Use the space provided to detail your main goals and deliverables for each timeframe, and then add the steps necessary to achieve your objectives. Assign task ownership and enter deadlines to ensure your plan stays on track every step of the way.
PDF Smartsheet. The following single page business plan templates are designed to help you download your key ideas on paper, and can be used to create a pitch document to gain buy-in from partners, investors, and stakeholders. Use this one-page template to summarize each aspect of your business concept in a clear and concise manner. Define the who, what, why, and how of your idea, and use the space at the bottom to create a SWOT analysis strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for your business.
This one-page business plan template employs the Lean management concept, and encourages you to focus on the key assumptions of your business idea. A Lean plan is not stagnant, so update it as goals and objectives change — the visual timeline at the bottom is ideal for detailing milestones.
Use this business plan template to identify main goals and outline the necessary activities to achieve those goals in 30, 60, and day increments.
Easily customize this template to fit your needs while you track the status of each task and goal to keep your business plan on target. These business plan templates are useful for small businesses that want to map out a way to meet organizational objectives, including how to structure, operate, and expand their business.
A small business can use this template to outline each critical component of a business plan. There is space to provide details about product or service offerings, target audience, customer reach strategy, competitive advantage, and more.
Plus, there is space at the bottom of the document to include a SWOT analysis. Once complete, you can use the template as a basis to build out a more elaborate plan.
This fill-in-the-blank template walks you through each section of a business plan. Build upon the fill-in-the-blank content provided in each section to add information about your company, business idea, market analysis, implementation plan, timeline of milestones, and much more.
Provide your business overview and management team details at the top, and then outline the target market, market size, competitive offerings, key objectives and success metrics, financial plan, and more.
Startups can use these business plan templates to check the feasibility of their idea, and articulate their vision to potential investors. Use this business plan template to organize and prepare each essential component of your startup plan. Outline key details relevant to your concept and organization, including your mission and vision statement, product or services offered, pricing structure, marketing strategy, financial plan, and more.
Wheelen and C. Michaels, Jr. A at the end of Chapter 1 can be used to develop a formal business plan. The questions can be reoriented to follow the outline in Appendix 1. A crucial building block of a sound business plan is the construction of re- alistic scenarios for the pro forma financials.
The pro formas must reflect the impact of seasonality on the cash flows of the proposed new venture. Implement the business plan: Do this through the use of action plans and procedures.
Evaluate the implemented business plan through comparison of actual performance against projected performance results: This step leads to step 1 b of the strategic decision-making process shown in Figure 1—5.
For one thing, the owners and the managers are usually the same people— the company founders or their close relatives. If a venture is not incorporated, there is no need for a board of directors. It may be a sole proprietorship or a simple partnership.
Those entrepreneurial ventures wishing to grow quickly or to limit the liability of the owners often incorporate the business. Once incorporated, the company can sell shares of stock to others such as venture capitalists to finance its growth.
When the company is owned by sharehold- ers even if the shareholders are composed of only the founding owners who also manage the firm , the company must have a board of directors. Passive boards exist when the stock is closely held by the founding owners and their im- mediate families who manage the company on a day-to-day basis.
As the only stockholders, they elect themselves to board offices and call meetings only when the law requires it—usually as a social occasion. There is no need for an active board since there are no other stockholders and thus no agency problems. The board typically has few or no external directors. Entrepreneurial ventures financed by venture capitalists typically have very active boards of directors.
The venture capitalists expect to obtain seats on the board in exchange for their investment. Since closely held entrepreneurial ventures and small businesses tend to have relatively passive boards composed primarily of insiders, this type of business should use an advisory board to provide advice to the owner—managers. An advisory board is a group of external business people who voluntarily meet periodically with the owner—managers of the firm to dis- cuss strategic and other issues.
The members are usually invited to join the board by the pres- ident of the company. The advisory board has no official capacity but is expected to provide management with useful suggestions and act as a sounding board. Since the members typically receive no compensation for serving, quarterly business meetings are often followed by cock- tails and dinner at a nearby country club, hotel, or prestigious restaurant. Us- ing an advisory board is an easy way to obtain free professional consulting advice.
Research indicates that advisory boards improve the performance of small businesses. A research study of firms go- ing dark indicated that the firms delist their stock not only to avoid compliance costs but also to evade the outside monitoring and additional scrutiny required by Sarbanes-Oxley.
