Business Plans For Canadians For Dummies^®, 2nd Edition

Introduction

So, you picked up this book and decided to give us a try. Wise move. You’ve taken a good first step. You may not know how to build a business plan just yet, but you’re smart enough to know that a plan is really important. We know from working with organizations large and small, from start-up to ongoing concerns, that a business plan is vital for success — and following it is the only way that you can get where you want to go.

Some people think business planning is just an exercise to please a banker or another financial investor. On the contrary — you don’t create a business plan just to raise money. That’s the least of it! View the business plan as your personal, powerful business tool — one that can make your company a more successful venture and a better place to work.

Is a business plan magic? Nope. But it does dispel a lot of the unknowns facing your business. A business plan works because it makes you take stock and think about what you’re doing and where you’re going. It presses you to picture what you want your venture to be in the future and decide how you intend to make it happen. You become the architect of your destiny; you mould the parts and pieces, and decide how they fit together to act as the blueprint — or, at the very least, a model of your future. For example, a business plan

Requires you to look carefully at your industry, your customers, and the competition to determine what your real opportunities are and what threats you face

Allows you to take a good hard look at your company so that you can honestly and objectively recognize your capabilities and resources, your strengths and weaknesses, and your true advantages

Coaxes a financial report, a forecast, and a budget out of you so that you know where you stand today and what the future holds

Prepares you for an uncertain future by encouraging you to come up with business strategies and alternatives to increase your chances of success down the road

About This Book

Business Plans For Canadians For Dummies, 2nd Edition, lays out a series of stepping stones that can help you create your business plan. You find out information about your business that can help you position it competitively and play to your strengths.

This book can help your business succeed, no matter who you are or what your job description says, whether you have an existing enterprise or are just starting up, whether you’re part of a large conglomerate or are a one-person show. Depending on your circumstances, you may find yourself exploring the book in different ways:

If business plans are new to you, you may want to start at the beginning and let us be your guides. We take you from determining your company’s mission all the way through to making your business plan work, and we keep on route the whole way.

If you have a little more experience, you may want to head straight for one of the more interesting pit stops: how to recognize the key success factors in your business, for example, or where to look for your company’s strengths and weaknesses. After dropping in anywhere along the way, you may discover yet another section where you want to spend some time.

No matter where you are in your business development, it’s never too late to start a business plan, and it’s never too late to make the plan that you have even better. In each case, you can find what you’re looking for between these bright yellow covers.

Throughout this book, we provide many examples of successful — and not so successful — Canadian businesses. We also relate stories of some well-known multinational companies. Hopefully, those stories can inspire you to look into foreign business opportunities. After all, with the right plan, just about anything is possible.

Conventions Used in This Book

To help you navigate your way through Business Plans For Canadians For Dummies, 2nd Edition, we use the following conventions:

Italics are used for emphasis and to highlight new words or terms that are defined.

Boldfaced text indicates keywords in bulleted lists or the action part of numbered steps.

What You’re Not to Read

You don’t have to read the sidebars scattered throughout the book. Just because we find these little facts and tidbits fascinating doesn’t mean you will. And you won’t hurt our feelings if you don’t read Business Plans For Canadians For Dummies, 2nd Edition, from cover to cover. Feel free to skip around; pick and choose what you’re really interested in.

Foolish Assumptions

Believe it or not, we don’t need to be psychic to know a bit about your background. In fact, we can assume that you’re probably in one of the following situations:

You have a great idea for a brand-new whatsit and can’t wait to get your own company up and running.

Your boss just turned over a new leaf and wants a business plan from you in three weeks.

You’ve always run the business without a business plan, and you’re the one who turned over the new leaf.

You thought you had a business plan for the company, but it doesn’t seem to be doing the job that it should.

Are we close? Whatever your situation, you don’t need a sixth sense to make a business plan; just read this book and follow our guidance. We can’t tell you the future of your business. But the business plan that we can help you put together prepares you for the future. And we’re here with you every step of the way.

How This Book Is Organized

We divide Business Plans For Canadians For Dummies, 2nd Edition, into six parts, based on the major elements of your business plan. You don’t have to read all the parts, however, and you certainly don’t have to read them in order. We devote each chapter to a particular business-planning topic, and you may need some chapters more than others.

Part I: Knowing Where You Want to Go

Before you can put together a business plan, you have to decide where you want to end up in the future. This part of the book starts by convincing you that planning is important when it comes to reaching your destination. We help you identify who your plan is for and how it can help you bring your great business ideas into clearer focus. We identify planning resources for you, discuss the planning process, and summarize the major pieces of a business plan. We also help you define — or redefine — your vision for the future and examine your values. Finally, we help you get on track quickly by establishing a mission for your company, along with well-defined business goals and objectives.

Part II: Describing Your Marketplace

To plan a meaningful route for your business, you have to know something about the market you want to go after. In this part, we help you analyze your customers so that you can understand who they are, what they need, and how you can group them together to better serve them. We also help you examine your industry and figure out the keys to success by identifying where your opportunities and threats come from. Finally, we help you scope out your competition to determine exactly what you need to succeed.

Part III: Weighing Your Company’s Prospects

In this part, we turn our full attention to your company. We help you look as objectively as you can at your capabilities and resources, identifying the strengths that you can count on and the weaknesses that you need to deal with. We also help you zero in on what you do best, enabling you to figure out the real value that you provide your customers and the true advantage that you have over your competitors. Finally, we help you put together a business model, and we guide you through your finances as you put together a financial forecast and a budget.

Part IV: Looking to the Future

The main reason you put together a business plan in the first place is to get ready for the uncertainties that lie ahead for your business. Part IV encourages you to look into your future and helps prepare you for change. We introduce several standard tools that can help you think strategically about the future, and we show you how you can use them to come up with alternative scenarios and strategies of your own. We also consider the different directions that you can take while your company continues to grow.

Part V: Putting Your Business Plan into Action

Too many mighty business plans sit on shelves, gathering dust, because someone neglected to act on them. In this part, we help you shape your company to be as efficient and effective as it can be. We also help you prepare the people in your company so that they have the skills they need to accomplish the goals that you set in your plan. Finally, we point you to the appendix and a sample of a real business plan, so that you know — start to finish — what you should aim for.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

The Part of Tens is a collection of reminders, hints, observations, and warnings about what to do — and what not to do — while you work through your business plan. These chapters focus on the big picture, so look at them when you need a little perspective on where you stand and where you’re headed.

Icons Used in This Book

To guide you through your business plan preparation, we include icons in the left margins of the book. Here’s what they mean:

This icon indicates tips to put you way ahead of the competition.

This icon calls your attention to illuminating examples from the business world.

This icon flags situations that apply mostly to large companies, but that may help small companies, as well.

Ouch; you may get burned unless you heed these warnings.

Don’t forget these timely tips.

Where to Go from Here

Take a minute to thumb through the book and get comfortable with what’s inside. Pick one or two chapters that tickle your fancy. Better yet, turn to a chapter that covers something you already know about. Or, if you’re really daring, turn the page and start at the beginning.

Remember to use the table of contents for a chapter-by-chapter breakdown. You can also turn to the index to find a specific topic right away.