If it identifies and target internal goals but provide only general guidance on how they will be met, the they are called strategic plans.

It should contain whatever information is needed to decide whether or not to pursue a goal. It can be helpful to view the business plan as a collection of sub plans, one for each of the main business disciplines. Indeed, there are no fixed content for a business plan. The format of a business plan depends on its presentation context and cost and revenue estimates are central to any business plan for deciding the viability of the planned venture.

An external business plan should list all legal concerns and financial liabilities that might negatively affect investors. However, they may require each party receiving the business plan to sign a contract accepting special clauses and conditions. Traditionally, business plans have been highly confidential and quite limited in audience. Business plans are kept as secret, however, the emergence of free software and open source has opened the model and made the notion of an open business plan possible.

In the free software and open source business model, trade secrets, copyright and patents can no longer be used as effective locking mechanisms to provide sustainable advantages to a particular business and therefore a secret business plan is less relevant in those models. Every business plan is uniquely suited to its companys situation but successful plans tend to have several key traits in common.

Moreover, while there is no one perfect length for a business plan, you should make sure your plan hits the right level of detail and meets the expectations of your readers. A good business plan will be the best indicator that can be used to judge your potential for success. Though, in some cases the business plan as a whole contains similar information but for one type of plan it is mere detail and for another it is a key decision making factor.

Sometimes a business plan will seek to earn a superior return by adding superior management talent to an existing weak company. Infact, external business plan should list all legal concerns and financial liabilities that might negatively affect investors. Depending on the amount of funds being raised and the audience to whom the plan is presented, failure to do this may have severe legal consequences.

Moreover, they may require each party receiving the business plan to sign a contract accepting special clauses and conditions. Marketing plan defines all of the components of your marketing strategy. It should also integrate traditional offline programs with new media online strategies. Powerful business plan will be the best indicator that can be used to judge your potential for success.

Nevertheless, a good business plan should indeed contain whatever information is needed to decide whether or not to pursue a certain goal. When preparing a business plan, draw on a wide range of knowledge from many different business disciplines like finance, human resource management, intellectuals, property management, marketing and other sources. A successful business plan is a living roadmap to your future, not a packet of paper in your desk drawer. Start your business planning process with a clear look at where you stand today and what you want to achieve.

Obinna Heche. Los Angeles - California

To find the best home business ideas, opportunities and resources so you can work at home successfully visit..
http://www.homeincomeportal.com/obhmy365

There are many individuals and groups associated with schools and many of these people are likely to have valuable ideas to contribute to schools. Because they are close to your school they also have a vested interest in its success. The more you involve these people in contributing to the strategic direction you wish the school to take, the more ownership they will have of the final product and the more loyalty for the brand.

Generally when schools talk about their stakeholders they are thinking of the board, parents, staff and students; however, this excludes many important and valuable groups from providing input to your strategic planning and thinking.

Stakeholders also might include:
Old Scholars
Business owners
Employees who take students for work experience, for example
Clients/customers
Community groups
Community leaders
Competitors
Donors
Experts on educational issues, such as university personnel
Regulators
Suppliers
Professional Organizations
Partners or potential partners
Potential enrolments.

Consulting with a wide variety of stakeholders has much to offer your school. Widespread consultation:

One: Increases the quality and quantity of input and reduces the chances of group think. It is possible that those closest to the school are also those most resistant to change. A broader perspective challenges traditional thinking and increases the likelihood of more creative decision making and problem solving.

Two: Encourages ownership of school goals. The more opportunity people have to shape the direction of the school, they more likely they are to be satisfied with the final product. All of the conventional wisdom, as well as educational research, tells us that ownership of decisions and strategies is essential for take up of a plan.

Three: increases the chances of success. The more commitment you have to a plan the more the people involved are motivated to make it happen and the more interest others have in monitoring its success.

Four: Widespread consultation improves relationships. Genuinely seeking and valuing the input of others increases self esteem and improves relationships. It also reduces the chances of misinformation and complaints of lack of transparency.

Schools can consult in a variety of ways: by surveying as many stakeholders as possible; by providing opportunities for one on one meetings; or by organizing focus group consultations with a small group of stakeholders.

