The business plan never gets stagnant. It is dynamic and goes on changing throughout the business’s life. Therefore, it must be updated at least twice a year. Did you know that many business owners change their plans every quarter of a year? You should do the same.
This sort of a methodical approach can help you keep a check on your progress. For example, if you look at the projected milestones towards the goal and list out the ones you have achieved and the ones you haven’t, you will be able to a set an accurate time limit for reaching these milestones.
You might come across aspects of the initial plan that haven’t worked out and thus need to be changed or gotten rid of completely. At the same time, you might see just where you have achieved beyond expectations. Again if the sales from catalogs have turned out to be far better than expected, you would want to change the plan to emphasize more on catalogs, perhaps get it published twice or three times a year instead of what the usual plan was.
Once you have your plan in front of you, you can check if your financial projections have been achieved or exceeded. This helps you to find other ways to change the sales and marketing strategies or maintain the status quo. Not only can you change your plan to guide you, but you can add new products line or a new service, alter your plan to show a different method of operations.
Again an Example, you may call for an increase in the number of orders just so you can serve the clients or customers better or something else of the kind to help out the business to work smoothly and bring in more profits. Businesses have to forcefully make changes due to a number of external factors and they should be included in the business plan.
You may wish to read more at: Sample Business Plans and Business Plan Templates.