Avoid these 4 business plan mistakes

A business plan is like a roadmap, essential for keeping owners focused and on the right track. Unfortunately, many inexperienced owners often send business plans to investors before they are ready to be shared. Below are four common business plan mistakes to avoid when writing up a business plan.

Unrealistic financial projections: If a plan doesn’t have a realistic financial picture of the anticipated growth of a company, then it may be shelved by investors. Owners must be realistic with their financial projections, and make sure they are consistent with any growth in the industry.

No defined target audience: A business cannot appeal to ‘everyone’. Business plans must clearly define their market and potential customers, and include evidence as to why customers would buy the product or service.

Poor research: The research a business plan is based on must be accurate, up-to-date and verifiable. A plan based on little or poor research can lose much of its credibility.

Not addressing the competition: A business plan cannot ignore the competition, or be under the impression that there is no competition. Plans should clearly outline who the competition is and how the business will perform better than its rivals so it can capitalise on it’s advantages.

When an employee announces their pregnancy

Small businesses that fail to meet the obligations that arise once an employee announces their pregnant risk attracting hefty penalties. These obligations are not only in relation to the Fair Work Act, but also to workplace health and safety and state and federal anti-discrimination legislation.

To avoid facing any legal risks, employers should ensure they have effective policies and procedures in place to manage pregnancy and maternity leave.

The policies and procedures should ensure that the employer:
– assesses the pregnant employee’s situation, in consultation with the employee
– understands the business’s obligations
– identifies the fundamental requirements of the employee’s role.

Beware DIY marketing solutions

Access to DIY graphic design, social media and video tools is increasing, and many small business owners are taking advantage of these cost-effective marketing solutions. Online creative tools are not only cheap and becoming easier to use, they also let you take control of your own marketing and advertising.

However, business owners are advised to proceed with caution. Marketing and advertising professionals are not just creatives, they have a sound understanding of competition law and standards requirements. As such, it is not uncommon for businesses who have opted for DIY solutions to run into trouble.

The regulations surrounding advertising are complex, and it is advisable to seek professional advice before investing resources into a project.

Three ways to make your business more efficient

Efficiency can be a game changer in the world of business. The more benefit that you can gain from your limited resources the better your chances of out-manoeuvring your competitors. Her are three tips to boost your efficiency:

1. Use the right communication software: Email is not always the most efficient means of digital communication. Research some other communication alternatives that might be suited to your team and clients.

2. Make sure that your employees are working to their full capacity: Employees who are overworked, unmotivated or bored are unable to perform to the best of their abilities. Aim to increase engagement and enjoyment in the workplace and discuss workloads with your staff to ensure that they are not struggling.

3. Don’t overdo the meetings: Too many meetings can be a huge time waster and are also likely to annoy your staff. Keep things short and make sure that only the necessary people are present.

Implementing business strategies

Many business owners have fantastic ideas about how to improve and grow. In order for these ideas to become a reality, they first need to be translated into a strategy. However, a strategy is only ever as strong as its implementation is effective. Here are our top tips for making sure that your strategy doesn’t get lost in translation:

1. Break it up into steps: Plan out each stage of strategic execution and make sure that you have a realistic timeframe to complete each step. It is also important to ensure that each step is a logical progression from the last.

2. Align your strategy with your resources: You need to ensure that your business has the resources to implement the strategy. Remember that resources include cash, infrastructure, manpower, skill sets, and time!

3. Account for unforeseen obstacles: It is impossible to predict what challenges may arise in the course of your new venture, but by assuming that something will go wrong, and allocating appropriate leeways in your plan, you will be far better prepared.

Mobile marketing

Mobile marketing is a very important facet of a business’s online presence. However, optimising websites for mobile access and promoting one’s business on location and review based mobile sites is something that often goes overlooked in a marketing plan. Here are a few tips to get your mobile marketing up and running:

Make sure that your website is responsive: A lot of business owners don’t realise that a great website with excellent functionality will not necessarily work on on a mobile phone or tablet. In order to be optimised for different sized screens, a website needs to be responsive.
Ensure that your business is easy to find using online maps: If Google and other search engines know where your business is and what you do, it will direct customers your way. You may also care to integrate a mapping application into your website.
Be present on review sites: Depending on your industry, online reviews can give you a significant marketing boost. For example, a restaurant that is active on reviews sites, has a lot of reviews, and a great average rating is likely to attract a lot of new customers.

Improving business productivity

The easiest way to improve business productivity is to empower your staff to be more efficient and enthusiastic in their approach to work. If every staff member can make an improvement in their area, the overall output of your business will benefit. Here are our top tips for helping your staff to improve their performance:

1. Encourage planning: The more that people plan out their time and schedule tasks, the more likely they will be to identify opportunities for improving efficiency.

2. Schedule meetings at convenient times: If you are scheduling meeting that conflict with people’s workflow, you may actually be undermining their productivity. You should think about who really needs to be in each meeting, because valuable time can be wasted having staff members in meetings that are not relevant to their responsibilities.

3. Encourage exercise: Numerous studies have shown that people who are physically fit are better able to apply themselves in other areas of life. Regular exercise is also good for general mental health. Encourage your staff to get active by suggesting a ride to work day, or lunchtime walks.

Saving money on your energy bil

Energy bills are a significant expense for small businesses, so cutting back on your usage can be great for your bottom line. Improving your energy efficiency is also great for the environment, which presents an opportunity to connect with customers on an issue that is increasingly important to the public.

Here are our top tips for saving on your energy bills

– Buy energy efficient appliances
-Turn your appliances off at the wall (an estimated 10% of electricity bills is due to appliances that are in standby mode)
-Investigate solar panels and rainwater systems (there may be some government subsidies available to you)
-Discuss the need to reduce energy costs with your employees, encouraging them to be more mindful of their actions

Managing employee complaints

One of the toughest parts of running a small business is dealing with employees who are in some way dissatisfied or upset. While a lot of the complaints that you hear will be legitimate, or at least understandable, others may seem unfair on the employee’s part.

It is important for a manager to be able to communicate effectively with their employees. Effective communication means being able to discern the employee’s meaning as well as clearly articulating your own response. Here are three tips for dealing with employee complaints:

1. Listen: Always hear the employee out, making sure that they understand that you value their opinion, and their job satisfaction is important to you.

2. Ask questions: Try to get to the very bottom of what they are saying. In many cases, the real issue may actually not be what is initially addressed in the conversation.

3. Confirm a reaction: Make sure that you are clear when you inform the employee of your planned course of action in response to the complaint. You should also do this if you have no intention of responding, and you should clarify your reasons.

Don’t delay new business ideas

Many business owners have exciting ideas about where the future might take their company. These ideas may be concerning new products, internal improvements or new market segments.
It is, however, an unfortunate fact that the execution of these exciting plans often gets delayed. In the process, the growth of your firm is slowed.

One of the most common reasons that there is so often a delay in the execution of new ideas is limited time. Time is one of the most precious resources that a business owner has, and like all precious resources it is valuable because it is limited. If you have an idea that you think will make a significant improvement to your business, then you should make scheduled time in your week to work on it.

It is also advisable to discuss the idea with some of your staff members, and seek their advice on how you might be able to make your vision a reality.