Does Your Business Plan Answer These Questions?

While we are developing a business plan for a start-up business model the art of producing a good plan is in progress.  We have determined the type of business model we will be developing. (Check the previous post titled, "The Business Idea Has Been Found.")  We have also defined how we plan to approach the market in a rough sketch set of descriptions. (Check another post titled, "Develop A Plan That Has Good Timing.")  We are using the SBA and Score websites to help us guide our development of the business plan for this start-up model.  We are working our way through the process these websites suggest.

As the plan begins to come together we must face some of the tough questions that need to be addressed.  These two websites do a great job in preparing our minds for handling the kinds of questions we need to be answering.  Some of these questions will not be easy to answer.  As you develop your business plan some of the questions you will face will be difficult to answer.  They will become uncomfortable if your answers are honest.  It is very normal to become uncomfortable with some of the answers you pen down.  Writing a good business plan is sometimes a very uncomfortable thing.

Each of the business leaders who sit down to produce a business plan will find a different area of expertise more uncomfortable than someone else who may find the same questions easy to deal with and solve.  Every business leader has a separate set of viewpoints and approaches to the questions they must face and answer.  Some will struggle with the personal questions, others will struggle with the facility and location questions.  Whatever the case, prepare the plan with the hard questions included.

Some of the more difficult questions will be more personal in nature.  The questions regarding the business techniques and methods will likely be solved almost immediately.  The questions regarding family and personal connections will be more difficult to attend.  This is always the nature of preparing a good business career.  We usually do not plan how we expect to deal with the personal side of the business models we manage.  We typically handle personal challenges on an as needed basis, through systems that look and sound like emergency management.  A good business model does not find this process very rewarding.  In fact in most cases, this process is the very one that will limit the business from participating in huge growth.  It becomes the very set of questions that are not easily dealt with in the beginning of the business development process.

What kind of questions are found in this set of personally 'difficult-to-answer' questions?

I remember a time when my wife and I were planning to meet with her parents, who had traveled a good distance to come and visit us.  My wife is an "only" child in her family.  She and her parents are it.  Those are my in-laws.  A very small group.  It is a simple thing to manage.

When I left to go manage my business for that day she reminded me that we would be meeting with her parents at an early hour right after my business closes for the day.  We would be going to dinner.  I replied with a sharp short, "I know!  I remember. I'll see you guys right after I close."  I think most of you know what comes next.  Owners of a business know that closing up shop does not always mean you are done for the day.  In fact, rarely does it mean you are done doing your work.  Closing your business for the day means you are done seeing customers for that particular day.  Now the important work at the desk is waiting for you to come and play.  The desk holds stuff that every owner wishes they had more time to do.  Some of that stuff is vital to be done.  If an owner skips doing it, they lose.

My wife did not remind me about our dinner plans with her visiting parents because she wanted to nag me a little bit.  She reminded me because she is married to a businessman who is driven to perform the duties of ownership come hell or high water.  She was speaking from a position of knowledge.

That day was so much like every typical day.  It was busy with customer activity and the level of challenges that surfaced were of the garden variety condition.  The challenges were not especially difficult to manage.  It was otherwise a typical business day...nothing fancy, nothing strange.  As the business day neared its end, a female customer came into the furniture store looking for me to come help her remodel the living room of her home in the next couple of weeks.  As she spoke, it was clear that she was not talking about a small job.  I had never met her before.  She was referred to me by someone she had met.

During the last hour of the day I was working with her on some flooring samples of ceramic tile and some very nice carpeting choices.  She was being careful in her selection process but it was clear she was willing to trade-up to make a good impression.  She also described how much she had budgeted and shared that she and her husband would be traveling away for almost a month while I finished the project.  This potential sale had some very unique developments that had my attention.  I was curious as to her means for payment, her trust for my suggestions, her trust secured for my workmanship and the trust she had already secured for me to be in their house for almost a month without knowing them.  That last hour of the day was a very good customer experience.  She mentioned that she would be leaving in the morning to fly to meet her husband.  He was gone on a business trip.

