Hard Core Business Plan Revisions

I ran into a woman entrepreneur I hadn’t seen in a year. As we discussed changes in our personal lives, the conversation led to changes in our business lives. When I inquired how she had substantially grown her company in the past year, she admitted it was due to revisions – hard core revisions – to her business plan..

Two weeks later I was at an event speaking to another woman entrepreneur who informed me she had just spent $150,000 to add new space to her existing rented office area so she could bring more services to her clients and expand her company. When I asked how she knew the investment would pay off, she said she projected it in a revised business plan.

This time of year reminds me of revising my business plan because it’s the same time I remember crunching numbers, staying up late and studying days on end to take final exams in college. I’ve always associated working on my business plan as an enormous, time intensive project due in my final class at the end of an exhausting college semester. It’s a lot of work!

When women entrepreneurs are already so busy trying to bring in new clients, keeping current customers happy and collecting revenue, it’s hard to find the time to revise our business plan to make our companies more successful. If we could take off 3 months from entrepreneurial life to revise them, it would make the process bearable.

But we won’t find corporate success ignoring this vital work. We have to make revising our business plan a priority. We shouldn’t need an instructor to motivate us to do the work; we should be able to motivate ourselves.

Today’s  blog is to encourage you to set a time in the next three months to revise your business plan. If you need help you can find assistance with the Women’s Business Center of New York State or at your local Small Business Development Center. Both are resources on the Women TIES website. Make an appointment today with yourself and with a counselor to get the process rolling.

I hope by tackling revisions to your business plan you are enlightened through the process to create and sustain an even stronger business with long lasting potential. Here’s to the work we need to do!