Whether insiders succeed, and whether the decision to go dark is a good or bad one therefore depends on the governance in place. The business is usually too small to justify hiring someone to do only environmental scanning or strategic planning.
Top managers, especially if they are the founders, tend to believe that they know the business and can follow it better than anyone else. A study of small rapid- growth companies revealed that the majority of CEOs were actively and personally involved in all phases of the planning process, especially in the setting of objectives. In the rest of the firms, operating managers who participated in strategic planning provided input only to the CEO, who then formulated the plan.
Nevertheless, few small businesses do much competitor analysis. If they do analyze competition, typical small business owners often only look locally, without consider- ing competitors across town or in a nearby city. A fundamental reason for differences in strategy formulation between large and small en- trepreneurial companies lies in the relationship between owners and managers.
Large corporations of- ten choose growth strategies for their many side benefits for management as well as for share- holders.
Some may even fear that growth will attract attention from larger competitors that might want to take over the company or drive it out of business. Basic SWOT analysis is just as relevant to new entrepreneurial businesses as it is to es- tablished large ones. These seven sources are: 1.
The Unexpected: An unexpected success, an unexpected failure, or an unexpected outside event can be a symptom of a unique opportunity. His com- pany now produces aluminum chips for use in roofing. The Incongruity: A discrepancy between reality and what everyone assumes it to be, or between what is and what ought to be, can create an opportunity for innovation. For ex- ample, a side effect of retailing via the Internet is the increasing number of packages be- ing delivered to homes.
Since neither FedEx nor UPS can leave a package unless someone is home to sign for it, many deliveries are delayed. Tony Paikeday founded zBox Com- pany to make and sell a hard plastic container that would receive deliveries from any de- livery service and would be accessible only by the owner and the delivery services. Innovation Based on Process Need: When a weak link is evident in a particular process but people work around it instead of doing something about it, an opportunity is present for the person or company willing to forge a stronger one.
Tired of having to strain to use a too-small keyboard on his personal computer, David Levy invented a keyboard with 64 normal-sized keys cleverly put into an area the size of a credit card. Changes in Industry or Market Structure: A business is ready for an innovative prod- uct, service, or approach to the business when the underlying foundation of the industry or market shifts.
Black Entertainment Television, Inc. BET , was born when Robert Johnson noticed that no television programmer was targeting the increasing number of black viewers.
With the trend to dual careers, parents were no longer always available to provide per- sonal transportation for their own children and needed such a service. For example, the in- creasing dominance of a few national brewers have caused beer drinkers to look for alter- natives to the same old national brands.
New Knowledge: Advances in scientific and nonscientific knowledge can create new products and new markets. Advances in two different areas can sometimes be integrated to form the basis of a new product. For example, Medical Foods was formed to make foods that act like medicine to treat conditions from diabetes to arthritis. Its first product, NiteBite, is a chocolate-flavored snack bar designed to help diabetics manage nocturnal hypoglycemia, caused by low blood sugar.
NiteBite gradually releases glucose into the bloodstream, where it lasts for six hours or more. In addition, prospects are better in industries that are in the early, high-growth stages of development. Fast market growth also allows new ventures to make some mistakes with- out serious penalty.
New ventures also increase their chances of success when they enter mar- kets in which they can erect entry barriers to keep out competitors. Contrary to popular wisdom, however, patents may not always provide competitive ad- vantage, especially for new ventures in a high-tech or hypercompetitive industry. A well- financed competitor could examine a newly filed application for a patent, work around the patent, and beat the pioneering firm to market with a similar product.
In addition, the time and cost of filing and defending a patent may not be worth the effort. So people are focusing less on propri- etary assurance and more on first-mover advantage.
The law is just too slow for this high- speed economy. It may create market niches being ignored by large firms. To avoid direct competition with a major rival, the new venture can focus on a market segment that is being ignored.
First, a new venture is more likely to be successful when it enters an industry with heteroge- neous different products than when it enters one with homogeneous similar products.
In a heterogeneous industry, a new venture can differentiate itself from competitors with a unique product; or, by focusing on the unique needs of a market segment, it can find a market niche. Customers are more likely to experiment with a new product if its cost is low and product fail- ure will not create a problem. Business Strategy According to Hofer and Sandberg, the keys to success for most new ventures are 1 to differ- entiate the product from those of other competitors in the areas of quality and service and 2 to focus the product on customer needs in a segment of the market in order to achieve a dominant share of that part of the market.