Surveys are cost efficient and provide quantitative information. One on one meetings build personal relationships and provide deep, quality and detailed data. Similarly, focus group consultations bring together people, often from the same representative group (e.g. parents) to present the point of view of a particular category of stakeholders and provide qualitative data.

All of the data provided from a wide cross section of stakeholders feeds into the strategic planning and thinking of the school, and increases the chances of accessing quality data for quality decision making.

Robyn Collins is a former school principal and passionate about education. She wants every school to be the best it can be.
Find out more about school improvement through strategic planning at: http://www.strategicplanning4schools.com

From the One Minute Manager concept, Total Quality Management, and Six Sigma Certification programs, business have spent large sums of money in an attempt to train their management and working staff to perform within the guidelines of these models. Believing that this training would unite management and all levels of employees to work together toward company goals has been the motivating factor behind institution of these programs.

From previous thoughts and models, the business world has evolved to supporting new interactive training programs, known as business simulations. The main difference in the models of the past and business simulation programs is that unlike the classroom lectures and motivational speakers, business simulations create situations, which imitate actual workplace events. The old style training programs were based on the concept of awareness tactics, lectures, and interactive skits, but usually were not job related for all members of the training team, and lessons were soon forgotten after the classes ended. Employees returned to their jobs, only to revert to old habits and routines.

Business simulation training; is designed and modeled after real life business situations, at a highly interactive level. These modules are usually computer based and modified to simulate events of the company’s real life business. Outcomes depend on the decisions made, just like in real business situations. The answers and paths taken, build upon each other to create real life experiences. In some models, all levels of employees are drawn into problem solving or because of the decisions made, the scenario may escalate to the management level.

A key position in this level of training; is the facilitator. This person must be highly skilled in the area of group dynamics, and is in charge of keeping the session moving forward, and fostering an environment to enhance learning. They also lead the group in self-evaluation of how the situations were handled, and if improvements could have been made to change the outcome.

Employees retain what they learn in these sessions, because they are relative to the jobs they do every day. They can relate to the events and remember encountering a similar situation. When a difficult or new situation arises in the real workplace, the employees may have already experienced the process and can adjust decision making to reach the desired outcome.

As companies scamper to replace retiring baby boomers, especially those in key leadership positions, business simulation training is taking the lead in long range management plans. It is the hope of these companies that business simulation training will prepare younger and inexperienced managers to become top of the line leaders of the future.

Art Gib is a freelance writer writing about Executive Perspectives a leading provider of business simulations and numerous other services for businesses.

I recently met with my friend Neil to discuss several business building strategies. I shared with him a tool that I use in my own business on a daily basis.

You can create this tool on your own, it’s super easy to use, and I guarantee it will help you grow your business exponentially.

The tool is a simple text document (I created mine in Microsoft Word) that you use to measure your daily KPIs. KPI stands for key performance indicator, and every business - even yours - has them.

The first step in creating your KPI measurement tool is to figure out what your Key Performance Indicators are - what activities do you do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis that directly contribute to the success of your business?

Some examples of KPIs might be the number of phone calls you make, the amount of time you spend networking, the number of presentations you deliver, the number of articles you distribute, etc.

Next, create a simple sheet where you can measure your performance in each of these areas. The document I created for myself is a single sheet of paper in landscape view (that’s the wide-way) divided in half so there are two columns.

In the first column, I measure Monday through Friday activities, and in the second column I measure weekly activities.

I cut the sheet in half (so each column became its own page) and took it to the local print shop. I had them make 52 copies of each page and turn the copies into a
notepad. (Most print shops or copy shops have this capability.) I can keep the notepad handy and use it on a daily basis.

Before making 52 copies and turning them into a notepad, you’ll want to spend some time testing out your Key Performance Indicators.

Your KPIs might not be immediately evident, and you might be wasting your time by measuring things that don’t really matter.

For instance, you might think that distributing press releases in an important KPI for your business. Test it out for a while. Send out press releases on a regular basis, measure your performance, and determine your results.

What has this activity done for you? Did you get more sales inquiries after sending press releases? How valuable were those inquiries? Will you be able to attribute an increase in the bottom line to sending out press releases? If so, then this activity is definitely a KPI.

