The following article from CNN Money highlights 5 mistakes often made by small business start-ups. While all 5 points are valid, of particular interest is #5: Loosing Focus.
“Every business should have a vision of what they will be when they grow up. And the more focused the vision, the greater the chances that the business will realize its goal. Further, the vision should to be translated into specific execution tasks to achieve desired results. Before embarking on your business, Hockett suggests carefully laying out all the attributes of your company and what you’ll need to do to make each aspect of the business succeed. Had he created a detailed plan for his franchise, “I would have waited longer until I was in a better cash position to start,” Hockett said. “But I was impatient. I made a decision based on emotion rather than fact.”
This is yet more supporting evidence of the power of planning. What’s more, this is not just isolated to the start-up business. Planning is a key component of any existing business looking to continually improve their company and increase revenue. Creating a plan that is a living, breathing document can often be the difference between having a road map to success and hitting a dead end.
Noah is currently the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. You can follow Noah on Twitter.