Adopting guerrilla-warfare tactics, these companies go after opportunities in market niches too small or too localized to justify retaliation from the market leaders.
To continue its growth once it has found a niche, an entrepreneurial firm can emphasize continued innovation and pursue natural growth in its current markets. It can leverage its resources by engaging in strategic alliances with other firms. Sixty-three percent of U. Of those using strategic alliances, half maintain three or more.
A narrow-market approach may leave the new firm vulnerable and preordained to only limited sales. One pos- sible approach would be to offer products that are substitutable to, but differentiated from, those offered by bigger firms. Successful entre- preneurs have: 1. The ability to identify potential venture opportunities better than most people: Entrepreneurs focus on opportunities—not on problems—and try to learn from failure.
En- trepreneurs are goal oriented and have a strong impact on the emerging culture of an orga- nization. They are able to envision where the company is going and are thus able to provide a strong overall sense of strategic direction.
As a result, their firms have a strong entrepre- neurial orientation EO —that is, are innovative, proactive, and willing to take risks. A sense of urgency that makes them action oriented: They have a high need for achieve- ment, which motivates them to put their ideas into action.
They tend to have an internal lo- cus of control that leads them to believe that they can determine their own fate through their own behavior. They also have a significantly greater capacity to tolerate ambiguity and stress than do many in established organizations. Switch the niche: A company may be able to and focus are the most popu- identify a successful product or service that caters lar and effective competitive to a particular market and tailor it to fit a different strategies for a new venture, what market niche.
For example, when Una Cassidy are some of the ways to identify a new opportunity in encountered numerous women looking for beauty which these strategies can be used?
Entrepreneur maga- products for use during pregnancy, she founded zine provides four interesting approaches: Selph. Cassidy removed all the usual ingredients found in beauty products that would be harmful 1. Tap the countertrend: For every trend, there is likely to a fetus during pregnancy and replaced them to be a potentially lucrative countertrend waiting to be with superior products that were gentle on the discovered.
When a trend is hot, look for its opposite skin. Borrow a business model: Netflix developed a low-fat and low-carb diets with it own monster-size novel business model in which members are charged bacon cheeseburger with more calories, carbs, and fat a set monthly fee to borrow an unlimited number of than its competitors.
Because the idea was so DVDs by mail. They then branched out into February , pp. Entrepreneur November , p. A detailed knowledge of the keys to success in the industry and the physical stamina to make their work their lives: Successful entrepreneurs have better-than-average edu- cation and significant work experience in the industry in which they start their businesses. They often work with partners to form a new venture. Seventy percent of new high-tech ventures are started by more than one founder.
Access to outside help to supplement their skills, knowledge, and abilities: Over time, entrepreneurs develop a network of people who have key skills and knowledge, whom the entrepreneurs can call on for support. Through their enthusiasm, these entrepreneurs are able to attract key investors, partners, creditors, and employees. For example, the founders of eBay did not hesitate to bring in Meg Whitman as CEO because Whitman had the man- agerial skills that eBay needed to expand.
In summarizing their conclusions regarding factors affecting the success of entrepreneurial ventures, Hofer and Sandberg propose the guidelines presented in Table B—3. If necessary, either segment the market differently or change the nature and focus of your differentiation efforts to increase your domination of the segments you serve. Hofer and W. All rights reserved. Just as the decision-making process for entrepreneurial ventures is different from that of established businesses, the managerial systems in small companies often vary from those of large corporations.
Those variations are based on their stage of development. The stages of cor- porate growth and development discussed in Chapter 9 suggest that all small businesses are ei- ther in Stage I or trying to move into Stage II. These models imply that all successful new ventures eventually become Stage II, functionally organized, companies.
This is not always true, however. In attempting to show clearly how small businesses develop, Churchill and Lewis propose five substages of small business development: a existence, b survival, c success, d take-off, and e resource maturity. Stage A: Existence At this point, an entrepreneurial venture faces the problems of obtaining customers and deliver- ing the promised product or service. The organizational structure is simple. The entrepreneur does everything and directly supervises subordinates.
Systems are minimal. The owner is the business. Those reaching the survival stage are concerned about generating the cash flow needed to repair and replace capital assets as they wear out and to finance the growth to continue satisfying the market segment they have found.
