Business planning can never be truly outsourced. If a contractor or consultant is brought into the process they may be allowed to take the lead, but the work will still require extensive collaboration between the entrepreneur or business managers and the contracted firm. This collaboration process will take a different shape depending on the specific firm you are working with, but should include these important stages: 

Interview Stage

After a contract has been signed (and perhaps even before) interviewing will occur where the consultant attempts to gather as much business information directly from the entrepreneurs or managers as possible. If there are multiple managers or founders, they will look to reconcile their different accounts of what the business is attempting to do and make the team aware of significant divergences. 

Research Stage

With the interview information as background, the consultant can now use a wide range of resources to find supporting data and statistics for the business plan. This will become the basis of the industry/market, customer, and competitive analysis sections of the plan. This is work that can primarily be done by the consultant or consultants on their own. However, the client should keep an eye on the process, getting updates on findings at various intervals so they can offer input rather than simply a huge report at the end of the research process. 

Strategy Consulting Stage

With a better idea of the market situation, the consultant is now in a position to help the client craft a better strategy. High quality consultants will not simply accept the business’s strategy as dictated, but will bring their own understanding of business strategy to the table at this point. Discussions between the two parties will be important to the process at this stage. 

Outlining and Drafting Stage

With strategy and the basic information for the business plan now in hand, the consultant can outline the basic business plan. A draft of the plan will next be created which should serve as a point of additional discussion if necessary. 

Completion Stage

Finally, the plan is proofread and copy edited. Appropriate graphics, such as charts, graphs, and logos are inserted to better illustrate what is being said. The business plan consultant should provide directions as to how the plan should be printed and perhaps even how and to whom it should be presented.

If you plan to start your own dental business, a dental business plan is a necessity. And if your practice has been up and running for a while, but you’ve never taken the time to write a business plan, now is as good a time as any.

A dental business plan is basically an organized and documented recipe for how you want your practice to run. It is the outline for your business and should be very detailed. Here are some of the basic sections that should be included in your dental business plan.

Day to Day Operations of Your Dental Business

Determine how you want to run your dental business. How many dental staff members are you going to need to keep things in operation? How many hours a week will they work and for what pay? What time will your dental practice open and what time will you close? Include things such as lunch breaks, off days, and emergency hour planning.

Supplies Needed for Your Dental Business

Determine all the necessary supplies that you will need to run your practice. For disposable items, count at least a month’s supply. Remember that it is better to over plan than to under plan. You do not want to run out of something you need in the middle of a Friday afternoon while you have a patient in your chair with her mouth wide open. This can be catastrophic for your dental business.

Payments Accepted

What sort of payments will you be accepting? Are you going to accept credit cards, checks, and cash or just one or two? What insurance will your dental business accept? Be sure to add the cost of any special equipment needed to process checks and credit cards in with your supply list.

Fees You Will Charge

You’ve figured out how people are going to pay, now what are you going to charge them? Make a basic list of fees. Use the cost of labor and supplies to determine how much a certain procedure will cost. And be sure to do some competitive research.

Dental Practice Earning Potential

Do some research to find out, with all the other information gathered, how much your business is likely to earn in a given month. Be sure to subtract your fees from the total earning potential in order to make sure you aren’t planning to pay too much for something or charge too little. Also be certain to determine the cost of advertising.

With your dental practice, like any other business, you may not pull a profit the first few months. Some small dental practices do not even pull a profit the first year. You have to be prepared for this. You also have to make sure that this is because you are still working on gathering patients and not as a result of bad planning.

Paying for Your Dental Business

Once you have all these numbers you need to determine how you are going to get the start up investment for your dental practice. Are you going to use credit cards? Get investors? Go to a bank? Should you apply for a loan you will probably have to show your business plan, so be sure to tweak any mistakes.

Creating a plan is a great first step in starting your new dental business, or growing your existing dental practice. So set aside a few hours in your schedule an begin developing your business plan today.

There is a general idea about how to make a business plan, which is why the appearance of business plans remain the same for all times. However, whether a business plan is acceptable or not depends on the inclusion or not of certain ingredients necessary for its success.

Since one of the purposes of your business plan is fund raising and because your business plan will be reviewed by those you seek fund from, it is better to stay with a conventional format and the normal decision making components of a good business plan, if not your reviewers may see no reason to go ahead with the review.

Write Your Executive Summary Section Properly

The executive summary section of your business plan is like the preamble or synopsis of your business plan, which is why it should be well written. If the attention of your audience is not grabbed the reading of your business plan may be aborted. Write your summary with very powerful words that simply make clear what you are leading to in a short and very easy to understand language.

If your executive summary is impressive you are surely getting the reviewers on the side of your presentation by impressing them with points that show that your business will make profit.

A clearly written summary will most probably get the reviewers approval. A well written analysis of the potentials of your target market, the amount of capital you are looking for to take advantage of the market, expected proceeds from sales projections and your repayment plan therefrom are all the hallmarks of an excellent executive summary.

Introduce Your Business

Here is where you give more details about your company: The registered name, business premises address and more description of the nature of your business. Your reviewers are not going to rack their brains to understand you, so write simple and easy to understand statements of facts that need no thinking to understand. There is no point to speak a language your reviewers will not understand, if your company is technical, use ordinarily words that your reviewers will understand..

Clearly Analyze Your Market

This is where your reviewers will quickly appraise your knowledge of the market and business for which you are looking for funds. If you have done your homework, your analysis of the market will glow before them like a sun in splendor. Here you are just adding more shine to what you said at the executive summary. It is your marketing plan that you present here.

Funding, Your Source Of Expected Income And Your Financial Contribution

This is where you talk about company policy, strategies for beating competition using well researched market information etc. Also, you have to include your own monetary contribution in this section.

In closing, you showcase your management team – depending on your type of business, this is about your organizational structure. If you company is a limited one, the resumes of your key members of staff should be included for your reviewers to see. Now need I tell you that only relevant personnel should be presented as members of staff. The is how to make a business plan that works.