Many small business owners have a dream for their business, but do not take the extra steps to plan for that dream.  Business plans are important, and used for many things.  Most people think of business plans as being used only to obtain financing from banks or angel investors.  While it is definitely important to have a business plan when attempting to get financing, that is not the only reason to prepare a business plan. 

Quite a few business owners have really good ideas, but have difficulty seeing those dreams through to completion.  In short, that is the role of a business plan.  The step by step process of creating a quality business plan addresses all of the critical areas you need to achieve your goals.

Keep in mind that good business planning does not involve coming up with a good logo, website, social networking strategy or any other tool that you will use later to implement your business plan.  The first steps before all that is to answer the foundational questions about your business that you need to create a strong plan. 

For example, when creating the marketing portion of your business plan, you should not at the onset plan what advertising venues you will use or the look of your ad.  Before that, you should strive to discover what you actually want to achieve through your marketing efforts.  Ask yourself fundamental questions about your customers: what customers do you want to attract?  Where have you found them in the past?  How can you reach them?  What are their likes and dislikes? What specific products or services will you offer to them? 

Until the core questions have been answered, in essence the “what” questions, it doesn’t make any sense to think about or implement any of the “how” answers.  But once that base is clarified, it becomes much easier to build on the “what” with the right tools to achieve your plan.  

Building a business should be similar to building a pyramid.  Spend more time on the base, or core questions to build a strong foundation.  Having a good business plan will set your business on that solid foundation you need to succeed. 

Be sure to visit SmallBusinessAccountingBackroom.com to get many more resources to help your small business succeed, including information and resources on business planning, financing, sales and marketing.