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The San Diego North Center for Entreprenomics is a unique study in connecting the passion, vision and creativity of our region’s startups with the wisdom, clout and fortunes of its established entrepreneurs and institutions.
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Planning

Why plan? It only gets in the way of what would have happened anyway." That's a fatalistic notion often held by managers of small businesses. For many of us who left corporate America in favor of a smaller work environment, the idea of drafting a business plan may seem offensive. After all, isn't frustration with all that busywork one of the reasons we left in the first place? We all have an aversion to doing anything on our job that doesn't immediately help the situation we're now experiencing.

However, isn't it also true that a little foresight and action before the fact can help eliminate many of the problems we face each day. Wouldn't it be nice to anticipate something like a price cut by your major competitor or a rise in the interest rate on your credit line? Of course it would. And with that anticipation comes an organized and effective response. That's what planning does. Additionally, we prepare a workable business plan to

  • Determine where the company needs to go

  • Forewarn of possible roadblocks along the way

  • Formulate responses to contingencies

  • Keep the business on track to reach its planned goals

Often the hardest part of starting a business plan is honestly determining your current position today. It's not always so obvious. The question here, however, is why do this? After all, most managers of small businesses are close enough to their everyday operation to know where they are, aren't they? Not necessarily. At least few take the time to think about where they are, then write it down so that others can judge its accuracy.

Company Goals
These are the targets for change and transition that your firm must reach over the planning horizon-for our purposes, the next twelve months. Company goals cover such major issues as:

  • Products offered

  • Customers targeted

  • Company image

  • Competition

  • Levels of service

  • Product quality

    • Companywide goals established in the business plan move the company into the position where it needs to be. Companies that lack a definite direction and the ability to stay on course eventually sink. It's the firms with vision and a plan to exploit that vision that become the stars. If you don't set goals and then try to reach them, it's guaranteed that your firm will stay right where it is today. With changing technology, changing customer demands, and increasing sophistication, marching in place is business suicide.

    Our focus is on practical solutions to everyday business objectives. The goal is to design these to work in concert with one another. When they do, the company moves from where it is today to where its owners, investors and managers want it to be. The end result is a growing and thriving business able to withstand the temporary assaults from the marketplace.


    E-mail: info@entreprenomics.com