But on the other hand, if you think adding a new article to your blog on a daily basis is an important Key Performance Indicator, try it out for a while. Write an article every day and track the results.

Did you add more prospect names to your database as a result of your articles? Did you see your sales increase? If not, this activity is probably not a KPI for your business, so there’s no point focusing on it
and measuring it.

After a few weeks, you’ll be able to figure out which activities are actually contributing to your progress. If you notice your sales increase as your networking
increases, then networking is definitely a KPI.

If the time spent on a certain activity varies but your sales remain stagnant, you’ll know that activity is not a KPI. It can be dumped from your list.

Once you’ve identified your KPIs and you’ve measured them for a set time, you’ll then have an awesome tool to plan for your sales growth. You’ll know exactly what to do in order to grow your business.

Let’s say you’ve identified “making prospect phone calls” as an important KPI. And in your measuring process, you’ve discovered that when you make 5 phone calls each day, you average $15,000 in sales for the week.

If you’d like to increase your progress to $30,000 in sales every week, you know you’ll need to make at least 10 phone calls.

Identifying your KPIs is the most important step in effectively using this tool. That step is extremely personal and will differ from business to business.

Karen Scharf is an Indianapolis marketing consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs. She offers several whitepapers, free reports and checklists, including her FREE Can-Spam checklist and FREE email pre-flight checklist to ensure your emails get delivered, get opened and get read. Download your copies at http://www.ModernImage.com.

A mission statement should very quickly and succinctly define your business, your ideals, goals and history in a brief paragraph. Sounds simple, huh? It can be far more difficult than it seems to write a mission statement, so where do you start?

Firstly look at writing your mission statement as a chance to gain some extra insight into your organization. Find out how your employees see the business; evaluate what you see as your niche in your industry. A mission statement should explore what your business does and strives for at the core of its operations. Rather than selling your services or talking about your customers, your mission statement should provide a big picture look at your business history, its ideals and its future direction. And all in 3 or 4 short sentences!

Your mission statement should be a document that is relevant to employees and stakeholders in your organization, so one way of approaching it is to simply ask your employees for their feedback. Your staff will most likely describe common ideas and express common themes about their work and role in the organization, and incorporating their ideas is a good way to achieve that bigger picture.

Some tips on questions to ask are as follows.

o What are you in business to achieve?

o How does your organization differ from competitors?

o What is the nature of your products and services?

o Who are you and your employees?

o What are the philosophies and values that guide your business?

From asking these questions you will aim to uncover the opinions of others. You want to use these responses to be able to develop a statement that will be adopted by your organization. This statement should outline why your business exists and what you are hoping to get out of being in business. You want to demonstrate how you are different to your competitor and describe your niche position within your particular industry. Finally your want to state your principles and this is particularly important as this can have the most emotional value for employees and other stakeholders.

When writing these ideas succinctly look at choosing your wording carefully. You are aiming to say the maximum amount in a very short space so you should choose words that are laden with meaning and not superfluous. At every stage remember your goal is to state your organizations nature, its values and the specific work you do. You may write only 3 or 4 sentences, you may write closer to a page. Ultimately however, a great mission statement can be a boon to your business. A good mission statement can be used to help new employees understand your organization or to motivate current employees by giving them a sense of purpose and pride in their work.

On a final note, once you have written your mission statement it can be worth reviewing it over time; by doing so you can ensure that your mission statement stays true to your organizations values and goals, both now and in the future.

Deep Arora is an Internet marketer with over 7 years of online experience and he teaches internet marketing from his blog at HowIDid.com. Check out his blog for some amazing techniques today..

The term business intelligence (BI), although sounding mysterious, is simply the act of tracking and analyzing company data. Most companies have business intelligence tools in place, but may not realize how focusing on this data and using technology to track business events can greatly improve the operations and bottom line of any company.

Business intelligence is actually an umbrella term used to describe a set of concepts and methods to improve business decision-making by using specific tools to provide facts to support decisions. These tools can be spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel is the most widely used), reporting and querying software that extracts, sorts, and reports data (Crystal Reports is a widely used product), dashboards, which gives the user the ability to glance at trends and drill down further into data, and many very technical models which are mostly used by large corporations.

