Writing a business plan is not a means to an end. Your goal should be to write one that wins over investors, penetrates the market, makes money, and grows your business. With that said, it’s essential to know which key elements, including marketing methods and business processes, are critical to being successful in a given market.
One of the best ways to start is by researching, examining, and collating all the information you can find about your competitors’ methods of doing business. But keep this in mind. While there are many competitors, not all of them are truly successful in the marketplace. Some simply stay afloat on a shallow stream of cash flow. Others are slowing down, burdened with debt and about to go under. While some may be on the coast, well grounded, in the green and growing.
While there is something to learn from every company, your focus should be primarily on those that are truly successful. Study companies that have a proven track record for generating revenue streams and target revenue. Now the big question – How do you access another company’s business plan?
The reliability of public data
Once companies have gone public, they must post data analysis to investors and make it available through other public places. It is true that much of this information is strung together with generalities and inaccuracies. Relying on public data may not give you a real inside view of the company’s business process model or a real understanding of what makes it tick. But it is a start. There are four additional methods to learn the internal parts of the business process of a successful company:
1. Work for them
2. Work with them
3. Know someone who does one of the above
4. Get your hands on your initial business plan, as well as any revisions.
Accessing the Plan
While the latter would appear to be the easiest approach of the four, there still remains the question of how to access the plan. Companies document, review, and share their business plans with staff, the media, and in press releases. Parts of the plan appear in sales copies and human resources materials. That being said, the data ends up easily available to the person who knows how to access it. There are business plan archives that take the time to collect business plan data from companies that have published data over time. The goal is to produce a comprehensive business plan that is a mirror image of the company’s success, revealing proven methods that helped the company penetrate the market, win business, and grow.
Learning Strategic Growth Techniques from Competitors
The value of studying a prewritten and executed business plan that wins business is simple. You’re putting yourself in the shoes of successful business professionals and competitors who know the marketing strategies that grow a business. You are learning their strategy, technique, and trading process from scratch.
Once you have the plan in hand, read through the mission statement and goals. Familiarize yourself with the positioning of the company. Learn how the competitor strategizes to penetrate the market. Consider the established business process, including the various departments, staff demographics, procedural documentation and communication methods, the information cascade between departments, and maintaining quality employee relationships. Take the time to examine the background, education, experience, and other credentials of team members. Find out what makes that team tick and why the team’s efforts work.
Seeing the market through the eagle’s eye
With your competitors’ business plans, you get a bird’s-eye view of the market and a clear plan to penetrate and capture various segments and niches. With an inside view of the business process, you can examine the scale and dimensions of a working business model from which to build your own model. Designing your own business model becomes less abstract, less complex and much more complete. Also, understanding the inner workings of the business process makes it much more manageable.
So before you write a business plan to help you market, manage, and grow your business, take the time to access the winning business plan of your most successful competitors and learn the key elements that led to your success. Over time, you’ll have a plan for yourself that wins over investors, penetrates the market, makes money, and grows your business.