Stuck in the Business Planning Process? 5 Tips to Move Forward 

Do you have an amazing idea for a new business that you are sure will skyrocket? You sat down and developed a fantastic business plan, but you do not know what next? How do you make the first step to actually owning a business?

It might console you to learn that you are not alone here. Countless people have outstanding ideas, but sadly get stuck in the sea of financial projections, budget planning, location scouting, and hundreds of smaller details that you need to go over to make your business thrive. The difference between successful business owners and those who are not is knowing how to move away from this.

And this is where your luck comes in! In this article, I share with you five of the best tips on moving forward from your business plan. I will also help you get out of the “business planning rut” and make your next bold step into the world of entrepreneurship.

1. Never Abandon Your Business Plan Entirely

The first thing that's important to note is that, just because you are moving on from your business plan, it doesn't mean you should not come back to it often. I have learned that setting up time in your schedule to pour over your business plan, analyze it, and change it as your business develops is an essential step.

Depending on the size of your business and your business plan, you might want to set up weekly or monthly meetings. They do not be something extravagant; an hour is enough for this task.

You will want to review all the numbers you crunched in the previous time period, and then compare them to your key performance indicators (KPIs) and your plan forecasts. From there, you can change things up if your business seems to be developing too slowly or keep on the right track if it is not. It will also help you prepare your business for a new time period, whether it is a week, a month, or even a year.

2. Keep Track of Your KPIs

As I mentioned, KPIs are an essential part of moving forward from your business plan. They are a valuable resource and metric that you need to track in order to see how healthy your business is, and how well it is developing.

However, since almost anything can be a KPI, you will need to set them up very carefully. You should choose only a couple significant ones to follow in the first months of your business. As a matter of fact, this decision is what can sometimes slow you down and make you stuck in the business planning process. 

So, sit down with your team and talk through various KPI ideas you might want to track. Decide what your priorities are, and the ways in which you will track them. You might want to focus on your profits or your sales numbers. Maybe traffic will be your main focus in the early days of your business, or it can be the number of quality leads you get.

Whatever it is, setting them in stone, and being aware of them will help push you forward from planning your business to its execution.

3. Don't Be Ashamed to Ask for Help

Working with your team throughout the business planning process is just as important as doing it after. However, sometimes, they will simply not be enough. When you find yourself really stuck, not knowing which way to take next, you might want to look for someone who can help you. Simply put, experience is sometimes a must in the business world.

But even if you do not have the experience, there is something that can make you push forward from the business planning process. The simple act of asking for help will be enough! This can be anything from business advice to actual technical or creative stuff, like logo design, copywriting, or setting up your website.

4. Use Smart Tools

Another thing that can help you push forward from the business planning process is by working on a new routine or workflow.

When your business is still “young,” you will get the full freedom to decide how you will do things around the office. Conversely, if you do not do this early, the workflow will impose itself as you go along. This means that your employees will start doing things in a certain way which might not be efficient or productive. And sadly, it can be quite tough to change this once it is already happening.

The only way to put a stop to this is to set up your workflow early on. The best way to do so is through some smart project management tools. Doing so can help guide you through the whole workflow, from assigning tasks to their completion.

These tools will also offer a great overview of the whole workflow so you can change things up early on if something is just not working. Of course, spending some time playing with these tools can also help you move forward from your business planning process, too, by giving you the motivation to actually start crossing things off the list.

5. Learn Something New

Finally, one of the best ways to shake up your “business planning rut” and help you move forward from the process is to start learning a new business skill. Usually, when starting a business, you will focus on what you know — this is normal. The problem starts when you realize just how much you do not know about other things important for your business.

You might begin struggling with your marketing or your SEO. You might have no idea how to create quality content, or what copywriting means.

Even though I highly recommend asking for help from the experts, it also wouldn't hurt to at least try your hand at one of these things. After all, you might have started the business to be your own boss. So, why not do your own work? This way, you will start being productive, and you can transport this energy into other parts of your business too!

About the Author

Alex is a content writer at IdeaBuddy. His writing is focused on entrepreneurship, productivity, remote collaboration, and project management evolution. Merging an innovative and data-driven content to optimize digital content performance and user experience.