In setting up a business intelligence program, the first step a company will need to take is determining what the short to medium term purpose of the program will be. What goal(s) does the organization want to address by the program? How will it relate to the overall success of the company? Will access to the data eventually improve results and/or performance?

Next is determining if the company has the tools for information gathering in the area to be assessed. Is there the capability to monitor the important sources of information? How much data is needed and how will it be stored and analyzed?

The financial outlay of a new business initiative should be estimated and the cost of present operations assessed to determine value. What is the risk if the initiative fails? What is the gain for succeeding?
How will the data be collected and the benefits measured? Is there a team in place to act as the control? At what point can a determination be made as to if the initiative is successful? Is there a plan in place if the project does not produce the desired results?

A business intelligence initiative can be as simple as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to track sales, visits, or other basic data, or it can be so complex that companies purchase entire servers to provide tools for tracking, analyzing, reporting, storing, drilling, and disbursing, to name only a few functions available.

Whatever your business size, all companies can benefit from some form of business intelligence. The most successful business decisions are made on the most accurate data.

Art Gib is a freelance writer writing about The Revere Group a leading provider of business intelligence consulting and numerous other services for businesses.

To take advantage of the opportunities that exist now and will develop over the next two years, it is crucial for you to know where you and your business really stand today. How can you build on opportunities you find or develop new opportunities when you do not really understand the strengths and benefits you have?

Jack and Suzy Welch said to plan as if the downturn will be longer and harsher than you think, in the October 13th Business Week.

Think of it this way. Those people who go through some version of this strategic hunkering down thinking increase their ability to survive. If things get even worse, they saved time and money, versus those who were reactive rather than proactive. If things get better quicker than projected, these proactive companies will be in a stronger cash position to take advantage or opportunities than the reactive companies.

At a strategic or 50,000 foot view, see this as a prescribed plan for your business that includes similar steps to the process you may personally follow when a crisis occurs:

A check-up to identify immediate issues. What areas, if any need a deeper search, after someone takes the blood pressure, weight, and a series of basic questions for your company?

A diagnostic through review of financials, systems and operations, on those areas where additional risk prevention seems needed. After all if the financial statements and information flow are the lifeblood of your business, how well does the blood flow to vital organs?

A treatment plan, in which we implement best practices. Even Tiger Woods has a coach to help him reach and stay at peak levels. What areas of your business have a little or a lot of flab or even pus developed?

A wellness program to maintain financial health. Planning for eventualities now can be as simple as strategic thinking with the right 8 people in the room, instead of foolishly spending a 6 or 7 figure balance that you may really wish you still had this time next year.

This process can be used to start a business, fine tune an existing business, or create a new division or subsidiary.

Think of the similarities of your business to a ship. Both have leaders, a president and a Captain or Skipper. Both leaders have major difficulties seeing below their direct reports, or through or under the deck of the ship. Both have leaks that are ongoing.

You might not know that water always leaks in ships. The secret is to pump the water out from leaks faster than new leaks grow. When this is done the ship, or Company, can sail on to dream destinations, or a company to its dream targets or goals. Or, both can sink from apparently invisible leaks. Sometimes, an iceberg drifts into your corporate path. Remember movies or stories about the Titanic. Foreseeable outside events can quickly sink an unsinkable ship, or fatally damage a seemingly vibrant business.

This process will help you find and fix those profit leaks, so you do not list or sink, and can stay afloat toward your dream goals.

When the economic climate changes as dramatically and as frequently as it seems to be nowadays, some version of contingency planning or risk management should be on every executive team agenda. Do not ignore the warning signs and watch your ship go down. Face your risks squarely and come up with a flexible ERM plan. Do not wait until you are making that Mayday call to a world that has its own crises underway!

Bottom line? Stop Profit Leaks Now. Apply this information to improve your profitability, reengineer business models, and strengthen or gain competitive advantage in the marketplace. And apply the free Fiscal Test at http://fiscaldoctor.com/fiscaltest.html.

