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The Importance of Reflective Leadership in Business

• 05 Sep 2023

Effective leadership is essential to business success. As an organizational leader , you not only guide decision-making but create your company’s culture, retain its talent, and move it toward bigger, better things.

Your leadership style —the behavioral patterns consistent across your decision-making—influences your impact on your organization and team. One of the most beneficial styles to adopt is reflective leadership.

If you want to learn more about reflective leadership’s role in business, here’s an overview of its components, why it’s effective, and how to become a reflective leader.

Access your free e-book today.

What Is Reflective Leadership?

Reflective leadership involves self-awareness, introspection, and continuous learning and growth to make better decisions, enhance leadership skills , and improve team performance .

“Reflective leadership requires the continuous practice of reflection over time,” says Harvard Business School Professor Nien-hê Hsieh in the online course Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability . “This allows you to regularly examine and re-evaluate your decisions and responsibilities to practice, broaden, and deepen your skills, and to apply this knowledge when analyzing present situations.”

Reflective leadership also enables you to help your team grow.

“Reflective leadership is about helping others on your team or in your organization,” Hsieh says. “It’s about helping them develop their own skills in awareness, judgment, and action.”

In Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability , Hsieh delves into the reflective leadership model , a framework for conceptualizing your responsibilities as an ethical leader.

The model has four components:

• Awareness: Recognize your legal, economic, and ethical responsibilities to stakeholders.
• Judgment: Consider biases and shared concepts that influence your decision-making.
• Action: Act on your decisions in an accountable, consistent way.
• Reflection: Reflect on all three components throughout the process to learn from past experiences.

“The reflective leadership model involves not only reflection on business decisions but also continuous reflection on your own personal beliefs, goals, and commitments,” Hsieh says in the course. “These aspects of self are often significant influences on your decisions and internal guides when navigating difficult situations.”

The Importance of Reflective Leadership

Before diving into the importance of reflective leadership, it’s critical to note the pitfalls of being an inadequate leader.

According to recruitment services company Zippia , 79 percent of employees leave their companies because they don’t feel appreciated by leaders, and upwards of 69 percent believe they’d work harder if recognized. In addition, only 33 percent report feeling engaged in the workplace.

Companies also lack focus on leadership development. Zippia reports that 77 percent struggle to find and develop leaders, and only five percent implement leadership development at all levels.

Since reflective leadership focuses on continuously improving and developing, it’s one of the more effective leadership styles. By regularly reflecting on your beliefs and values and incorporating them into your actions, you can make ethical decisions and enable your company to be more purpose-driven .

“Along with responsibility, leadership brings opportunities,” Hsieh explains in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability . “These include opportunities to make ethical decisions where someone else wouldn’t, to influence others to do the right thing, and to make a positive impact on the world.”

Reflective leadership also helps you build authentic, supportive relationships with team members and create a workplace of ethics and accountability .

If you want to adopt a reflective leadership style, here are the competencies to develop.

How to Become a Reflective Leader

Be self-reflective.

Self-reflection is at reflective leadership’s core. According to Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability , you can practice self-reflection by:

• Reviewing, analyzing, and evaluating your decisions—in the moment and over time.
• Continuously deepening your awareness and self-knowledge.
• Developing a general framework for judgment.
• Improving your capacity for action and leadership.

Leading with self-reflection won’t just help you learn from past experiences but also encourage and enable your team members to adopt reflective mentalities.

Identify Your Commitments

Knowing your commitments is also essential to effective leadership.

“It’s important to identify and define your own commitments,” Hsieh says in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability , “both to set a baseline for what you will and won’t do and to evaluate and clarify your thoughts, opinions, and feelings when making decisions.”

To create that baseline, Hsieh recommends asking the following questions:

• What’s core to my identity?
• What lines or boundaries won’t I cross?
• What kind of life do I want to live?
• What kind of leader do I want to be?

By identifying your commitments, you can better guide yourself and your team.

Consider Your Accountability

Becoming a reflective leader also requires accountability to successfully execute on your values and implement them into action plans.

This refers to the reflective leadership model’s “action” step—putting your decisions into practice in a way that’s accountable and consistent with your responsibilities.

“When leading reflectively, straightforward action planning may not be enough,” Hsieh says in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability . “An accountable leader will go beyond just answering ‘How will we do it?’ to ask ‘How can I do it accountably?’”

Reflective Leadership Training for Businesses

By incorporating your values into your leadership style, you can learn from your experiences on a deeper level and develop into a better leader.

One way to gain the skills and frameworks to succeed long term is by taking an online course, such as Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability . Through a dynamic, interactive learning experience, the course provides the opportunity to apply the reflective leadership model to real-world business ethics challenges.

Are you ready to become a reflective leader? Enroll in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability —one of our online leadership and management courses —and download our free e-book on effective leadership.

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How to Conduct a Monthly Business Plan Review Meeting

• Vinay Kevadia
• September 25, 2024

When you and your team are on the everyday grind, it’s highly possible to lose track of progress. Sometimes you may even experience stagnation.

That’s when you need a savior, we call a monthly business plan review meeting.

A monthly business plan shows you the actual picture of where you stand and what needs to be done to fix the issues. Reviewing it monthly keeps you up to speed and ready to take on the competitive world month after month!

But the question is: How to conduct a monthly business review meeting?

Don’t worry, in this blog, we’ll tell you why you need such a meeting, how to conduct it, and share a free template so you can get a head start.

Let’s begin.

What is a monthly business plan review meeting?

A monthly business review is a meeting, conducted once a month, where your team gathers to review your current performance against your ideal performance or strategic plan.

The idea behind the meeting? Everyone should evaluate a month’s worth of journey and see if they’re still on track to achieve the strategic targets. If not, they can take necessary measures to keep up.

Why is it important to conduct a monthly plan review?

Here are three crucial benefits of conducting a monthly business plan review meeting:

1. Improves communication. Encourages reflection

In this meeting, all attendees dish out their progress and struggle openly. This does two things:

One, it improves communication, enabling transparency. As a result, your team can learn about the different challenges each one has faced and everyone can butt heads to find solutions.

