How to Handle Personnel in Your Business Plan

You’ve already determined why your product or services is special and priced it accordingly. Why are you the people best suited to supply it?

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Compile Biographies of the principals.
   Include their titles, job, functions and backgrounds. Their responsibilities should be made crystal clear. Internally this will serve as the first step in establishing accountability for each position. For the business plan you should present the bios with one perspective in mind. What are the principals’ strengths and how do they directly relate to the enterprise at hand?
2. Once you’ve assessed your principals’ strengths look at their weaknesses.
   Maybe you’re founding a dinner theater company with a director, actors and a first rate chef. This step would cause you to realize that although you could dine and entertain an audience none of you have real world accounting experience. Not tracking the receipts would be a recipe for failure. Analysis here would determine whom you need to hire either as an employee or a contractor to cover all essential jobs.
3. Compile the educational resources available that could help.
   If you don’t have the means to hire anybody at this point, research where you can get vital information on how to cover the essentials yourself. You can glean information from the library, trade publications, newspapers, the Internet, and paid database services. These can provide details on market growth, give you a perspective on your industry and tell you where to buy software that can help you plug the gap in what you need to do.
4. Start networking.
   One good conversation can be worth several books. Why? It’s interactive. You can cut right to the bone of what concerns you. Do field research by interviewing customers, suppliers, competitors, and industry experts. By flattering people with your sincere desire to learn from them, you’d be amazed at how many people will share their expertise. Start to attend alumni events, chamber of commerce gatherings, or industry symposia. Bring a stack of business cards and follow up immediately with emails letters or phone calls. Your reward will be more than a dry fact. You’ll gain genuine insight as to how your industry works.