Plan to Profit
Housing’s combined contribution to GDP generally averages 15-18%. But statistics show that of small businesses in the construction industry:
- About 25% of businesses fail their first year
- 35% fail in their second year
- About 65% fail within their first five years – the second highest failure rate of all industries.
Those failure rates are relatively consistent over time. This suggests that year-over-year economic factors don’t have much of an impact on these failure rates. According to the Small Business Development Center, 9 out of 10 business failures in the U.S. are caused by a lack of planning and general business management skills.
A survey of builder and remodeler members of the National Association of Home Builders revealed that fewer than 12 percent had a written business plan, fewer than 15 percent had written operating budgets, less than 18 percent had written mission statements, and almost 70 percent had no formal planning procedures.
Would You Build or Remodel Without a Plan? A Budget? A Schedule?
So, why would you try to build and manage a business without a written plan? Without an operating budget? Without a formal planning procedure?
Just as blueprints provide the information required to:
- Determine the resources needed to successfully complete the project
- Estimate the cost and your anticipated profit
- Develop the schedule, and
- Communicate to all parties involved what needs to be done,
A business plan provides a blueprint for managing your company.
Plan To Profit provides a blueprint you can follow to develop a working business plan. It walks you step by step through the process starting with market research and analysis, followed by developing your product and service, marketing and sales, operations, leadership team and staffing, and goals and action plans. It guides you in creating your financial forecasts and budgets and your vision, mission, core values, and unique selling proposition. It includes a Microsoft® Excel® workbook which contains financial statement worksheets that you can fill in and use to complete your pro forma financial statements.