Two, with everyone sharing their progress and backlogs, it creates the perfect space to reflect on business tasks and performances. In this process, your team can adjust

and re-prioritize anything and everything required to get back on the right track to meet the set business objectives.

2. Promotes accountability

With transparency and reflection comes a sense of accountability for all. The open discussions help employees feel responsible for every activity that brings the business closer to the ideal performance or stick to the strategic plan.

3. Enhances decision-making

By regularly reviewing your business plan, you get a front-row seat to insights that help you avoid costly mistakes or errors that can cause delays. But most importantly, you can identify what works and what doesn’t to make informed choices.

Regular meetings also give you the flexibility to pivot quickly as and when needed.

That said, let’s move on to…

How to conduct a monthly business plan review meeting

Here are some simple steps to follow to conduct a successful monthly business plan review:

1. Prepare meeting guidelines

There can’t be a meeting without knowing when and where it’ll happen, who will attend it, and what will be discussed. That’s why you need to start by preparing meeting guidelines.

Here’s everything you can include in your guidelines:

• Create calendar invites and send it out to participants
• Prepare an agenda so the meeting can start and end at the decided time and no items are undiscussed
• Asking team members to be ready with the numbers and questions (basically come prepared)
• Lay down the rules as to how and when people can share their inputs

2. Actions and outcomes from the previous meeting

This step comes in once the meeting begins. Unless it’s your first monthly business review ever, you have to go back in time and discuss the actions you took in the previous meeting or the results you obtained.

It could be that you had to analyze customer feedback to improve your product or that you introduced a similar feature as your competitor but did it better with a feature launch strategy.

The idea here is to ensure you’ve met all the goals intended for the previous month so you can focus on newer goals.

Once done, you can move on to…

3. Review of business performance

What’s a business review meeting without some business performance review? You can divide the performance based on two broad categories:

a) Reviewing your financial statements

Since it’s a monthly meeting you want to review monthly financial statements such as the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.

These statements will help you spot any financial anomalies and answer questions like:

• How did you do last month compared to your forecast?
• How did you do compared to the same month last year?
• What is the cash position and cash flow like?
• What does our cash flow forecast look like for the next few months?

You can even compare the actual performance against budgeted targets like revenue, expenses, and profit margins. As a result, you’ll gain insights into where:

• You need to pour in more funds
• There’s a loss
• There’s overspending

The bottom line: reviewing financial performances together will help you spot issues that you may not on your own.

b) Reviewing sales and marketing performance

Yes, it’s all about the money, but it’s also about what makes the money. So start by examining your sales and marketing performance.

Discuss how your actual sales numbers compare with the targets you had set for the month. Doing so should give you insight as to whether your sales funnel is benefiting you. For example how many leads have turned into customers? What stages are deals getting stuck in, and how can you address this?

All this data will tell your team where you stand and the strategies you must adopt to improve your sales game.

Coming to marketing, analyze your marketing campaigns’ effectiveness—meaning, check if the efforts translate into real business value. You can do so by discussing:

ROI (Return on Investment)

Calculate how much you spent for each campaign versus the revenue it generated. You want a high ROI (efficient marketing), rather than a low ROI which signals the need for improvement.

Customer acquisition costs (CAC)

Calculate how much it costs to acquire a single customer via different campaigns and channels—that’s CAC for you. Your aim should be to attain a low CAC to gain a good profit. See if you’ve met this criteria.

Lead quality and conversion rates

Are the leads generated by your campaigns converting into paying customers? If not, you must discuss how to rethink the campaign.

4. Progress on goals and milestones

Next, you want to review the progress toward achieving short-term and long-term strategic goals.

You can do so by identifying any gaps or delays and analyzing their root causes—whether it’s due to resource constraints, market shifts, or operational issues.

Once done, discuss if certain goals need adjustments or if strategies should need refining to ensure alignment with business priorities. This proactive evaluation helps to prevent future roadblocks and keeps the team focused on achievable outcomes.

In short: This step helps check if everyone is on track to meet the set goals so that the business stays aligned with its strategic objectives.

5. Business operational review

In the business operational review, assess any challenges that impacted efficiency over the past month, such as:

• Bottlenecks in production
• Delivery delays
• Staffing issues
• Technological issues
• Workflow process issues
• Supply chain issues

Discuss with your team how these were resolved the last time they occurred and collaborate to propose strategies to address them. You can do so by delegating tasks to fix issues and encouraging cross-departmental input.

This enables smoother operations to achieve business objectives.

6. Open discussion for any inputs or company issues

Lastly, you want to open the floor for anything and everything your team may want to discuss regarding your company. This can be regarding the work, operations, company issues, and obstacles employees are facing that prevent them from achieving set objectives.

That’s about it. You’ve successfully learned how to conduct a monthly business plan review meeting.

Monthly plan review meeting agenda (free template)

Are you ready to create your monthly business plan review agenda but need some guidance? We’ve got you covered! Download our free monthly business plan review plan template PDF and begin your journey now.

This template offers clear instructions and examples, helping you to build a strong and effective business plan meeting agenda. Plus, it’s customizable to suit your unique requirements.

Now that you know how to conduct a monthly business plan review meeting, your business won’t have to face many unforeseen, damaging, or delay-causing circumstances.

Just make sure you have a template in place so you don’t have to structure it every month. Instead, you can focus on the more important task, business review! And if you don’t already have a business plan in place. Don’t worry. Try business planning software like Upmetrics to create one in a jiffy.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of a monthly business plan review meeting.

The purpose of a monthly business plan review meeting is to help you and your team identify areas that need improving or adjusting to make informed decisions. This is how teams can stay on track to achieve monthly targets.

Who should be invited to a business plan review meeting?

Invite the senior management, various department heads, project leads, and relevant team members directly involved in executing the plan. Any external advisors like accountants or lawyers who might have crucial insights into the plan’s feasibility.

How do you prepare for a business plan review meeting?

To prepare for a business plan review meeting:

• Create an acceptable agenda to follow
• Put the meeting on the calendar and create invites
• Prepare meeting guidelines
• Keep data (financial, statistical, etc.) ready

What should be included in the agenda for the monthly review meeting?

