So what is a business plan? At its simplest - it's whatever you need it to be. The value of a business plan is the decisions that it influences, and ultimately, how your business is run.

Writing a business plan will force you to think about your business and market in a structured way. It will help you to gain a wider, deeper, and more perceptive understanding of your marketplace - and perhaps point the way forward.

A formal business plan allows you to compare actual results with the plan. In this way, it allows you to clearly see whether you have achieved your strategic, financial, and operational goals - and to better understand any variances, and what needs to happen to address them.

The plan allows you to prioritise, set goals, track progress, divide the work into tasks, estimate sales and expenses, and manage budgets.

The plan depends on the people around it, and particularly the process of involvement and commitment, and then tracking and follow-up. It helps you to reposition your business to deal with changing conditions.

The point of having the plan is tracking progress towards goals, noting what went right, what went wrong, and using the difference between the plan and reality to manage better.

Businesses are dynamic; they change and grow. The Company's original business plan needs to be revised as new goals are set. Reviewing the business plan can also help you see what goals have been accomplished, what changes need to be made, or what new directions your company's growth should take.

A business plan is your safety net; writing a business plan can save you a great deal of time and money if working through the business plan reveals that your business idea is not viable, freeing you to move on to new and better ideas.

A business plan helps you to:

1. Predict and plan your business finances in detail over the next 12 months, and in outline for perhaps 3 years
2. Clearly layout the milestones that are necessary to the success of your business
3. Better understand your customers and improve the positioning of your offering
4. Understand the timings and levels of resources you will need to provide for future activity
5. Run a smoother business with fewer unforeseen problems
6. Provide a road map from which to operate, and to look to for direction in times of doubt
7. Test and analyse the validity of historically accepted assumptions
8. Assess the feasibility of future ventures - reduce the risk of pursuing the wrong opportunity, or compare a number of opportunities
9. Present the formal plan to support financial proposals to investors
10. Share your strategy, priorities, and specific action points with all stakeholders, which could include family

Writing a business plan is time-consuming, but it's essential if you want to have clarity and a successful business, by design.

If your business doesn't have one, maybe it's time to start working on one. The process of writing a business plan can do wonders to clarify where you've come from, where you are now, and where you're going given the path you're on - and if you don't like it - change it!

Think about the time, money and hard work as an investment in the future of your business and you know it will not be wasted effort.

Make it a priority to have this crucial road map of your business.

I'll challenge you that if you don't have a well thought out and executed business plan then your competitors can rest easy tonight.