SBDC Day – Growth Planning 101: A Simple Process to Continuously Plan, Forecast, Review, and Refine Your Strategy

One of the most valuable assets a Small Business Development Center (SBDC) can help you with is a well-formulated business plan – it’s the cornerstone of an ongoing engagement with a business advisor at the SBDC, keeping you on track toward your business goals. But even with the help of the SBDC, writing a business plan and doing financial projections can still feel intimidating.

What if business planning felt easier? What if you could spend less time planning, and more time doing?

Welcome to Growth Planning. It’s a simple process to help you continuously plan, forecast, review, and refine your financial strategy to better manage your business. Whether you have a start-up or a business you have been running for years, growth planning is the answer to the frustrating, time-consuming, and inflexible task of putting together a traditional business plan.

Watch to learn the growth planning process:

• Create a plan: Quickly size up the potential of your idea and set goals to make it work.
• Build your forecast: Develop an expense budget and financial projections to better understand where your business is now, and where it’s headed.
• Review the results: Compare your forecast against your actual sales and expenses each month to stay accountable and uncover new ideas.
• Refine your strategy: Adjust your business plan and forecast based on your learnings.

The best part is, your growth plan can later be transitioned into a plan to secure funding for your business. And a plan that was written for funding can be used as the basis for ongoing, iterative growth planning.

Regardless of your goals, a growth plan will help you maximize your work with the SBDC and establish a long-term relationship and planning process that will benefit your business for years to come.