Your monthly business review meeting agenda should include:

• Dissecting parts of your business strategies
• Reviewing your finances and cash flow
• Making adjustments based on overall performance

What should be done after the business review meeting?

After a monthly business review meeting, here’s everything you can do to ensure that the discussion translates into actionable results:

• Summarize key takeaways and share them with all attendees and relevant stakeholders to ensure alignment.
• Assign action items to team members along with deadlines and track task progress.
• Follow up on previous actions and address any roadblocks that might hinder progress.
• Update metrics and KPIs, and communicate the same with your teams.
• Plan for the next meeting.
• Reflect and improve depending on what worked well and what didn’t.

About the Author

Vinay Kevadiya

Vinay Kevadiya is the founder and CEO of Upmetrics, the #1 business planning software. His ultimate goal with Upmetrics is to revolutionize how entrepreneurs create, manage, and execute their business plans. He enjoys sharing his insights on business planning and other relevant topics through his articles and blog posts. Read more

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More From Forbes

A lesson on the importance of self-reflection in business.

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Recently, I walked through my company's offices and spoke to people on the team. As an entrepreneur, I think it's essential to connect with people and find out about them. One of my top concerns is always ensuring that our team stays motivated and that we also reflect on life and business. That's why our team likes to do training or activities that make us reflect .

Before I share a team development activity with you, I want to tell you about a short story. Following my walk through the office, I connected with a woman called Nicole, a professional in the field of social work who also helps people with disabilities to advocate for themselves. She has cerebral palsy, and she also has visual and auditory impairments. But Nicole is a force of nature and incredibly self-reflective.

' You  Matter'

Nicole shared with me that hearing the words " you matter," which is also my life's motto, made an impact in her life. She shared that she listened to those words exactly when she needed to hear them. Further, Nicole also created words to live by for her life after self-reflecting. She says, "I see the world with my whole heart," even if it's not necessarily with the full use of her eyes and ears.

Why do I share this with you? I say it because we are human. We all have struggles and moments in our lives that are tough. Yet, like Nicole, we get up, get to work and keep moving — even when it would be so much easier to remain under the covers. Most of us do it by reflecting and putting our struggles into a greater context. We should all be kind to each other, especially in business, because there's a natural disaster happening in someone's life and we probably don't know it.

The Role Of Self And Team Reflection

As I thought about the chats with members of my team, Nicole and others, I considered how to bring the lessons of self-reflection back to my office. I think today, more than ever, we need self-reflection in business. In a digital world, we live with hundreds of notifications and on-demand issues. In other words, everything seems to be a priority at all times, even when it's not; the notifications on our phones demand immediate attention.

Also, in a world that is increasingly tech-based, with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, business leaders should understand that finding people who have a high level of emotional intelligence could allow companies to do better in this environment. Further, emotionally intelligent workers can navigate and outperform their peers in a situation where, candidly, there's a lot of fear about job loss or stress about integrating with AI.

On your team, the first place to start is by identifying workers who are emotionally intelligent, as they can serve as support leaders to others. For instance, identify people on your team who are passionate about the work and culture of your company. Then, make it a point to celebrate and recognize their work and achievements for the company. This can help others on the team understand that passion and commitment to the company drive success. However, don't stop there: Create opportunities for everyone to immerse themselves — as individuals — in activities that support and encourage their teammates.

A Creative Team-Building Activity

Again, I believe self-reflection in today's business world is vital for both managers and workers. Not too long after meeting Nicole, I learned of an activity people do in art classes that businesses can incorporate. I remembered the fun our team had when we went as a group after work to paint on canvases. That was a chance to learn about ourselves and others on our team as we worked on our paintings and saw what others did.

However, this activity I'm about to describe is somewhat different because it can create an even deeper level of self-reflection. Provide canvases, paints and easels for your team. List at least five things for them to paint (e.g., tree, sun, mountains, etc.). When everyone has painted the first object, ask everyone to get up and rotate to the next canvas. This instruction will likely create an environment of confusion and even anxiety. You may well hear protests. Still, ask everyone to move over one seat because this move is the point of the exercise. Then ask them to paint the next object. Keep doing this every few minutes until the canvases are fully painted.

Self-Reflection Comes Full Circle

Once the exercise is completed, give everyone an opportunity for self-reflection. That's where the learning happens. In the process, you will likely find some people were worried about "their" piece of art. Also, some people will respect the work already on the canvas; others will integrate their objects with other things. Still others will paint over what others have done — entirely. You should ask people about what they saw and how they felt about what they thought — at the start — was "their" painting.

Once you know how people think from seeing their work, you can speak to them and help ease their fears at work as they arise. It's natural for people to feel uncomfortable or anxious at times. That is part of growth. But, focusing team meetings and activities on easing the stress can do wonders for your company's culture, the cohesion of your team, and its overall success.

In sum, self-reflection is an essential part of life and business. Like Nicole, we are all trying to be the best we can be and do the best we can. Also, like her, we can grow as people by being self-reflective — but we can also grow as members of our work teams. Those of us who are business leaders want success, but ensuring we create self-reflective environments can lead to the creativity, energy and motivation that we need for that success. The more people know themselves and others, the more their businesses can achieve.

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The Power of Reflection at Work

• Gretchen Gavett

Instead of doubling down, take time to stop and think.

It Does Help to Think

Reflecting on work improves job performance, working knowledge.

Very few companies give their employees time for reflection, especially when competitive pressures are escalating. Usually the imperative is to double down and work harder – don’t stop to think, just drive forward. But new research demonstrates the value of reflection in helping people do a better job. A working paper by Francesca Gino and Gary Pisano of Harvard Business School, Giada Di Stefano of HEC Paris, and Bradley Staats of the University of North Carolina shows that reflecting on what you’ve done teaches you to do it better next time. The researchers did a series of studies, all showing that reflection boosts performance. “Now more than ever we seem to be living lives where we’re busy and overworked, and our research shows that if we’d take some time out for reflection, we might be better off,” Gino tells Working Knowledge. -Andy O’Connell

• Gretchen Gavett is an associate editor at the Harvard Business Review. Follow her on Twitter @gretchenmarg .

