Audio on Business Planning

Last week I was a guest on Barbara Weltman’s Build Your Business radio show on wsradio.com.  In the first part Barbara starts out with a review of the present bleak economic picture, then introduces me and business planning. It’s about 12 minutes of interview (the last three minutes are commercials).

Click here for that segment.

The questions, or topics, in this segment include:

  1. Who has to do a plan? It’s about who wants to, what are the benefits, what this does for your business.
  2. What are some common errors?
    1. Not reviewing it regularly. Thinking that it’s a document, that it gets done and then the task is done.
    2. Thinking you don’t have a plan unless you have a full complete plan. Not understanding that it can be just the first part, or the most important part, and it’s useful even if it isn’t the whole thing to show to investors.
  3. Plan as you go planning. What is it, why is it important, and how does it work?
    1. You don’t do the whole thing first, in one fell swoop. You do the parts you’re going to use, and you start using them.
    2. It doesn’t stop, it doesn’t die, you don’t finish and complete it. I’ts alive, you keep using it.
    3. The plan isn’t a document. It’s on your computer, and it’s in your head.
    4. It recognizes that things are going to change. It’s about managing change, not blindly following a plan as it was written in the past. Keep it alive.

The second part is about seven minutes plus commercials. Click here for that segment. Topics are:

  1. Sample business plans: how and why to use sample business plans, and when not to use them, and how not to use them. You can’t buy or get a business plan, already written, that works. They are just examples.  (that’s the first four minutes).
  2. Using a professional business writers: do you have the budget? And do you understand that it has to be your plan, not the consultant’s plan? You can work well with a consultant, as long as you understand that.

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