Now that our business plan has been finished, finalized and
presented, I have now only accomplished step one of getting everything off the
ground. After finishing a business plan there are multiple options that you can
choose to do with a finished plan. Some companies decide to immediately seek
funding, open doors, or seek a business partner.
This is why you wrote your plan! Did you write your business
plan for a startup or for an existing business? If it's for a startup and you
need outside funding for your business, lenders, angel investors, VCs, and
pretty much everyone else will expect to see a professional-looking business
plan when you pitch to them. And once you have your business up and running (or
if your business is already up and running), then you can use your plan to
track and manage the real outcome against what you projected. It'll keep you on
track, organized, and always ready for the future. Remember, your plan isn't a
static document; it can and should change over time.
When seeking financing always remember like my current
instructor William (Bill) Thompson at Full Sail University says, “there is more money out there than good ideas”. Like stated before there are tons of sources
and money out there for good ideas for anyone not to receive a piece of the
pie.
When finding a business partner its usually because you don’t
have the experience or money to receive funding. So make sure that when
choosing someone to add as an addition to your company, you make sure that they
are a perfect fit and that you get them as excited as you are. Once in the
company they should do as much as they can to make the company succeed, seeing
that this is the source of there paycheck also.
Business plans are used for multiple external things, such as to
raise funds, be apart of your hiring process, attract business partners. Some
internal uses could be to set priorities, set people in charge of certain
things also detailing how there progress is measured.
Figure what you need your business for and then determine a plan
of action to get the next steps accomplished.