I write this with a wry smile. If like me, you are a small business owner with kids, commitments, and more day to day work than you can fit in, then the chances are then your business plan is unfinished, out of date or permanently on your things-to-do list.

Ok, let’s take it back a step, do you have a business plan, and if you do, is it current? Does it really reflect where you are and where you’re going?

We spent a very long time writing our business plan when we first started working together; an incredibly worthwhile experience, it helped us focus our business and work towards jointly set targets. We then revisited the plan a year later, undertook the same exercise and gained value from it again.

In the meantime however there were many opportunities that came our way and decisions  to be made that were totally out of the blue and unexpected. The outcomes of those decisions then completely altered the focus and direction of the business. The result was that when we came to revisit our business plan, only one year later it bore no resemblance whatsoever to our business!

Therefore, when rewriting the business plan, we decided to build a dynamic element into it. The business will change, choices we make will alter its course, targets will shift, and opportunities will present themselves. We don’t have the time to rewrite the plan every time this happens, but in addition we don’t want to turn away an opportunity because it doesn’t fit into our rigid plan.

There are many different authoritative guides that will tell you how you should write this plan, but if they don’t work for you, what do you do? You rewrite the guide!

We have changed our approach to our annual plan - instead of a rigid plan we consider it to be a dynamic structure that can alter and thus always reflect the current business direction.

Every new opportunity that crops up has implications and impacts all areas of the business, which we would possibly not consider unless we think about it in terms of the business plan - what does this mean for resources, staffing, future planning, what new opportunities or weaknesses does this change represent?

We are lucky that Mamut provide a business plan writing tool, that allows us to make changes on the hoof, that will restructure and produce a professional document. But more importantly, our plan reflects our business right now, and our goals, targets and aims are always current.

So is your business plan dynamic, does it allow for on the hoof amendments? I can recommend it, and best of all when it comes to the annual revision, the job is much less daunting!