Given the drastic changes in technology as well as the market place, businesses are changing and progressing really fast. The only way to match this pace is to have a strategically oriented plan in place that will help you create a direction for this change. You may not be able to control the pace but you can at least chalk out the road on which it progresses!

Hiring a business consultant can prove to be extremely helpful in such situations. While most of us assume that hiring business consultants is just an additional expenditure that business owners must avoid, this is a misconception. Business consultants are seasoned experts who are familiar with the several situations pertaining to an organization and its growth. Their experience and expertise can come in extremely handy especially in the present day recessionary scenario.

Here are four reasons why hiring a business planning consultant can be a great move for your organization.

Fill in for full time staff

As part of your expansion process, you may have handed out pink slips to several employees whose services are not needed full time. You can easily ask business consultants to step in and fill in for them on occasions where you need their services. This way you can save money and avoid hiring staff on a full time basis. Also, hiring consultants ensures that you are investing in quality and expertise that will lead to the welfare of your business.

Hiring and firing

Your business is not doing so well and you need to downsize but the challenge lies in figuring out who to keep and who to get rid of. As the business owner, you may be accused of having a biased opinion and not be able to look at the multiple aspects surrounding the issue. However, hiring a business consultant can help you avoid such problems. Being outside the organization, the business consultant will be able to analyse the utility of every staff member more accurately and therefore take better decisions.

Better equipped to understand better

You are handling your own business but a consultant has the rare privilege of handling multiple clients. In simple terms, you are figuring out the solution to one problem but a consultant may be battling the same situation in different businesses across categories. This gives him or her, a stronger ability to identify the solution and several other impacts of the problem that may be hidden from your eye.

Fresh perspective

There are situations when the solution to the problem is just round the corner but we are so obsessed with the impact that we rarely notice the simple details. However, bringing a consultant on board will infuse a fresh perspective to the entire issue making it easier for the solution to be identified.

The recession has hit two groups disproportionately: the over-50s and the under 20s. The over 50s are increasingly turning to self-employment as employers are often blind to their talents and experience and find jobs increasingly hard to find and eBusiness, trading on the internet, is ideal for those with skills to sell.

But our generation is the last generation for whom the computer and the internet were an ‘optional extra’ for our formative years.

So does my eBusiness, with its low start up costs, its access to a world-wide market, really need a business plan? Wouldn’t it simply waste time and effort better used to launch a business?

Well, if you’re simply going to sell off the junk in your loft and garage on eBay then a business plan would be a waste, but if you’re thinking about earning a sensible living this way then you’d better give your business plan some serious thought. And that’s the point: the process of thinking out the business plan is probably as valuable as the plan itself.

In working on the business plan of a youth organisation providing youth clubs to a deprived group of children it seemed enough to make shelter, organised games and access to the internet but what was the real purpose of the organisation. Well their results are confidential but one could suppose that providing 1. positive role models to young lives, 2. a sense of stability in a chaotic world, and 3. a view beyond their immediate cultural surroundings, might figure in any list of objectives.

We came to see that the pool tables, the computer terminals, the leadership were the ‘inputs’ to the system, the ‘outputs’ the organisation was trying to achieve were quite different, and our recruitment policy moved away from seeking active, fun-loving young people towards more mature motherly types likely to stick around for the long term.

The Business Planning process helps the entrepreneur to focus, to ask the right questions.

1. What is my business? What does it do? Who does it do it for? To what end?
2. Who are my competitors? How strong are they? Have they left a gap in the market I can fill?
3. How will I sell my goods or my services? How will my customers come to me?
4. When my business takes off, how will I exploit it? What will that cost?
5. How I deliver my goods or my services, where will I buy in my products, store them? How will I organise my business, keep my books?
6. How much money will I need? Where will I get it?

On this last point, if you’re using your own money, think of yourself as your own banker and ask when will I make a profit, and what is the cost of failure?

So, even if you never write down your answers the process of thinking them through will make your start up better organised and targeted.

Better to ‘waste’ a few days in some basic research than to waste a few months on following the wrong trail. It may be your own money, but you can only spend it once, and when it is gone…

A recent study of 29,000 business startups noted that 26,000 of them failed. Of those failures, 67% had no written business plan. Think that’s a coincidence?

Here’s the top 10 myths Solo Entrepreneurs often have about business plans-usually, the reasons why they don’t have one. De-bunk the myths, and see how having a business plan for your solo business, can actually be easy and fun–and can jumpstart your success!

