What Must an Entrepreneur Do After Creating a Business Plan?

What is a business plan? It’s commonly described as a road map that defines goals, objectives and specifies the strategies that will be used to achieve them. Although you may think of a business plan strictly as something visionary entrepreneurs build to map out their plans for innovative start-ups, a good business plan is useful in areas like operations, growth, feasibility and strategy for established businesses as well. It’s also a living document, which means it can grow and change over time as your vision for your business does. 

Situations that typically require creating a business plan include testing your business idea, laying out how your start-up will work, applying for business financing, attracting new partners or investors, or making significant changes in the core products or services your business offers. 

While no two are alike, most business plans include these key elements:

What must an entrepreneur do after creating a business plan? Once the plan is completed, additional questions need to be answered: How will you secure the funding your new venture? How will you make your company or service stand out among the competition? What can you do to create an engaging brand and build the team needed to carry your plan forward? 

Entrepreneurs have to continually gain greater insights into several important areas that impact the growth of their businesses. One of these areas is competitive research. This is an important first step toward knowing how your product or service is different from the competition, their promotions and pricing. Doing this before you launch yourself into the market can help you get a lay of the land that will help inform your decisions and give you an idea of what parts of your company need strengthening.

Branding runs deeper than components like your company’s name and logo. Entrepreneurs should work carefully to develop a brand strategy that goes beyond creating awareness and recognition, making a clear promise to the consumer and having the strength to stand the test of time. Your strong brand strategy should include these 5 key elements:

A strong marketing plan is essential in any venture, establishing the tactics and approaches that will be used to sell into consumer or business markets. Here’s where you need to draw the most attention to your product(s) while working within financial and operational constraints. Some basic marketing strategies will include developing a strong online presence, determining the best methods to reach your target audience and what messages will resonate best with them. 

Another aspect of a good marketing plan is additional research to understand consumer behavior. Establishing buyer personas can provide a template of the different customer types you want to target your business toward, and help refine marketing methods and content strategies in order to better resonate with and serve your base.

Funding the new business venture can be a major challenge for small business owners. First-time entrepreneurs, after creating a business plan, can follow several steps to be sure their new ventures have access to the cash they need for growth. This includes understanding how small business loans work or tapping into some alternative and somewhat lesser-known financing options. Here are 5 such realistic funding sources for your new business:

Successful entrepreneurs recognize the importance of working with other professionals, building in-house and outsource teams of players that will understand, embrace and work to accomplish the goals outlined in their business plans. This requires talent with the skills, knowledge and experience to get the job done with minimal supervision. Hiring people who have skills that you don’t have can help unleash the full collective potential of your team.

Another consideration at this stage is to select professionals to help out in two crucial areas – accounting and legal services. You may choose to work with outsourced talent in these areas on an as-needed basis, then create in-house positions later.

Whether starting up a new business or running a well-established enterprise, business owners know the importance of relationships. Smart entrepreneurs initiate and nurture important relationships across the spectrum of their business. This includes employees, customers, operational partners, suppliers, lenders and others. Relationships built on trust and maintained with integrity often begin with networking and are likely to last longer and be more beneficial over the long haul. 

Regarding customer relationships specifically, entrepreneurs recognize and cherish their relationships with existing customers, knowing that investing in repeat customers is easier than cultivating new ones. 

What’s left to do after taking these steps? Launch and start running your business. As simple as that sounds, entrepreneurs know that running a new business can bring new challenges every day. During this exciting time, it’s important to stay on the course established in your business plan. Track sales and marketing data right away and be sure to have the agility to make changes quickly if things aren’t going as planned. Remain focused with frequent reviews of your sales and marketing data, which may be monthly or quarterly to start, then less frequent as things become more well established. 

The key to growing, or scaling, your business will be to look at how things have changed since the initial plan was carved out, and how they have aligned with your initial projections. 

If you thrive in an environment where each day brings new challenges in developing creative, results-oriented solutions, a career in entrepreneurship might be for you. 

At DeVry, we offer an MBA with a Specialization in Entrepreneurship that can help you build a foundation in many of the business and leadership skills you need to help get your new venture off the ground, or explore our Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship to complement the skills you already have as you work to advance your ambition as a small business owner.