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How Important is a Business Plan?

A business plan defines your business, identifies your goals, and serves as your working resume. It will help you make good business decisions and set realistic goals.  Its importance cannot be over emphasized.  Can you start a business without a formal plan?  Sure.  But your chances of success will increase substantially if you take just a little time and write out your plan before you begin.  According to the US Small Business Association, there are the first 4 questions to consider:

• What service or product 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 reach your potential customers?
• Where will you get the financial resources to start your business?

If you are starting a white dove business, are you going to specialize in weddings, funerals, or other events. Take a minute to think about this one. Will you be offering tours of your lofts, talking to school children, participating in parades or other celebrations? Potential customers are everywhere, but you need to narrow it a bit or your marketing will be like a shotgun. Will you use the newspaper, yellow pages, website, or go directly to event planners or wedding professionals and strike a partnership. Finally, if you need to get a loan to start, what are your resources? Any financial institution will require a good business plan before they take you seriously.

And other questions you may have that will be answered in the course of doing a proper business plan might include: What are the local regulations about pigeons? Will I need special permits? Where will the best location for my loft be? What is the best design for a loft? What kind of birds do I need? What age? How do I manage them? Will I need employees? If you draw a blank on any of these questions, consider starting at the beginning with a good book or course on white doves. A good online course is currently offered at www.whitedoveceremony.com .

A good business plan will make you examine each of these aspects and find an answer BEFORE you invest a ton of money and time. If there is more than one white dove business in the area, will there be enough customers for both of you? Contact the other white dove business and perhaps you can initiate a partnership and both of you can profit. The important thing is that with a good business plan, you will examine all aspects of your business before you have problems. You will know where you are going and how to get there.

Would you start a journey without a map? Why would you start a business without a plan?

The parts of a business plan