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9 Business Plan Examples to Inspire Your Own (2024)

Need support creating your business plan? Check out these business plan examples for inspiration and guidance.

Any aspiring entrepreneur researching how to start a business will likely be advised to write a business plan. But few resources provide business plan examples to really guide you through writing one of your own.

Here are some real-world and illustrative business plan examples to help you craft your business plan .

Business plan format: 9 examples

The business plan examples in this article follow this template:

• Executive summary
• Company description
• Market analysis
• Products and services
• Marketing plan
• Logistics and operations plan
• Financial plan
• Customer segmentation

1. Executive summary

Your executive summary is a page that gives a high-level overview of the rest of your business plan. While it appears at the beginning, it’s easiest to write this section last, as there are details further in the report you’ll need to include here.

In this free business plan template , the executive summary is four paragraphs and takes a little over half a page. It clearly and efficiently communicates what the business does and what it plans to do, including its business model and target customers.

2. Company description

You might repurpose your company description elsewhere, like on your About page , social media profile pages, or other properties that require a boilerplate description of your small business.

Soap brand ORRIS has a blurb on its About page that could easily be repurposed for the company description section of its business plan.

You can also go more in-depth with your company overview and include the following sections, like in this business plan example for Paw Print Post:

Business structure

This section outlines how you registered your business —as an LLC , sole proprietorship, corporation, or other business type : “Paw Print Post will operate as a sole proprietorship run by the owner, Jane Matthews.”

Nature of the business

“Paw Print Post sells unique, one-of-a-kind digitally printed cards that are customized with a pet’s unique paw prints.”

“Paw Print Post operates primarily in the pet industry and sells goods that could also be categorized as part of the greeting card industry.”

Background information

“Jane Matthews, the founder of Paw Print Post, has a long history in the pet industry and working with animals, and was recently trained as a graphic designer. She’s combining those two loves to capture a niche in the market: unique greeting cards customized with a pet’s paw prints, without needing to resort to the traditional (and messy) options of casting your pet’s prints in plaster or using pet-safe ink to have them stamp their ’signature.’”

Business objectives

“Jane will have Paw Print Post ready to launch at the Big Important Pet Expo in Toronto to get the word out among industry players and consumers alike. After two years in business, Jane aims to drive $150,000 in annual revenue from the sale of Paw Print Post’s signature greeting cards and to have expanded into two new product categories.”

“Jane Matthews is the sole full-time employee of Paw Print Post but hires contractors as needed to support her workflow and fill gaps in her skill set. Notably, Paw Print Post has a standing contract for five hours a week of virtual assistant support with Virtual Assistants Pro.”

Your mission statement may also make an appearance here. Passionfruit shares its mission statement on its company website, and it would also work well in its example business plan.

3. Market analysis

The market analysis consists of research about supply and demand , your target demographics, industry trends, and the competitive landscape. You might run a SWOT analysis and include that in your business plan. 

Here’s an example SWOT analysis for an online tailored-shirt business:

You’ll also want to do a competitive analysis as part of the market research component of your business plan. This will tell you which businesses you’re up against and give you ideas on how to differentiate your brand. A broad competitive analysis might include:

• Target customers
• Unique value proposition , or what sets the products apart
• Sales pitch
• Price points for products
• Shipping policy

4. Products and services

This section of your business plan describes your offerings—which products and services do you sell to your customers? Here’s an example for Paw Print Post that explains its line of custom greeting cards, along with details on what makes its products unique.

5. Marketing plan

It’s always a good idea to develop a marketing plan before you launch your business. Your marketing plan shows how you’ll get the word out about your business, and it’s an essential component of your business plan as well.

The Paw Print Post focuses on four Ps: price, product, promotion, and place. However, you can take a different approach with your marketing plan. Maybe you can pull from your existing marketing strategy , or maybe you break it down by the different marketing channels. Whatever approach you take, your marketing plan should describe how you intend to promote your business and offerings to potential customers.

6. Logistics and operations plan

The Paw Print Post example considered suppliers, production, facilities, equipment, shipping and fulfillment, and inventory. This includes any raw materials needed to produce the products.

7. Financial plan

The financial plan provides a breakdown of sales, revenue, profit, expenses, and other relevant financial metrics related to funding and profiting from your business.

Ecommerce brand Nature’s Candy’s financial plan breaks down predicted revenue, expenses, and net profit in graphs.

It then dives deeper into the financials to include:

• Funding needs
• Projected profit-and-loss statement
• Projected balance sheet
• Projected cash-flow statement

You can use a financial plan spreadsheet to build your own financial statements, including income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement.

8. Customer segmentation

Customer segmentation means dividing your target market into groups based on specific characteristics. These characteristics can be demographics, psychographics, behavior, or geography. Your business plan will provide detailed information on each segment, like its size and growth potential, so you can show why they are valuable to your business. 

Airsign , an eco-friendly vacuum cleaner company, faced the challenge of building a sustainable business model in the competitive home appliance market. They identified three key customer personas to target:

• Design-oriented urban dwellers
• Millennials moving to suburbs
• Older consumers seeking high-quality appliances

The company utilized Shopify’s customer segmentation tools to gain insights and take action to target them. Airsign created targeted segments for specific marketing initiatives.

Put your customer data to work with Shopify’s customer segmentation

Shopify’s built-in segmentation tools help you discover insights about your customers, build segments as targeted as your marketing plans with filters based on your customers’ demographic and behavioral data, and drive sales with timely and personalized emails.

9. Appendix

The appendix provides in-depth data, research, or documentation that supports the claims and projections made in the main business plan. It includes things like market research, finance, résumés, product specs, and legal documents. 

