Succeeding in business in the current financial crisis can only be through a proper laid down business plan. The issue of having a business plan is a modern business idea which many experienced managers may not have gone through during their days in school. Anyway this should not be a reason for your business to operate without a plan. The following guidelines meant to give you the main sections of a business plan.
Title page
The title page gives the name of your business.
Table of contents
This is the page which shows the various contents in your business plan. All the main titles in that plan should be reflected on this page with their respective pages.
Executive summary
This is a short summary (normally around one page) which tries to explain the whole business plan.
Business description
This is where you briefly explain what kind of a business you are engaged.
Description of industry
This part explains the industry in which your business operates. For example service, manufacturing, tertiary etc
Marketing plan
These are the laid down strategies that will be used to market your products.
Financial plan
The way you will finance your business operations matters a lot. This should be well shown in your business plan.
Production plan
This is a well description of the way you intend to do the production of your products. Here the procedures and the raw materials for manufacturing industries can be shown.
Organizational plan
This is the plan that shows the leadership structure of your business
Operational plan
This is the part which has the way operations in that business will be, that is, the day to day running of your business.
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP AND ADMINISTRATION
Everyone is a leader in his own ability and capacity. The success behind any kind of organization is effective leadership and administration. However, there are people who are born as leaders but it's important to note that leadership and administration is an art and every art can be learnt. I have met many people who never thought of being leaders but have effectively learnt the art of leadership and emerged as leaders to be admired.
In any kind of leadership, the first area of effective administration is the administration of funds. Be it in business, government departments, church or any other kind of organization, you will have the most effective leadership if you learn to use the funds properly. If any of your employees wants to paralysis your operations and bring down decades your leadership, the first place to target is your finance or/and accounting department. Your employees in this area should therefore be people of integrity and who have internalized the vision of your organization.
The second area that determines how effective you will be in your leadership is managing people. The human resource directly affects the operations of your organization. You must begin by placing every employee in the department where he/she will work best. You therefore begin by identifying where to place your staff. This means that an effective leader is close his or her staff and spends time them. After placing them in their rightful places, you need to monitor their performance. Performance of your staff is closely tied to motivation. Every employee needs to be motivated. This entails different strategies. Know which kind of motivation to use. It is not necessary to promise your staff a reward for good performance. This may bring in unhealthy competition, hatred and lack of cooperation between staff who want to out-do each other. Therefore reward unexpectedly.
Motivation may be as cheap to the organization as recognition, but make sure you recognize a staff in the midst of others. Do not do it in a closed office. It may not serve the purpose. Other strategies may include promotions, gifts, added responsibilities and increase in salary. You must also ensure that your staffs are working as a team. Working together ensures the staffs are focused towards the goals of the organization.
Effective leaders give an ear to every stakeholder of the organization. Know that the whole organization is looking on you to give direction. Begin by listening to every stakeholder then give a direction. Sometimes it's necessary to give directions basing on what you believe is best for the organization regardless of other peoples views. But this should not be always because it does not mean that you are always right. Conflict resolution strategies are important. Know that there will always arise conflicts. The win/win strategy works best for most organizations. Therefore make sure that each of the conflicting parties does not feel offended.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
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