A business plan is a summary of how you intend to organise your practice and implement activities necessary and sufficient for the practice to succeed. It needs to be a realistic view of the expectations and long term objectives of the practice.

A well-prepared business plan is essential throughout the life of your practice. Before you start, a business plan will ensure that the practice is feasible and that there is a well laid out blueprint for action. Once you are practising, a business plan helps you track how you are going, guiding your focus, e.g. preparing for expanding the practice or assisting the implementation of new directions or technologies.

Why should you use business planning?

1. Planning assists you to organise your thoughts and challenge old directions forcing you to consider these issues today, before they become problems tomorrow.

2. If external support is required, the plan is a principal piece of sales literature, perhaps the key to raising finance. It demonstrates to lenders and investors that you have:
1. Identified a specific opportunity;
2. Developed a strategy to meet that opportunity;
3. Assembled a management team capable of exploiting the potential; and
4. Thought through the financial implications of your business strategy.

3. Planning establishes a benchmark against which you can monitor your practice’s subsequent performance, allowing you to identify problems and resolve them quickly.

Given the enthusiasm and determination that you have in the management and success of the practice, it is appropriate that you should be involved in the preparation of a business plan with assistance from an advisor where necessary.