Return On Investment (ROI) On Writing A Business Plan

People are actually asking two questions

when they ask “What’s the return on investment for writing a business plan?”

“WHY should I write a business plan?
What’s it going to cost me?”

Others ask for “numbers from other companies that show what kind of return they made on their business plan”. As if they could then extrapolate those same returns to their own business. That’s like comparing mutual funds – they are all mutual funds, but they are all managed differently with differing clientele, investment strategies, management philosophies, fee structures and holdings. Try and compare apples and apples with them! There are just too many variables between companies to compare plan writing results. Whenever I ask clients, consultants, or others that have written and followed a business plan, they do tell me that their numbers have gotten better often beyond their expectations.

That said, there is a way to determine an ROI on your business plan.

For those that truly do seek the magic formula, we can help you with that as well, BUT, in order to do that you still need to understand:

WHAT a business plan is
HOW it affects your organization
resulting in WHY you need one

Only then will you really understand their effect, and how they help you actually save money as well as make money.

Remember this: Ultimately the purpose of a business is to affect the decision making process.

I have written a four part series based on live work with a clients’ permission to talk in general terms about the process and the numbers. Here are links to the series of articles. I will make them ‘live’ as the posts are uploaded.