From Gary W Patterson Copyright 2008

How can you be sure your strategic planning will make a difference to your school? There are, at least, five things you can do to ensure you give yourself the best chance to move your school towards its stated vision.

Tip 1

Be clear about your vision. If you do not know what you want to achieve, you cannot make decisions about how you are going to get there. One of the key attributes of successful schools is that they have a well-articulated vision that all members of the school community are aware of and believe in. It is worthwhile spending time to get your vision right because all later strategic planning decisions depend on whether or not the actions arising from the plan are consistent with the vision.

Tip 2

Be strategic. This tip is so obvious that it is almost ridiculous; however, a great deal of strategic planning gets bogged down in detail rather than looking at the bigger picture. There are many operations in the day-to-day running of a school that remain relatively constant; for example, attention to student safety, the curriculum, the co-curricular program. Unless you intend to change one of these operational areas, they should not be part of your strategic planning process. Rather, your strategic planning should deal with key strategic questions and issues. That is, the issues on which school effectiveness, student outcomes and the viability of the school depends.

Tip 3
Be collaborative. A plan will not work if people are not out there making it happen. People will not work with any enthusiasm on a plan they do not own. The more members of the school community involved in the development of the plan, the more buy-in you will have and the more people who will be motivated to make the plan work. At the very least, school staff, students and parents should be involved in some stage of the development of your strategic plan. You might also consider involving local business people, the local community, old scholars and any other relevant people.

Tip 4
Be specific. Key strategic goals need to be SMART. That is they should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-limited.
Specific means they should be clear and able to be understood by all, including those not involved in the process.

Measurable means they should articulate the desired outcome, not the specific strategies. For example, not write about improving student outcomes in general terms. Write something specific like: improve benchmarks testing results by 10% by the end of the year.

Achievable means that the goal should be rigorous and cause stretching but it also should be possible to reach. People will soon lose interest in a goal they can never attain.

Realistic, is similar to achievable. They is no point in setting a goal that all students will receive 100% in the end of year exam when clearly the only way this might be achieved is by setting a test so simple that anyone could do it; but it would hardly encourage good teaching or learning!

Time-limited means that the goal has an end, and that the end is not so far into the future as to be meaningless. All goals need to yield some results by the end of the strategic planning period, and preferably there should also be some short-term goals leading towards the bigger goal as well.

Tip 5
Be flexible. No strategic plan should be set in stone. On the contrary, plans should be regularly revisited, revised and reviewed in order to accommodate changes in the internal and external environment and to respond quickly to education policy changes and external environment trends.

Robyn Collins is a former school principal and is passionate about education. She wants every school to be the best it can be.
Find out more about school improvement through strategic planning at: http://www.strategicplanning4schools.com

I just finished up my business plan for 2009 (and if you haven’t updated your 2009 plan yet, I urge you to get started soon!) and I’m working with several clients to update their plans also.

One of the roadblocks many of my clients run into is the difficulty of setting concrete goals and objectives. It’s easy to say “I want to earn $350,000 in 2009″ but breaking that down into actionable steps is where most of my clients struggle.

I use a very simple system with my clients that has proven to be successful. It’s not unique; in fact, I think many goals setting programs teach a very similar approach.

But I want to share it with you today anyway so that hopefully you can get started planning for 2009 while this information is still fresh in your mind.

You’ve probably heard of SMART goals - that’s the idea that all of your goals need to be:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely

Problem is, most goal authorities advise that your goals should be a little lofty - they should “scare” you just a little bit. So it can be difficult to determine whether your “scary” goal fits into the SMART category.

Here’s how I work through this with my clients - let’s take the $350,000 annual income as an example:

First, we break that goal into its smallest parts. So a $350,000 annual income would become a $6,731 weekly income. I’m using 52 weeks a year to make the math quick, and I’m factoring gross income, not net.

You’ll need to adjust for vacation time and taxes, if you’d like.

Now we run through the SMART system. Is $6,731 weekly income specific? Seems pretty specific to me. And it’s definitely measurable (numbers make great goals since they are so easy to measure).

Sure the goal is attainable. Plenty of people are currently earning $6,731 each week, so we know it can be done.

