Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

In my A-Z series on Internet marketing, we’re up to the letter B. I thought a good topic would be business planning. Why do I feel that way? Well, let me put it to you this way. Trying to market without a business plan is like trying to get a date with a super model when you look like Quasi Moto. My apologies to the hunchbacks of the world. Anyway, this article is going to talk about business planning, what it is, what it consists of and why it’s important. So I hope you’re taking notes.

Let’s start with what business planning is, because a lot of people really don’t understand this. Business planning, according to the dictionary, encompasses all the goals, strategies and actions that you envision taking to ensure your business’s survival and growth. So, you need to have goals (how much you want to make, plan to spend), strategies (how you’re going to spend this money, what market to tackle) and finally you must take action (where to advertise, what products to create or sell, etc.) So as you can see, business planning encompasses a lot of things.

Okay, we’ve covered what it is and, in sense, what it consists of, all in one shot. But, and this is probably the most important part…why is it important? I mean do you REALLY need a business plan to succeed? Are there people out there without a business plan who are having success? I’m sure if you looked hard enough, you would find some folks who maybe put up a blog with some affiliate product reviews, wrote a few articles, submitted them to directories, and maybe took out a solo ad or two once in a while who ARE having some success online. They may even be making a decent amount of money…in their eyes.

But that of course brings us to this question…is what I just described, in a way, a business plan? If the person was doing this consistently, had it all thought out, and decided that this was how they wanted to make money online, one could argue that this is indeed a business plan. Business plans are not written in stone. However, they all have one thing in common. They are all thought through…from the simplest to the most complex.

So by all means, if your business plan is nothing more than just putting up a blog and selling some affiliate products, then that’s fine. Just make sure that simple plan is thought carefully through in order to get the most out of it.

One man’s junk pile may just be another man’s business plan.

It’s all how you look at it.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Looking for a solid 4 step plan to building your own business…FREE? Pick up my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/4steps.html and get started TODAY!