Start-up, newer business or established business, planning is where your business smarts first gain traction in the real world. Here you'll find some of the planning services we offer to make your business as productive and efficient as possible.
√ New Business Plan
Writing a business plan can seem like a huge mountain to climb. And too many startups, particularly self-funded startups, are tempted to skip this step. That is always a mistake. You may not need a 100 page, exhaustively detailed plan, but a well-developed and grounded plan is essential for managing your business with the greatest chance of success. MORE
√ Update Business Plan
Your business plan isn't just the honey to attract funders and partners to pollinate your business and get it started. A business plan is a critical on-going management tool. It should be with you every single day, and you should have been consulting it on a regular basis as you make decisions. By year two, your working copy of the plan should be heavily marked up and annotated. Every element of the plan should be flagged as "right on," "not really," "off the mark," or "dead wrong."
A business plan that is tossed into a drawer and forgotten the day after you open your business is a wasted business plan.
Now is the time to revisit the plan and upgrade it to reflect your new understanding of the business, the changes in markets, technology and resources, and the inevitable changes in your own personal circumstances. If your business is to survive and prosper, it needs to continually adapt to change. Updating the business plan is the best way to stay strong and competitive.
√ Financial Planning
You've come up with some great ideas for new products and services, new markets to go after, or improvements in your operations. But which of these initiatives should you pursue first? How much will they cost? And where will the money come from?
Welcome to financial planning, the process of determining which strategic business initiatives make financial sense and the best way to fund those initiatives. Without an incisive financial analysis of the options, and an evaluation of requirements, you risk heading down a path that will soak up all your cash and leave the company worse off, not better off.
Second Stage can take the mystery out of NPV, ROE, weighted cost of capital, debt-to-equity ratios and all the jargon and wizardry of financial analysis., bringing it down to earth in ways that are easy to understand and allow you to make the best decision of how to run your business.
√ Annual Planning & Budgeting
Big picture strategic thinking. Exciting new initiatives to transform your business and the market. Complex financial-market-operational flow charts.
All well and good. But you've got to bring it down to earth. What will you and your staff actually be doing today and tomorrow? How do you get from January to December without tripping over your feet because your head's in the clouds?
That's what the annual plan and budget are all about. Setting realistic, but stretch, sales goals. Making sure IT gets what it really needs -- and only what it really needs so you don't starve marketing. Setting down monthly and quarterly objectives so you can measure progress rather than rely on wishful thinking.
The nuts and bolts of the annual plan are all about making the big plans real. Developing the annual tactical and implementation plan can be boring and tedious, but without one, you won't get to where you want to be.
Second Stage can help make the job easier. Save you from unnecessary detail. Help you stay focused on developing a day-to-day management tool, not a "file and forget" document.