I’ve heard it said before that there are no unattainable goals, only unattainable timeframes. Which brings us to the next criteria - and here is where most of my clients struggle…

Is a weekly income of six thousand plus realistic? Obviously, this is going to be subjective, but here’s a good rule of thumb that I like to use: Take a look at your current income and add 20%.

By making several very easy tweaks to the current operations and marketing program, most entrepreneurs can realistically expect to increase their income by 20%. So, if you’re earning $5,609 per week in 2008, you can realistically earn $6,731 in 2009.

But what if you’re not earning $5,609 right now? What if you’re only earning $4,000 each week? Here’s where it gets a bit tricky.

To go from $4,000 to $6,731 would require more than a 68% increase in your current income. By making “normal” changes, you can expect a 20% increase - so how would you earn a 68% increase?

Here’s a formula that I’ve found to work in most cases: for every 20% increase in income, you need a 20% across the board increase in successful marketing activities.

For your 68% increase, you need to do almost 70% more of what you’re successfully doing now (successfully doing is the key here.)

So, if you currently attribute a sizable portion of our website traffic to article marketing, and you’re currently distributing 20 articles each week, you now need to distribute 34 articles each week.

And if a good portion of your prospects are coming from your speaking engagements, and you’re speaking twice each week, you’ll need almost 4 speaking engagements each week.

If you are now selling 50 info-products each week, you’ll need to sell 85 info-products in 2009.

And on and on and on. Run these numbers for all of your successful marketing activities and decide whether or not they’re realistic.

If you haven’t been keeping good track and measuring along the way, it might take some time to look back through the year and figure out what was actually working for you. But don’t skip this step!

There’s no point in increasing unsuccessful activities. If you’ve sent out 20 articles each week and saw no traffic from them, why would you waste your time sending 34 articles?

Keep in mind, we’re looking at income only here. This does not take into account expenses and profits. Don’t be surprised to find that an income increase actually reduces profits as your expenses go up also.

You need to run an entire cash flow and P&L projection in order to verify that your goal is actually desirable.

Hope this helps as your put your 2009 plan in place. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to business and marketing plans.

Don’t forget your mission and vision statements, your target market profile, your marketing message, etc. My fill-in-the-blanks guide can help you put it all together.

Now, go find some more clients!

Karen Scharf is an Indianapolis marketing consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs. She offers several whitepapers, free reports and checklists, including her FREE Can-Spam checklist and FREE email pre-flight checklist to ensure your emails get delivered, get opened and get read. Download your copies at http://www.ModernImage.com.

Have you given thought to setting up your own business? Or are you considering expanding your current business and quite possibly require a loan from your bank or for someone to invest in your business?

If you’re currently looking for an investment to inject capital into your business it is likely that a business plan will be required. If you are starting a business, irrespective of the work involved, a business plan can prepare you for all the issues you’ll have to resolve and help ensure your success.

Business plans are something that many businesses choose not to create; despite this, many business owners feel that having your own business plan is one of the reasons their business is a success. Creating a plan for the business makes you think about possible future issues to your small business and gets you to find solutions that will help you sort out the problem.

To find investors or get a bank loan, they will look to see whether you have any experience or resources to run the business. They will want to see your projected income as well as your repayment plan all laid out. Taking the time to do this is not only important for them, but it gives you a way of measuring to see whether your business is expanding properly. You can gage your success on how close to the business plan your business has actually performed. Maybe it’s worse, or it could be better, either way it will help you to see the successes of your business.

If you have never seen a business plan before you could be bothered that it requires too much of you for you to prepare on your own.

There are services available where you can hire someone to write a business plan for you, depending on what you want it may be wise to familiarize yourself with a business plan’s layout. This won’t only help you to provide the correct information, but may help you if you decide to make your own.

Some of the aspects of business you will have to explain are your Market, Customer, Competition, marketing Plan, and Research & Development along with financial forecasts. You might consider employing someone to help you with your financial sheets after you’ve finished the written aspects of your business plan.

Your business plan will become your guide and silent business partner - indicating to you where improvement is required and helping you trample your competition. Make it imperative to have this blueprint to a successful business.

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Free Affiliate Programs

For more information and resource links on business plans visit: Writing A Business Plan