It earns marginal returns on invested time and capital with lots of psychic income! The key issue at this stage is whether the com- pany should be used as a platform for growth or as a means of support for the owners as they completely or partially disengage from the company. The company is transforming into a func- tionally structured organization, but it still relies on the entrepreneur for all key decisions.
The two options are disengagement and growth. Stage C 1 : Disengagement. The company can now successfully follow a stability strategy and remain at this stage almost indefinitely—provided that environmental change does not destroy its niche or poor management reduce its competitive abilities. Consequently, the board of directors is either a rubber stamp for the entrepreneur or a forum for family squabbles.
Growth strategies are not pursued because either the market niche will not allow growth or the owner is content with the company at a size he or she can still manage comfortably. The entrepreneur risks all available cash and the established borrowing power of the company in financing further growth. Strategic and operational planning are extensive and deeply involve the owner. This is an entrepreneurial high-growth firm aiming to be included in the Inc.
The personal values and philosophy of the founder are slowly transferred into a developing corporate culture. Stage D: Take-Off The key problems in this stage are how to grow rapidly and how to finance that growth. By now the firm is incorporated and has sold or is planning to sell stock in its company via an initial public offering IPO or via a direct public offering DPO.
A functional structure of the organization should now be solidly in place. The company is now included in the Inc. At this point, the entrepreneur either is able to manage the transition from a small to a large company or recognizes personal limitations, sells his or her stock for a profit, and leaves the firm.
The composition of the board of directors changes from dominance by friends and rela- tives of the owner to a large percentage of outsiders with managerial experience who can help the owner during the transition to a professionally managed company.
One study of small businesses found that fewer than one-third had written succession plans to replace the current owners. It may still be a small- or medium-sized company, but it is recognized as an important force in the industry and a possible candidate for the Fortune someday. The greatest concerns of a company at this stage are controlling the financial gains brought on by rapid growth and retaining its flexibility and entrepreneurial spirit.
In terms of the stages of organizational growth and development discussed in Chapter 9, the company has become a full-fledged Stage II functional corporation. Fortune companies are either family owned or dominated. The family members are extremely valuable assets to the entrepreneur because they are often also willing to put in long hours at low pay to help the business succeed.
Even though the spouse and children might have no official stock in the company, they know that they will somehow share in its future and perhaps even inherit the business. Family Transfer of considerations influence but are not yet a directing part of the firm.
At this point, the Power in a founder entrepreneur and the business are one. Family Business Phase 2 Training and Development of New Generation: The children begin to learn the business at the dining room table during early childhood and then through part-time and vacation employment. The family and the business become one. Just as the entrepreneur identified with the business earlier, the family now begins to identify itself with the business.
Phase 3 Partnership Between Generations: At this point, a son or daughter of the founder has acquired sufficient business and managerial competence so that he or she can be involved in key decisions for at least a part of the company.
Another issue is the lack of willingness of the founder to share authority with the son or daughter. Consequently, a common tactic taken by sons and daughters in family businesses is to take a job in a large, established corporation where they can gain valuable experience and respect for their skills. Phase 4 Transfer of Power: Instead of being forced to sell the company when he or she can no longer manage the business, the founder has the option in a family business of turning it over to the next generation as part of their inheritance.
Often the founder moves to the position of Chairman of the Board and promotes one of the children to the position of CEO. Unfortunately, some founders cannot resist meddling in operating affairs and unintentionally undermine the leadership position of the son or daughter. To avoid this problem, the founder should sell his or her stock probably through a leveraged buyout to the children and physically leave the company and allow the next generation the freedom it needs to adapt to changing conditions.
The planning. The of Concerning strategic study met the set standard of 0. Finally, concerning had an acceptable level of reliability. Descriptive statistics results This section provides an overview of the results on the Correlation analysis between variables background information section of the questionnaire. The respondents were asked questions about the history of their The results in Table 3 indicate that there is a correlation organisations. Table 2 summarises the findings of the between the variables under study.
The researcher made use descriptive results. Based on this analysis, the majority of of correlation as a statistical measure since correlation best SMMEs had been operating for 1—3 years with a frequency describes the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables Graham Strategy formulation and financial performance were Firm objectives and goals 0.
