Objectives and Policies

Objectives and policies of the company (3-5 pages)

The vision is great, as it provides the compass. Now it is time to break that down into your 1 year, 3 year and 5 year objectives. What are the specific goals you seek to achieve. This is the place for those.

Also, what are your core policies within the company? For most companies, the policies reflect the core values of the owners. You will naturally attract people to your organization whose core values are in alignment with yours. However, if those core values are only intuitive rather than conscious, this could be a relatively painful process, with much trial and error involved. By clarifying your policies (and your core values) for yourself, you make these consciously accessible, and may then use them in your hiring efforts, but also as a guide to support you in the growth and development of your people as your business grows.

Organization and Management

Organization and Management of the company (type of company, legal basis, ownership, organization chart, etc.) (4-6 pages)

What are (will be) the logistics of the legal framework of your company? This impacts a number of factors, from your legal status, your tax status and even possibly how you do your banking. If there is more than one owner, you will be sorting out how the ownership interests will work. This may include decision-making processes and dispute resolution systems as well.

To support this, the organization chart, with the lines of authority clearly established, addresses issues before they ever become issues. Too often we are brought into situations to mediate where these had never been discussed. I promise you it is a lot easier to sort these out before a business grows too much, rather than leave them and wait until the problems arise.

When my family owned an English Mastiff, we saw this phenomenon in training big dogs. The key is to get the training, including the lines of authority clearly established before the dog gains weight. At the age of 3, buddy was 210 pounds with a 31” neck. Yet a 40 pound child could walk him. This only happened because of the training he received at 11 weeks old and 32 pounds.

Lines of authority for your business are no different. Things go far more smoothly when they are established right up front. When you write them down and share them with the others who are affected, this has a significant difference on organizational effectiveness for many years to come.

Regarding the Organization Chart, I would recommend that you not only build the current one, but also the one you hope to grow into, over the next 3 to 5 years. This will give you access to planning at a whole different level.

Who will be on your management team, as you grow? One of the areas that outsiders look at most closely when deciding whether or not to fund new and growing ventures is the depth and experience of the management team. Even if you are not seeking external funds, how might you get the best possible brains working on your team, in key roles that will allow you to meet your targets for growth and profit?

Assumptions

Main assumptions of company operations for the next five years (economic, legal, political, resources, technological, competitive, etc.) (3-5 pages)

In this next segment of your business plan, you need to identify what are the assumptions that you are making about the world in which you operate. These are often overlooked. Many times we don’t realize we are making assumptions. Then, if one of these parameters changes, we get surprised, and sometimes, can’t even figure out why the business is not going as planned.

By actively listing your assumptions up front, you will be able to watch them, and correct your course if any of the assumptions changes, or turns out not to be true.

Much of the success within a business stems from clarity. One of the biggest areas where this plays, yet is assumed and ignored, is where you are now. At any given point in time, you need to be crystal clear on all the aspects of your environmental landscape. Am I about to walk into two inch deep mud, or three feet of quick-sand? Where I am and what is around me always impacts my decisions. The same is true for you. Don’t underestimate the power of being clear on what you are assuming.

…End of Part 4