Readers can access detailed info in the appendix, but the main plan stays focused and easy to read. Here’s an example from a fictional clothing brand called Bloom:

Appendix: Bloom Business Plan

Types of business plans, and what to include for each

This lean business plan is meant to be high level and easy to understand at a glance. You’ll want to include all of the same sections in one-page business plan, but make sure they’re truncated and summarized:

• Executive summary: truncated
• Market analysis: summarized
• Products and services: summarized
• Marketing plan: summarized
• Logistics and operations plan: summarized
• Financials: summarized

A startup business plan is for a new business. Typically, these plans are developed and shared to secure funding . As such, there’s a bigger focus on the financials, as well as on other sections that determine viability of your business idea—market research, for example:

• Market analysis: in-depth
• Financials: in-depth

Your internal business plan is meant to keep your team on the same page and aligned toward the same goal:

A strategic, or growth, business plan is a big-picture, long-term look at your business. As such, the forecasts tend to look further into the future, and growth and revenue goals may be higher. Essentially, you want to use all the sections you would in a normal business plan and build upon each:

• Market analysis: comprehensive outlook
• Products and services: for launch and expansion
• Marketing plan: comprehensive outlook
• Logistics and operations plan: comprehensive outlook
• Financials: comprehensive outlook

Feasibility

Your feasibility business plan is sort of a pre-business plan—many refer to it as simply a feasibility study. This plan essentially lays the groundwork and validates that it’s worth the effort to make a full business plan for your idea. As such, it’s mostly centered around research:

Nonprofit business plans are used to attract donors, grants, and partnerships. They focus on what their mission is, how they measure success, and how they get funded. You’ll want to include the following sections in addition to a traditional business plan:

• Organization description
• Need statement
• Programs and services
• Fundraising plan
• Partnerships and collaborations
• Impact measurement

Set yourself up for success as a business owner

Building a good business plan serves as a roadmap you can use for your ecommerce business at launch and as you reach each of your business goals. Business plans create accountability for entrepreneurs and synergy among teams, regardless of your business model .

Kickstart your ecommerce business and set yourself up for success with an intentional business planning process—and with the sample business plans above to guide your own path.

Business plan examples FAQ

How do i write a simple business plan.

To write a simple business plan, begin with an executive summary that outlines your business and your plans. Follow this with sections detailing your company description, market analysis, organization and management structure, product or service, marketing and sales strategy, and financial projections. Each section should be concise and clearly illustrate your strategies and goals.

What is the best format to write a business plan?

The best business plan format presents your plan in a clear, organized manner, making it easier for potential investors to understand your business model and goals. Always begin with the executive summary and end with financial information or appendices for any additional data.

What are the 4 key elements of a business plan?

• Executive summary: A concise overview of the company’s mission, goals, target audience, and financial objectives.
• Business description: A description of the company’s purpose, operations, products and services, target markets, and competitive landscape.
• Market analysis: An analysis of the industry, market trends, potential customers, and competitors.
• Financial plan: A detailed description of the company’s financial forecasts and strategies.

What are the 3 main points of a business plan?

• Concept: Your concept should explain the purpose of your business and provide an overall summary of what you intend to accomplish.
• Contents: Your content should include details about the products and services you provide, your target market, and your competition.
• Cash flow: Your cash flow section should include information about your expected cash inflows and outflows, such as capital investments, operating costs, and revenue projections.

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As Strategy and Operations Leaders, we spend countless hours working across teams building the plan, tracking delivery of key initiatives, and reporting on the operating metrics deemed critical to the business. Yet year after year, one of the most surprising things we hear about with Strategic Planning is the lack of reflection on the execution of the plan itself.

For all that time spent building, tracking, and reporting, you’d think there would be an equal amount of time paid towards reflecting on how we did. 💁

Yet, the amount of organizations that do not have defined rituals for closing out and providing context to whether an Objective was successful or not never ceases to amaze me.

At Elate, one of the things we encourage every company to do before you even roll out your Strategic Plan is establish the operating rhythm for how you update, review, and take action on your plan . What we’ve seen is that the mutually agreed upon rituals - established at the Leadership level and communicated to the organization - build the necessary muscle to ensure a Strategic Plan doesn’t sit on the shelf collecting dust.

However, the operating rhythm can’t just entail Objectives in flight. These rituals need to outline when we close our Objectives and how we do so in a way that provides visibility into what went well and what didn’t.

Not only will this provide perspective on how we delivered on key initiatives from the past quarter, but it will also provide valuable insight into how we continue elevating the way we build our strategy in the first place.

As an example, we want to be able to create a strategic plan with conviction, with a firm idea on the percentage of Objectives we typically deliver on successfully as a business. We recommend that companies aim for 80%+ Objective Success.

Well, if we can build a plan with confidence, knowing that four out of five Objectives will be successful, then it gives us the conviction needed to ensure that our strategy leads to execution of our Operating Plan.

We specifically recommend aiming for 80%, rather than 100%. When teams focus on 100%, it tends to lead to setting more easily attainable goals, rather than challenging goals that really move the needle . Additionally, if you aim for 100%, the focus becomes too fixated on achieving every single goal come hell or high-water. This oftentimes can lead to missing out on opportunities that surface along the way, which could end up leading to bigger outcomes for your organization.

For context, most companies we work with are delivering on less than 45% of their Objectives before leveraging Elate. This might sound low, but the reality is that there are a few contributing factors.

First, most companies fail to reflect back on their previous quarters , identify the reasons for success of their Objectives, and apply those learnings to future quarters.

Whether it is because there were too many Objectives set in the first place or the assumptions that were modeled into the Objectives weren’t based on historical data, the truth is that most companies can’t tell why they underperformed in a given quarter because they aren’t doing retrospectives .

So knowing that closing out and reflecting on your Strategic Plan is critical to ongoing success, what does that mean for your company?

Let me tell you.

If you've already carved out time dedicated to reviewing this quarter’s Objectives and the annual Themes set by your company, then you are ahead of the curve. If you haven't set time, there is still time to close out the year well.

While the end of the year is a bit different, we recommend that companies close out Objectives between two weeks prior to the end of the quarter and no later than one week following. This gives us a three week timeframe to accurately close out Objectives with context as to why it was successful or fell short.

We recommend that as Objectives are closed out, they are reviewed in the standing weekly or bi-weekly team meetings. However, one important ingredient to the recipe for building upon your Strategic Planning process is to do a reflection of the first three quarters of your company’s performance as you go about setting your plan for the following year.

