PLANNING Creating Foresighted Paths for Financial Success

If you are a STARTUP entity, you are required to make many decisions and consider a myriad of services. Numerous questions have to be answered. For instance, you might ask: Should I remain a sole proprietorship? Form a Partnership? Should I incorporate? As a "C" or an "S" corporation? What's the difference? How much does it cost? How long does it take? Do I have to engage the services of an attorney? What about a CPA? How about business licenses? There are varied paths to success. Which one should I take? What is a BUSINESS PLAN? BUSINESS PLANS are essential to your successful enterprise. Many first-timers try to avoid this step because it is not easy. Even ongoing businesses need a plan. You should know that you cannot pass GO until this step is carefully thought out and fully accomplished. Bob can be engaged as a consultant to write partial or complete plans and generate detailed financials for the most exacting requirement. However, he would rather coach you through the process so that YOU learn how to do it yourself. If you don't understand your business and financial numbers, you will have a tough time selling the plan to others. Successful companies always have a plan when moving from one level or from one period of time to the next. Don't you want to be successful too? Always have a plan and work that plan. What is STRATEGIC PLANNING? Management's act of determining a firm's future environment and response to organizational challenges. It involves crucial decisions to determine the direction of a company. In a business firm, strategic planning involves deciding what principal products and services to produce for what major markets. Change is occurring at a faster rate. Strategic planning helps deal with uncertainties. If your strategic plan fails, you may not survive. What is a MARKETING PLAN? A plan that details an individual's or company's marketing effort. It is sometimes called marketing stategy. The marketing plan may be laid out for an individual product or service or for the entire company and all of it's products. Marketing itself is a process associated with promoting for sale goods or services. Classic components of marketing are: 1) Product; 2) Price; 3) Place, and; 4) Promotion. For the purposes of raising capital, a comprehensive marketing plan is always central to any business plan. What are OPERATIONS? Operations is a term used to describe the means by which resource inputs are transformed into useful outputs of products or services. It speaks to the "how" this process occurs. Each entity has its own operations. The more efficient, the more productive is the entity. To survive, operations must be competitive as measured against other entities. Planning this process is a key element in corporate strategy - it is critical in managing the bottom line and must be included in a comprehensive business plan.

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