Writing Your 2006 Business Plan A Simple Outline Of How To Go About Developing A 2006 Business Marketing Plan

“Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.”

Thomas Alva Edison

Developing your strategic business plan is a critical task for the success of your business. Getting your plan on paper will help your business succeed in a number of ways:

1. It is easier to get to where you want to go if you know where you are going
2. It will help you focus on which activities are important for your success
3. You can identify the resources required to attain your goals
4. You can set interim goals and evaluate your progress towards annual objectives throughout the year
5. It gives you a valuable tool to communicate to key employees where you want the business to go and how their contribution will be measured
6. A strong business plan is a valuable document to help position your company with investors and financial institutions

The development of a strategic business plan will provide you with a roadmap for success; it is a critical step in managing a successful business.

The Executive Summary

The Executive Summary section of your 2006 business marketing plan is written last. It will summarize the key elements of the entire plan. 

Background

The Background section of the plan is the place to assemble all relevant sales and performance metrics to evaluate the current status of your company. Where are your sales coming from? Who are the best customers? What trends can you identify by charting sales and sales by region or section of your business? Are there any surprises when you assemble this data.

Your 2006 business plan may include a SWOT Analysis - a summary of your business Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats relative to key competitors. This simple tool gives you a one page snap shot of your business and makes it easy for you to determine where your best opportunities in the coming year.

2006 Business Marketing Plan

The 2006 business marketing plan will include an outline of your sales strategy, your pricing plan, your proposed advertising and promotional activities, and it should detail your product or service's main benefits.

The business marketing plan should include your business objectives. The objectives define your goals for the coming year, they must be clearly defined, quantified and measurable. You will use the objectives to measure your success throughout the year.

The 2006 business marketing plan should also include key strategies. Your objectives define ‘what you are going to accomplish’ the strategies outline how you are going to accomplish your goals. Are you going to increase sales or marketing efforts? Do you need to add to your marketing budget or make cuts in key areas?

The Management Plan

This section of your strategic business plan will outline of your key management resources, your internal management team and external management resources. You should identify plans for growth and/or changes and match these resources to your objectives.

The Operations Plan

This section of the plan describes your business' physical location, your facilities and important equipment. Develop a list of planned additions for the coming year, and any other critical operating details, such as required changes to your production, manufacturing or service process.

The Financial Plan

This section of the plan outlines your funding requirements, includes detailed financial statements. 

By making the effort to get your strategic business plan on paper you will develop the road map for business success in 2006. You may choose to hold an off site planning meeting with key members of your executive team to finalize important elements of the plan and build unity and support for your objectives and strategies for the coming year. Good luck developing your 2006 business marketing plan. 

Jay Berkowitz is an internet marketing consultant, and is the CEO of www.tengoldenrules.com, a internet marketing consulting business specializing in helping businesses get more traffic to their website and turning that traffic into sales.