This will help provide perspective on the percentage of attainment across the organization in reaching your Objectives.

Remember, while we recommend aiming for 80% success, the reality is that this won’t happen overnight. But by tracking the success of your plan quarter over quarter, you will start to identify trends. From the right number of Objectives to own by department, team and individual, to the way you build in percentage increases in things like revenue targets or other goals, you will find that the review process of past performance sets the stage for the future strategy.

So with a month left to go in the year, take the time to communicate to the rest of your team that closing out Objectives should be something top of mind. While we recommend starting two weeks before the end of the year, you don’t have to wait if you’ve already delivered one of your Objectives. You can always close them out earlier.

And don’t forget to celebrate these Objectives . 🎉

Obviously, it’s easy to celebrate the wins and what went well. But don’t lose sight of the valuable learnings that come from those that fall a bit short. If you build this rhythm of review into your company’s planning, then folks will be much more apt to be okay falling a bit short, if we know why we did and what we can do about it.

In our second most popular Aspiring Ops episode Creating an Environment for Talent to Thrive , Dr. Bill Murphy nailed it on the head when he said, "It can't always be about hitting that goal... it's about what having that goal makes you do."

Listen to the full clip below.

For those companies that have already set your strategy for 2024 and Q1 Objectives, then it might be worth leveraging the findings from how this quarter ends to potentially make any final adjustments needed to your 2024 Plan.

Again, it’s not about saying "look at all of these amazing things we want to do next quarter!" It’s about the conviction that you’re building a plan that can be delivered upon and aligns with your operating plan for the coming year.

Hope this was helpful.

New Elation Nation Video 📽️

I'm delighted to share another Elation Nation video, this one featuring Megan Longo , Chief of Staff at Buildertrend .

Megan highlights Advanced Reporting and shares how she has been able to save hours of time by automating leadership roll-up reports, providing her executives with top headlines, status updates, and OKRs from each team every week.

Megan credits Elate as her right-hand tool and system of record that has enabled Buildertrend to feel confident today about strategic planning. I hope you enjoy!

A few resources you might be interested in 📚

• Strategic Planning 101 Hub - Links and downloadable content re: strat planning
• Building Objectives Spreadsheet Template - step-by-step guide on building the right Objectives
• Strategic Planning & Execution Playbook - tips on strat planning, objective building, and more.
• Dynamic Planning 101 - I've discussed in previous editions, but the traditional way of strategic planning is broken. Dynamic Planning is our philosophy at Elate, and you can learn more about it here.

That's all for today. Hope you're having a great week.

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Business Plan Evaluation

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What is Business Plan Evaluation?

A business plan evaluation is a critical process that involves the assessment of a business plan to determine its feasibility, viability, and potential for success. This process is crucial for entrepreneurs, investors, and other stakeholders as it helps them make informed decisions about the business. The evaluation process involves analyzing various aspects of the business plan, including the business model, market analysis, financial projections, and management team.

The purpose of a business plan evaluation is to identify strengths and weaknesses in the plan, assess the feasibility of the business idea, evaluate the potential for profitability, and determine the likelihood of achieving the business objectives. The evaluation process also helps identify areas where improvements can be made to enhance the chances of success. This process is particularly important for solopreneurs who are solely responsible for the success or failure of their business.

Importance of Business Plan Evaluation

The evaluation of a business plan is an essential step in the business planning process. It provides an opportunity for the entrepreneur to critically examine their business idea and identify potential challenges and opportunities . The evaluation process also provides valuable insights that can help improve the business plan and increase the chances of success.

For investors, a business plan evaluation is a crucial tool for risk assessment. It allows them to assess the viability of the business idea, the competence of the management team, and the potential for return on investment. This information is vital in making investment decisions.

For Solopreneurs

For solopreneurs, the evaluation of a business plan is particularly important. As they are solely responsible for the success or failure of their business, it is crucial that they thoroughly evaluate their business plan to ensure that it is feasible, viable, and has the potential to be profitable.

The evaluation process can help solopreneurs identify potential challenges and opportunities, assess the feasibility of their business idea, and determine the likelihood of achieving their business objectives. This information can be invaluable in helping them make informed decisions about their business.

For Investors

Investors use the evaluation process to determine whether or not to invest in a business. They look at various aspects of the business plan, including the business model, market analysis, financial projections, and management team, to assess the potential for success. If the evaluation reveals that the business plan is solid and has a high potential for success, the investor may decide to invest in the business.

Components of a Business Plan Evaluation

A business plan evaluation involves the analysis of various components of the business plan. These components include the executive summary, business description, market analysis, organization and management, product line or service, marketing and sales, and financial projections.

Each of these components plays a crucial role in the overall success of the business, and therefore, they must be thoroughly evaluated to ensure that they are realistic, achievable, and aligned with the business objectives.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is the first section of a business plan and provides a brief overview of the business. It includes information about the business concept, the business model, the target market, the competitive advantage, and the financial projections. The executive summary is often the first thing that investors read, and therefore, it must be compelling and persuasive.

In the evaluation process, the executive summary is assessed to determine whether it clearly and concisely presents the business idea and the plan for achieving the business objectives. The evaluator also assesses whether the executive summary is compelling and persuasive enough to attract the attention of investors.

Business Description

The business description provides detailed information about the business. It includes information about the nature of the business, the industry, the business model, the products or services, and the target market. The business description also provides information about the business's competitive advantage and how it plans to achieve its objectives.

In the evaluation process, the business description is assessed to determine whether it provides a clear and comprehensive description of the business. The evaluator also assesses whether the business description clearly outlines the business's competitive advantage and how it plans to achieve its objectives.

Methods of Business Plan Evaluation

There are several methods that can be used to evaluate a business plan. These methods include the SWOT analysis, the feasibility analysis, the competitive analysis, and the financial analysis. Each of these methods provides a different perspective on the business plan and can provide valuable insights into the potential for success.

