Business Planning
Your Business Vehicle
Being in business is a journey, not a destination. To make that journey to your chosen destination you need a suitable business vehicle. Here are the crucial parts of your business vehicle that will give structure to your Business Plan. Click on the various parts for detailed explanations.
No matter how good a driver you may be, how well you know the route, or how quickly you can load and unload the vehicle, if you fail to put
- fuel in the tank,
- air in the tyres,
- oil in the engine,
- water in the radiator, and
- adequately maintain and service the vehicle,
it will soon grind to a halt.
You’ll go nowhere.
Sadly, this is the case with most small business owners. They’re good drivers — plumbers, hairdressers, retailers, lawyers, accountants, printers or whatever their trade or profession may be — but they haven’t a clue what’s required to maintain and manage their vehicles. So they rarely make it to their chosen destinations.
Click on any item or caption for more details.
*Key Competitive Edge is the name we use in preference to “Sustainable Competitive Advantage”… the stodgy, traditional perspective that results in equally stodgy, traditional attitudes and outcomes.
We suspect the term was created by either a BIG business accountant or an academic. One thing’s for certain — it was NOT coined by a marketer! See the comments on “Production Mentality versus Marketing Mentality”.
By the way, did you ever hear the saying “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”? It’s not true… the Law of Diminishing Returns ensures that you’ll actually get LESS than you’ve always got.
