The failure rate is so high for small businesses because many of them don’t put together a thorough local business plan. According to many business surveys, a lack of business planning is tops among their 13 Common Mistakes Made by Small Business Owners.

There are three key reasons why any business should create a solid local business plan before attempting to open their doors for business:

- The process of constructing the plan forces everyone involved to take an objective look at the business project in its entirety.

- Your business plan in its finished state becomes an operating tool- a blueprint- which will help you manage your business and work toward its success.

- The completed plan communicates your ideas to others and provides the basis for your financing proposal.

By writing a comprehensive local business plan you will be able to take a critical look at your business in a few areas:

You can identify your strengths and weaknesses and compare them to other local businesses. You’ll be able to pinpoint needs that you might otherwise overlook and spot problems before they arise. By doing this, you will find that it will help you find the best ways to achieve any goals you may have for your business.

Your business plan helps you to establish reasonable objectives and determine how to best accomplish them. It also helps to highlight problems as they arise and aids you in identifying their sources, thus suggesting ways to solve them. It may even help you to avoid some problems altogether.

Your business plan can help you avoid going into a business venture that is doomed to failure. If your proposed venture is marginal at best, the business plan will show you why and may help you avoid the high tuition of business failure. It is far cheaper not to begin an ill-fated business than to learn by experience what your business plan could have taught you at a cost of several hours of concentrated work.

Finally, your business plan provides the information that will be needed by others to evaluate your venture, especially if you need to seek outside financing.

A thorough business plan automatically becomes a complete financing proposal, which will meet the requirements of most financiers.

Before you begin writing your business plan there are four core questions to consider:

- What products does your business provide and what needs does it fill?

- Who are the potential customers for your product or service and why will they purchase it from you?

- How will you contact your future customers?

- Where will you get the financial resources to start your business?

The planning process for a local business plan, no matter how carefully followed, does not guarantee you success. However, it will substantially reduce your chances of failure. Though this planning effort may be hard work, the dividends will far outweigh the costs.
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