A Business Plan
It is important for both the owner and employees to know which direction their business is heading. As in most important ventures you must have.
Many contractors start out with a vague idea of running a contracting firm with no real plan other then an idea in their head. The plan must be fluid, ready to deviate, yet the basic goals of the business distinct.
Some may be anxious they will make a error and be teased by others because their plan lack's something of value's. Nonsense, those very people that may ridicule your attempt probably are working for someone else and like to be critical of those that try to make a better living for their employees, family and themselves.
A plan can be as simple as stating what type of work you are attempting to do, in which area and the value of the work your intending to do in the next fiscal year, two years, five years. It is a good idea to state your firm's philosophy in the plan. The reasons for stating those philosophies in the plan is to let your employees, vendors, bankers, customers and most important, to remind yourself what your firms objectives are, and why your in business. It is a great idea to review this plan periodically, so that in the years to come you can review your goals and determine whether they are still valid today or whether your focus is shifting. You may find that you have shifted in a direction that is not useful to you or the firm and return to the original goals. This plan should be review at least twice a year, a recommendation would be to review it during the same time that you review your overhead percentage; the overhead should be reviewed at least three times a year.
Once again many people who are employed for someone else may be asking themselves why are we talking about a business plan, I am only a project manager, estimator or foreman? Once again in any position of authority, you will benefit from knowing the steps you would use to put together a business plan. You may very well be asked for input regarding a business plan when it is reviewed and upgraded periodically. A great exercise for those that are not in the loop at the office regarding the "PLAN" is to write a plan for your home. Whether you want to believe it or not, every one of us have a business and that is your personnel business. Preparing a personal business plan and upgrading it, just like any business will prepare you for the day when you are in the loop and need this experience. A secondary bonus is that your personal affairs will probably be managed better then ever, once your focus is on your new plan.
If you log on to "Google" on the internet and type in "business plan", in approximately .12 seconds, depending on your download speed, you will get approximately 931,000,000 hits. No, we did not look at every one, but in the first page you will see sites from various companies that will offer templates for business plans, many for free. The United States Small Business Administration has a site with very good information regarding business plans simply type in business plan under the search engine Google and look for the SBA website. The information on this site is generally free.