The second highest correlation and significance Strategy implementation 0. Strategy control and Organisational financial measure 0. The researcher made use of regression 1—3 years 32 analysis as a statistical test since regression describes the More than 4 years 16 strength and direction of the relationship between two Did not respond 24 variables, and it goes further by providing many refined SMME, Small-, medium- and micro-enterprises.
Further, the findings of this work that Model name R R-squared Adjusted R-squared Standard error of the estimate showed that the strategic planning process has a positive 1 0.
TABLE 4b: Regression analysis results: Analysis of variance The findings of this current study revealed that there was a Model 1 Sum of squares df Mean squares f Significance positive relationship between strategy formulation and Regression The results Total Andalya ; Chavunduka Note: Predictors that are constant: Firm mission, firm objectives and goals, control and et al.
Furthermore, evaluation, implementation, formulation, firm capital size, age of firm, duration of strategic plan, written strategic plan; Dependent variable: Organisational financial performance. This technique is most suitable positive relationship between strategy formulation and the when investigating the relationship between one independent performance of manufacturing SMMEs and commercial variable and a number of dependent variables Neuman banks, respectively.
The R-squared value of 0. Furthermore, the analysis of variance the relationship between strategy implementation and certifies the applicability of the model and that it can be financial performance in SMMEs in the Buffalo City recognised as statistically significant. Strategy implementation was found to have a positive relationship with organisational, financial Table 4a and 4b illustrate how the factors in the regression performance among the sampled SMMEs in the Buffalo City model presented in Table 3 influence the prediction of Municipality.
The results of this study are similar to some organisational, financial performance. Four of the ten factors previous investigations available in the literature e. The Pangarkar ; Wijetunga The period Pangarkar Chavunduka size was the fourth predictor contributing to financial et al.
The negative Monday et al. Similar findings were also reported in a study done by Discussion, implications, limitations Monday et al. The main purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between the strategic planning process and Based on the evidence provided in this study and a thorough organisational performance in SMMEs in the Buffalo City review of literature e.
The findings on the formulation, strategy implementation, strategy control and relationship between strategic planning and organisational evaluation is of great importance to how organisations performance are consistent with the work of Dubilihla perform. Having strategy formulation, strategy implementation, strategy control a strategic planning manager or department will allow and evaluation against financial performance. Implications The most important contribution of this study is that it helps Technology has greatly advanced in the past decade, and to extend knowledge and understanding on the issues of the this has brought great improvement in how people and relationship between the strategic planning process and organisations perform their day-to-day business.
The research magnified the frame of information Use of specialised computer software in strategic planning in the area of strategic planning about performance of aids in simplification and enabling this process, which may SMMEs. It makes available more literature that looks into result in sound strategic planning and good organisational these two variables strategic planning process and financial performance.
This work advances an understanding of phenomena that are not often researched outside the Western and Asian contexts. This Limitations study is one of the few that have been conducted in sub- The major limitation of this research is that the researcher Saharan Africa that look into the relationship between the only focused on data collection in one region. The current research showed that there was evidence generalisation of the findings of this study.
Hence, having that the strategic planning process has a positive effect on considered data collection from different regions would have organisational performance in SMMEs. Having considered more variables grounded on the information gathered, along with respondents from an organisation would have provided respondents answering questions posed to them in answering better clarity on the information about the organisations.
The objective of Moreover, there are high chances of respondents responding the research was to be able to generalise about a specific to the questions in the questionnaire in a socially desirable population based on the results of a representative sample of way.
Thus, respondents may acknowledge the presence of that population. Further, the quantitative research approach strategic planning only because it is socially expected of them provided a platform for understanding the phenomena better.
Based on the results of this study, the researcher concludes that the strategic planning process has a positive impact on Future research organisational performance in SMMEs. Since the impact Repeated investigations can help deliver comparative of the strategic planning process is positive, it is a good interpretations of measures in a variety of settings in an predictor of organisational performance. Therefore, this industrial, national and international context. The current study contributes to shedding light on how important the study had its sample drawn from one centralised location, strategic planning process is and how much attention has to in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality in the be committed by those responsible for strategic planning in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
Therefore it is advised SMME organisations. There is a need for SMME organisations that studies are conducted with respondents drawn from to provide their employees with training programmes that different provinces in South Africa and other regions on would develop their abilities and skills to understand and the African continent.
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