Business Plans For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 16. Making Your Business Plan Work

In This Chapter

• Examining your business plan

• Putting together an organisation that works

• Developing procedures and systems

• Encouraging leadership roles

• Developing necessary business skills

• Creating your company culture

Congratulations – you're close to completing your business plan! As much as we'd like to help you finish, we're not going to stand over your shoulder right now. Just remember that you've already done the really hard parts; at this point, it's up to you to bring them together. If you need a little nudge to get under way, flip to Chapter 1 for a sketch of what your written plan should look like, or check out Chapter 17 for a good example of someone else's business plan.

Unfortunately, you don't have much time to celebrate a job well done. Did you ever hear the story about the man who fell off a 20-storey building? As he passed the fifth floor, he shouted, 'So far, so good!'

Clearly, that man wasn't thinking his situation all the way through. Too many companies are guilty of the same optimism when it comes to business plans; they fail to see how critical (and sometimes difficult) it is to actually carry out a completed plan. More than a few of these companies ultimately self-destruct – not because they don't have a business plan, but because they assume that when the plan is finished, everything else will simply take care of itself. Preparing for what comes next, after your own plan is on paper, is important. It's not enough just to ...