Success... all you need is one sound idea and a plan for its achievement. Lets take a closer look at planning and how it ties together with organization and control. Having a business plan, even a simple one, is the most critical element of the startup of a small business of any kind. Planning helps you look more closely at the legal, financial, management, marketing and selling issues confronting you. It answers the fundamental questions of what product or service will you offer and how are you going to market and sell it. Developing a plan is an important indicator of your ability to operate a small business. It takes careful thought, discipline, time and energy to think through your business idea.

Doing so will help you understand and control each step of each action you take as you assemble your business for operation. A typewritten plan represents your understanding of your business and your market and helps organize and control the project. You have two possible states of attitude and operation: Either control or chaos. Let me give an example; can you make a better quality burger at home than a fast food burger? Of course you can! But, the fast food industry sells billions of burgers and you probably dont sell any right? You can make a better burger but they sell billions of inferior burgerswhy? Because the fast food industry has a plan to make hamburgers with controls to systematically produce hamburgers of consistent quality and characteristics which are delivered to the public again and again. That is, they have a highly controlled production and selling system. The key to any business success is planning, systemization and control. That is the success behind franchisesa proven system of operation.

Can you imagine how much harder you will work if your business is started and operated by chaos? Would you buy a franchise that sold chaos? Even the smallest business, a cake-making business for example, needs systems and controls. Which raises another point: Many franchises start off as a small business, which is purposely systematized so the business can be sold as franchises. The angle being that it is better to have 10% of what 100 people can do then 100% of what you can do. This fact alone is worth taking the time to plan your business from the beginning to systematize every element of operation when it is starting up or a very small enterprise. Systematize it from the ground up! If you already have a business, think systems.

If you are thinking about starting a small business, contact your Secretary of State and ask for a small business start up kit, they are free and offer guidance to planning and ensuring legal operation with local, state and federal agencies. You can also contact the Small business Administration at SBA Answer Desk 6302 Fairview Road, Suite 300 Charlotte, North Carolina 28210 or by phone 1-800-U-ASK-SBA (1-800-827-5722) Or Online: www.sba.gov. The SBA has a ton of free publications on every area of business planning to help you succeed as well as contact information to Small Business Development Corporations (SBDCs) And Small Business Investment Centers (SBICs).

Copyright 2006 James W. Hart, IV All Rights reserved