Business Plans for Builders of Decks and Fences

Business Plans for Builders of Decks and Fences.
Business plans are a necessity for any business, whether it is retail or a builder of decks and fences. Here are a few elements we coach our licensees to include in their business plans:
Marketing Plan, even if it is primarily word of mouth/networking. We ask them to treat even those activities as a job--with goals and quotas.
Include an analysis of your competition. (Critique of their business from an outsider).
Perform a realistic analysis of your challenges and advantages. The entire business plan should utilize feedback and opinions from people not connected, related to or dependent upon your business. Important to get impartial advice when hatching a plan.
Address Economic Expectations. What if interest rates shoot to 15% (a reality not that long ago), or a prolonged war were to happen, or terrorists attacked your city? How would your business cope and thrive? Disaster scenarios are a useful exercise. Things like that will go a long way towards tightening up your strategy and increasing your confidence as well as your lenders.
A business plan will help you identify goals—this enables you to do away with activities in business that don’t help you achieve those goals.
Your business plan can contain many things that most other folks don't include... get creative.
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