It's important to note that no single method can provide a complete evaluation of a business plan. Therefore, it's recommended to use a combination of these methods to get a comprehensive understanding of the business plan.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that is used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to a business. This method involves examining the internal and external factors that can affect the success of the business.

In the evaluation process, a SWOT analysis can provide valuable insights into the potential for success of the business. It can help identify the strengths and weaknesses of the business plan, as well as the opportunities and threats in the market.

Feasibility Analysis

A feasibility analysis is a process that is used to determine whether a business idea is viable. This method involves assessing the practicality of the business idea and whether it can be successfully implemented.

In the evaluation process, a feasibility analysis can provide valuable insights into the feasibility of the business plan. It can help determine whether the business idea is practical and whether it can be successfully implemented.

In conclusion, a business plan evaluation is a critical process that involves the assessment of a business plan to determine its feasibility, viability, and potential for success. This process is crucial for entrepreneurs, investors, and other stakeholders as it helps them make informed decisions about the business.

The evaluation process involves analyzing various aspects of the business plan, including the business model, market analysis, financial projections, and management team. The purpose of a business plan evaluation is to identify strengths and weaknesses in the plan, assess the feasibility of the business idea, evaluate the potential for profitability, and determine the likelihood of achieving the business objectives.

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Why Business Owners Should Take Time to Reflect & Plan

Business owners have plenty on their to-do list each day. From marketing to product purchases, running a business is a time-consuming venture. Therefore, it’s easy to get caught up with the daily operations of your business. However, reflection and long-term planning are vital aspects to consider as a business owner. 

The following highlights why business owners should take time to reflect and plan and what could happen if they don’t. 

Risk of Not Taking Time to Reflect and Plan

If you don’t take the time to reflect on your business goals and plan for the future, your business may go in the wrong direction. With that said, your business may get off track, and you’ll lose customers and profits. Plus, you likely won’t gain as many new customers as you hope. With the right reflection and planning, you can envision where you want your business to go and take it there. 

Also, when you reflect on your business goals and plan how to achieve success, you’ll be a better leader. And if you have a team that looks up to you and trusts your leadership skills, this is everything! 

Benefits of Reflection and Planning

There are many benefits of reflection and planning in the day-to-day operations of your business. Here are some top benefits of proper planning and reflection:

Focus Creation

When you reflect on your business habits and goals and engage in continual planning, you’ll gain the focus you need to get the job done. If you’re unfocused, you may take your daily business operations in all different directions, which doesn’t make for a beneficial outcome. 

Risk Reduction

Also, when you engage in reflection and planning, you’ll reduce the risk of having your business fail. You’ll understand your strengths and weaknesses and use those to go forward in pursuit of opportunities while realizing the risks. 

Aids in Critical Thinking

Reflection and planning also help with critical thinking. When you improve your critical thinking skills through reflection and planning, you can keep your strategic priorities in mind and tweak those goals when necessary to do so. 

Improvement of Daily Decision-Making

When you reflect and plan in your business, your daily decision-making skills will improve. You’ll have more precise focus and direction, enabling you to take your business where it needs to go. 

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Reflecting On The Journey: Insights Into Business Plan Development

2,031 Words Published On: 27-10-2016

Hardest challenge faced in developing a business plan

Describe about the Personal Reflection On Business Plan Development?

Developing a business plan is an important step as it helps in considering important factors and future course of action for the business. A business plan is a written statement that has all the information that a business is expected to follow. A successful business plan is available developed on real life facts and assumptions. Therefore it is required to make in-depth research into various factors that may affects its profitability and credibility during the business application (Trevifio & Brown, 2004).

The hardest challenge that I faced when developing a business plan was specifying positioning. The positioning of the product needs to be done such that the customers notice the products and could easily place their orders using online medium. This way selecting the best method for positioning was a real hard challenge to develop. Positioning was done by selecting the most popular online websites that supports businesses including eBay and amazon. Thus the products were kept on sale through online medium. Also the positioning of the old books was made specifically for the low end product segment, wherein a discount of nearly 45% was offered to the customers. Along with that the free shipment of the product and flat courier service was offered to tempt the customers (Mintzberg, 1994). This way the positioning was featured by following issues.

The attraction of the customers towards new business is among the toughest job in the present day world. People are brand crazy and have their personal likes and thoughts on specific products. These customers can be attracted to new business only when they are offered something extra than others.

Competition:

The competition in the market is so hard that the customers are have great offers to surf before making purchase. The pricing, advertisement and backing of company brand name all has created so much completion for the new entrant that it is really hard to find a space in the market for new business set up.

Technology:

The technology used for placing orders and offering assistance to the customers is quickly changing. Due to this reason Amazon and ebay have become the best way to promote business The technology used by them is considered among the best and latest method of supporting business activities and meeting up to customer expectations.

Uncertainty:

A lot of uncertainty exists in the market. The trend of the customers changes every now and then. Therefore it is really hard to decide on the future of selling old books. Therefore its really hard to decide on investing in new business that is based on selling of old books.

A lot of investment is required while positioning a product online for sale. This is so because its really hard to predict the coming future demand from the customers. Therefore financing for inventory that places right products in right amount has to be decided in the business plan (Kickul & Neuman, 2000).

The reason behind the difficulties faced in developing a business plan includes the followings.

Attracting customers to new business

Unrealistic assumptions:

The business plan is actually based on assumptions. Now any of these assumptions can proved unrealistic in the real world. The customer trend, choice and market acceptance to new entrants all may face either no acceptance or more than just acceptance. Therefore the assumptions may prove to be unrealistic while developing a business plan.

Inadequate research.

A business plan requires a lot of research. Lack or inadequate research may lead to issues and problems in application and non-realistic decisions can be achieved. Hence the business plan developed requires more in-depth knowledge and research which has actually made the business plan more challenging to developed.

Balancing quality with growth:

It is rather a difficult task to balance quality with growth. Thus in a business we can only assume to maintain quality with growth but in reality its really hard to manage for finance, cut down profits and balance quality (Fisk, 2010).

The best way to overcome these challenges is by following a certain criteria for developing a business plan stated as below.

Stage I: Identifying the various options available to the business.