Our community was a small community and these folks did not come from our community.  People who live in small communities know when others did not come from their community.  We can tell.  This customer described her home and where they lived.  They had been living there almost one year.  She described how she and her husband had searched all over the region to decide where they wanted to live and our town is the one that suited them the most.  She made some initial product selections and wondered if I could come to the house and do a measurement so I could prepare a bid for her to take to her husband when they got together this coming weekend.  After all of the great edification she shared about me and how others recommended me for doing the job, I could not say no.  I grabbed my clip board and tape measure, got her address and headed out.  I told my staff that I would see them in the morning because I had a full plate to manage for the rest of this day.  My staff was very capable to run the show well.  They would lock up and close down the after hours stuff that needed to be done.

I arrived to the home she described.  It had four vehicles parked in the driveway.  It was a very large home.  It was well appointed and had some very nice landscaping around the premises.  All four automobiles in the driveway were upper class vehicles, brand new.  I also saw some very good outdoor sporting equipment stored beneath the deck on the north side of the home; a canoe, camping and fishing gear.  I am a salesman.  We typically look for qualifying clues before we work with our customers.  I figured I had better turn it up a notch as I entered this home.

She was extremely polite.  She walked me into the huge area she was planning to change.  She specifically described how she planned to make some of the changes they wanted to complete.  She asked if I needed anything else to measure and prepare the bid.  I nodded no.  She left and went to work in her home office in a well-appointed study area next to the kitchen.  I stood for a little while and then began my work.  I felt as if I was being placed into a scene that was pre-destined.  It was a strange feeling.  I measured all that I could find that was critical to know to meet the description of the changes she described.  It took a long time to complete these details. maybe an hour or more.  She returned just about the time I was finishing up.  She started some small talk about me and my business.  She wanted to know how business was doing.  I decided that I needed to be the one asking the questions, so I began with getting to know who they are, what they do for a living and where they came from.  The typical process of getting to know each other.

She said her husband had been traveling a little bit lately and would be back home in a few days.  Once he returned, they would be heading to South Africa to vacation for about a month.  She described how excited she was for the trip because it included a three day guided tour of the jungle.  She continued to tell me how she searched for someone they could trust to do this work in their home while they were away.  I was trying to act cool and calm, like this type of transaction happens to me all of the time.  Then I asked her what her husband did for a living.  She said he was a business consultant.  I giggled a little bit and said I could use one of those guys in my business affairs.  She smiled very politely.  She said I would be meeting him in a couple of days so maybe I could run a couple of things by him before they leave.  She said his plate was very full, however.

We talked for about an hour or so.  I told her I would go home and prepare the bid and call her in the morning with the completed figures.  We parted in a friendly fashion and I drove down the driveway thinking about how much I could make on this remodel job.  My business model was struggling at the time and this type of job would come in handy for making things at home more pleasant.  Oh, yea, that's right...home.  I needed to be home about two hours ago.  This is not good.  My wife will be livid.  I even forgot to call to tell her I would be late, which may not have mattered much.  This was her parents and they do not often come to visit.  I am in big poop.

All of the sudden, my big potential deal just got very ugly.  When I opened the front door my wife was crying.  There are no words that can save a business soul at that point.  No explanation is good enough to describe how this could happen.  I smelled food.  I asked if we were still planning to go out to dinner.  She said she cooked spaghetti and they had already eaten.  Her parents were hungry after the long trip.  It was a somewhat quiet night.

Any business leader who believes the hard personal questions they face in developing a good business plan are not big enough to concern them right now is sadly mistaken.  They matter and they matter big.  The more details you face early on will only help to secure how your respect will be handled during the future developments your business demands.  These are very important things to cover.  They will become uncomfortable to deal with but need your specific attention right now.  Make sure you have included them into the process of how you develop your business plan.  I have witnessed many a destruction of a great business model by the omission of some very important personal things.  Get them sorted out right now.

Go see what those tough questions are.  They are covered very nicely in these two websites listed above.  Do diligence for due diligence.

Until next time...