Establishing your business

Final remarks

Implementing your business plan

If you succeed in developing a clear and simple business plan as well as getting the finance you need to commence your business, expect anywhere between 1 and 10 years for your small business to be fully established.

Generally a business is said to be established when it can operate almost entirely on its own with little or no advertising and can make a reasonable profit from its activities. This can only be achieved when enough people in a community:

  • are aware of your business activities and location of the business;
  • can understand the value and significance of your commercial purpose; and
  • is able to develop trust with the people running the business.

Once your business is established, remember to keep your business up-to-date, flexible and relevant to the needs of a changing society by:

  • staying in touch with you market;
  • getting additional finance if you need it;
  • paying back quickly all money borrowed from a finance company; and
  • continuing to get advice and plan carefully.

This means you may have to update your business plan every 3 or 6 months to ensure your information is accurate. But once you have a business plan, it shouldn't take you more than 1 hour to update it.

In fact, each time you read a new business magazine, try to spend an extra 2 minutes modifying your business plan with each new piece of information you find in the magazine. At the end of reading the magazine, your business plan should already be sufficiently up-to-date to use within your business.