At this first stage the various options available to the business are identified. These includes the opportunities available in online selling, creating brand image, placing products and services in the market, fair pricing, offering huge discounts and offers etc. This way identification of the best option out of the various other options is done in this stage.

Stage II: Measuring the feasibility of each option to the business:

Measuring of each options separately and calculating its feasibility is another step. This way the options available to the business are measured in terms of benefit, profit and outcome that could be expected.

Stage III: Realizing the targets of the business.

The targets of the business need to be realized before making any selection out of the possible options available. This way the business terms, products, services, market capture etc. all needs to be realized.

Stage IV: Selecting the best option for the business:

The selection of the best options that suits the requirements should be done for the business. The business plan initiation should be made with due consideration of the opportunities available. All the factors and features should be considered while selecting and preparing for the business plan.

Stage V: Developing the business plan:

The process of developing a business plan based on the selected options should be initiated at this step. The business plan should be developed in details considering various factors that may affect the business. Various real life assumptions should also be made while developing the business plan.

Stage VI: Making a pilot application of the business plan:

The pilot application of the business plan will help in getting more near to reality. This will help in realizing that if the business plan is actually inconformity with the real world.

Stage VII: Considering feedback and suggestions.

The discussions, identifying customers’ expectations, considering feedbacks, thoughts and suggestions etc. all can help in deciding on the methods that could be used on the application of the business plan.

Competition

Stage VIII: Reaching out to the best conclusion.

The best conclusion can be reached out while carefully and fairly deciding on the feedbacks and suggestions that has been received through discussions.

Stage IX: Making appropriate changes in the business plan:

The suitable and most appropriate changes in the business plan needs to be done at this stage so that the business plan comes more near to reality. This way the assumptions that may prove incorrect should be removed and suggestions in pilot survey should be applied.

Stage X: Finalizing the business plan:

The finalizing of the business plan should be done at this stage after making all required changes in the business plan. The finalization of the business plan can be done by writing in details the information that will be followed. Also due consideration to all aspects needs to be given in the business plan (Crane & Matten, 2003).

The most important lesson that I learnt after developing a business plan as an entrepreneur is that it is very easy and simple to talk about business ideas and yet very hard develop. This is because of the following pre-requisites that needs to be considered while developing a successful business idea.

Writing down everything:

A business plan should be well written. It should cover everything that could bring out successful application for the business. Writing a business plan also helps in discussing the motives with experts so that the changes can be brought in through suggestions and feedback. Also it helps in describing the actual objective of the business and deciding proper plan of action that it has to follow.

Considering various factors seriously:

Various factors should be considered seriously in the business plan. This includes the factors that may affect the business like competitor response, customer trend, product pricing policy etc.

Making realistic assumptions:

Making realistic assumptions helps the business plan to stay in alignment with the real world. Thus whatever we assume may not prove correct but through the realistic assumptions we can formulate a business plan that actually considers real life issues and problems.

Taking important decisions in advance.

A business plan helps in deciding on the important decisions. This way it gives enough time to think, consider and reconsider on various issues and problem so that on time decisions can be taken which could actually help achieve the desired goal and targets for the business.

Making early plans for dealing with competitions.

Business plan if developed carefully could help in making early plans for dealing with the competition. This way the company could easily expect on the market response and decide on the actions that can be taken to fight back competitor’s policy.

Keeping target of achieving customer satisfaction:

Business plan helps in deciding on the customers response from the business. This way the target of achieving customers satisfaction during the actual application of business plan can be decided. Therefore the business policy, motives and plan can be developed such that the customer expectations can be met.

Focusing on improving business:

The focus on improving the business while meeting its objectives can be targeted through the business plan. Therefore the various stages of business can be identified and the most suitable action plan that will help achieve estimated goals and targets can be achieved.

Estimating goals and targets for the business:

Estimating of goals and targets for the business can be done by developing a business plan that considers all factors. The business plan therefore could help in deciding the target growth and development that a business should achieve within a limited time frame.

Considering for unforeseen contingencies:

The business plan should make arrangements for the unforeseen contingencies that may rise due to any reason. The unforeseen contingencies can include requirement for finance, changing customer trend and behavior, increasing competition in the market, competitive pricing by the competitor etc. Thus to fight back the real life situations the action plans should be developed well in advance so that the business could deal easily with this issues and problems that may rise in future. Through business plan enough consideration and time can be given on deciding the action plan that could be followed in a particular situation (Chopra & Meindl, 2001).

Conclusion:

In the end, the business plan should reflect the future course of action that a company may follow so that the desired outcome is finally achieved. The business plan should be developed on real notions and assumptions so that the application becomes easier. A successful business plan is that which considers all the factors that has been learnt while preparing business plan. The best thing that I learnt from the business plan formulation process is that everything needs to be planned and considered so that the desired outcome is achieved. The options for unforeseen contingencies and applications that may affect the business should also be kept open. The various factors that could affect the business should be identified. Finally making real life assumptions can help in deciding the best course of action that the business could follow while the application of the business plans (Atkinson & Miller, 1998).

Atkinson, B. & Miller, R., 1998. Business Economics. Harlow: Princeton Hall.

Chopra, S. & Meindl, P., 2001. Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning and Operation. 1st ed. New Jersey: Princeton Hall.

Crane, A. & Matten, D., 2003. Business Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fisk, P., 2010. People, Planet, Profit: How to Embrace Sustainability for Innovation and Business growth. Kogan Page.

Kickul, J. & Neuman, G., 2000. "Emergence leadership behaviors: The function of personality and cognitive ability in determining teamwork performance and KSAs". Journal of Business and Psychology, 15, pp.27-51.

Mintzberg, H., 1994. The rise and fall of strategic planning: Reconceiving roles for planning, plans, planners. Toronto: Free Press.

Trevifio, L.K. & Brown, M.E., 2004. Managing to be ethical: Debunking five business ethics myths. Academy of Management Executive., 18(2), pp.69-81.

Waldman, D., 2006. Cultural and Leadership predictors of corporate social responsibility values of top managment: A Globe study of 15 countries. Journal of International business studies., 37(6), pp.823-97.

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