Why do I need a business plan?
Learn about why it's important to have an aesthetics business plan in place
Whether you are just starting out or have been running your aesthetics practice for a while, business planning is key to establishing a sustainable, profitable and successful business.
A business plan is a bit like a compass or sat nav for your business. It helps you identify and formulate your goals, navigate through them and adjust course if necessary.
It provides a flexible structure and a framework to refer back to, helping you track your progress as your business grows. It also helps you spot potential problems before they arise – forewarned is forearmed.
A business plan is essential when it comes to securing investment or a loan from the bank, but you can also use it to let potential stakeholders know about your plans and encourage customers, suppliers and potential employees to support your ideas.
What’s more, investing time in creating a strong business plan can make you feel more accountable and committed to achieving your goals. You can even include your team in the process if you are making plans to grow the business so they can get behind you and share in your success.
Every new start-up business has a business plan, whether it’s in their head or whether it’s written down. If you write down a business plan, it gives you the ability to keep looking back to see how the progress of your business is actually going.
It's good practice to start taking the information that you’ve got in your mind and put it down on paper. The reason I write everything down, and I have done since day one almost 30 years ago, is that I can refer back to it. This plan isn’t going to be where you are now and where you’re going to be forever. The whole point of the business plan is that you’re reviewing it. It’s a living document and it should be changing every 12-24 months. In certain businesses, it can change every quarter. I would always suggest reviewing it annually.Written business plans also come into their own when you’re looking for funding, so if you have to borrow money, then of course, a bank manager will want to see something in writing that demonstrates you’ve thought about all of the issues that will make a successful business.