1. Myth: I don’t need a business plan–it’s just me!

Starting a business without a plan is like taking a trip in a foreign country without a map. You might have a lot of fun along the way, and meet a lot of friends, but you are likely to end up at a very different place than you originally set out for-and you might have to phone home for funds for your return ticket.

Solo Entrepreneur Reality: Successful Solo Entrepreneurs know that the exercise of creating a plan for their business really helps them think through all the critical aspects of running a business, make better business decisions, and get to profitability sooner.

2. Myth: I have to buy business plan software before I can start.

Business plan software comes in many shapes and sizes, and prices. Many are more geared at small and growing businesses with employees.

Solo Entrepreneur Reality: Software can be helpful-but it’s not required. Software is more likely to help if you have a more traditional type business, like a restaurant or a typical consulting business.

3. Myth: I need to hire a consultant to write my business plan.

Consultants are expensive and don’t really know as much about your business as you do!

Solo Entrepreneur Reality: Your business IS you-and you need to be intimately involved with the creation of your business plan. A better strategy, if you think you need professional help, is to hire a coach or mentor-someone who can guide you in what you need to do, not do it for you.

4. Myth: The business plan templates I’ve seen have all these complex-sounding sections to them-I guess I need all those?

The only time you need to follow a specific outline is if you are looking for funding.

Solo Entrepreneur Reality: Your business plan needs to answer ten basic questions-that’s it! Don’t make things more complicated than necessary.

5. Myth: My business plan needs to be perfect before I can start my business.

If you wait for everything to be perfectly detailed, you may never start.

Solo Entrepreneur Reality: If you have at least a first draft that answers those ten basic questions, you are ready to launch your business! Make your business plan a living, evolving document. In the startup stages, review and update your plan every 2-3 months. As you grow and stabilize, you can slow down the review cycle to every 6-12 months. All business plans should be reviewed and updated at least once a year.

6. Myth: I have to do everything I say I’m going to do in my business plan, or I’m a failure.

Many Solo Entrepreneurs never start because of this myth-which leaves them feeling that the success of their future business suddenly rides on each stroke of the pen or click of the keyboard!

Solo Entrepreneur Reality: Think of your business plan as a roadmap for a trip. Expect to take some detours for road construction. Be flexible enough to take some exciting, unplanned side trips. And don’t be surprised if instead of visiting Mount Rushmore, you decide to go to Yellowstone, if that turns out to meet your vacation goals better!

7. Myth: A good business plan has a nice cover, is at least 40 pages long, must be typed and double-spaced…

Business plans intended for investors, such as a bank or venture capitalist, must meet certain requirements that such investors expect.

Solo Entrepreneur Reality: As a Solo Entrepreneur, your business plan need only satisfy YOU. It might be scribbled on a napkin, on stickie notes on your wall, or consist of a collage of pictures and captions. It might be all in one document or scattered among several mediums. As long as you know it in your head and heart without having to look at it, and and it is easily accessible to you when you have doubts, that’s all that is necessary.

8. Myth: I don’t need a loan-so I don’t need a business plan.

YOU are the investor in your business-and would you invest in the stock of some company without seeing a prospectus?

Solo Entrepreneur Reality: Seeing your plan in black and white (or color, if you prefer!), can give a whole new view on the financial viability of your business. If “doing the numbers” seems overwhelming, remember you don’t need fancy spreadsheets. Just lay out a budget that shows where all the money is coming from (and going), and have an accountant review it for additional perspective.

9. Myth: My business plan is in my head-that’s good enough.

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes can’t remember what I planned yesterday to do tomorrow, if I don’t write it down!

Solo Entrepreneur Reality: There is a real power in writing down your plans. Some schools of thought advocate that the act of writing a plan down triggers our subconscious to start working on how to manifest that plan. And, of course, it’s a lot easier to remember when you have it in front of you. And a lot easier to share and get feedback from your non-mind reading supporters.

10. Myth: Friends and family are the best sources of feedback and advice on my business plan.

If your brother is an accountant and your best friend is a market research expert, then this might be true.

Solo Entrepreneur Reality: As well meaning as our friends and family can often be, they just aren’t the best way to get honest, objective guidance. Instead, seek out folks that have specific knowledge that will help you, are willing to be candid with you, and that have a genuine interest in helping you succeed. A business coach is one resource to consider!