8 Steps to the Next Level
  Business Plan,  Small Business Success Engine

Table of Contents

  • Take Your Business to the Next Level – No More Marketing As Usual 
  • The Seven Deadly Sins of Writing a Business Plan
  • The Business Plan Process –Why CEO must Listen to the Product Mgr
  • The Business Plan - Entrepreneur’s Straitjacket?
  • The CEO – Cheerleading Without Pom Poms

Each chapter contains:
The Big Do’s, the Don'ts, and the How-To TIPS of  Small BusinesMarketing and Business Planning
“Planning is:
- A basic organic function of management. It is a mental process of thinking through what is desired and how it will be achieved. Plans are commitments to specific courses of action growing out of planning. Planning is a process which can identify the most promising opportunities. It will outline how to successfully capture these opportunities or maintain the desired position. The Plan defines the goals, principles, procedures and methods that will determine the desired position.

A Plan is:
•A continuous process - not a one-shot activity.
•A communication tool which integrates all elements of your business activities with it.
•A specification of who will do what, where, when and how to accomplish your business goals in the most efficient manner. I use an eight step planning process which is sequential and continuous.”
“I believe that undertaking a business and marketing planning process these SMB owners will be making far better current decisions, since by its very nature and definition, planning is "dealing with the futurity of current decisions".
Business and Marketing Planning Process - Consists of Eight Major Steps
1. DEVELOP MISSION AND POSITIONING STATEMENT
2. SITUATION AUDIT
a.  Internal
b.  External
3. WOTSUP ANALYSIS
4. MAKING ASSUMPTIONS
5. DEVLOPING OBJECTIVES
6. STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
7. SPECIFY TACTICS AND ACTIONS
8. PREPARE FORECASTS/BUDGETS/FINANCIALS