| Business Plans expire like many foods. They may not | | | | changes to reduce their impact. The investigation |
| spoil but they lose their potency due to changes in | | | | should include looking at ways to reduce costs in other |
| business conditions. We will look at five of them. | | | | areas to help decrease the impact of rising costs. If |
| First, changes in technology impact most businesses. If | | | | you are a manufacturing facility, operation efficiency |
| a new method of doing something is created, the | | | | and controlling manufacturing waste can have a large |
| business environment can change very quickly. If your | | | | impact on costs too. |
| product or service depends on the old technology, | | | | Along with decreasing sales, increasing costs, or losing |
| your business prospects could be dramatically | | | | customers growing too quickly can be just as |
| reduced. Be alert to new technologies that can either | | | | destructive. Explosive growth has many perils to a |
| hinder or help you. Good examples are the changes | | | | healthy business. There are challenges in maintaining |
| from records to tapes, from tapes to cds and from | | | | quality, employing and training employees, procuring |
| cds to downloadable music on personal players. | | | | raw materials, expanding manufacturing operations and |
| Next, consider your customers. If desires change | | | | controlling operational costs. Also, it often appears that |
| because of some condition, customers could abandon | | | | there are piles of cash coming in so waste and |
| you very quickly. While some customer attrition is | | | | luxuries might accrue. It's a long, known fact that |
| normal, be watchful of trends. You don't want to be | | | | business fail because they succeeded beyond their |
| the last company making buggies and whips when the | | | | wildest dreams and aren't able to accommodate the |
| rest are making automobiles. This doesn't mean you | | | | changing conditions successfully. |
| need to be the first to adopt new technology, but stay | | | | These five areas require a steady and consistent |
| informed and search out impacts both for the good | | | | hand from management. Business plans must |
| and bad. | | | | constantly be revised to address changing conditions. In |
| We now come to financial concerns. Similar to losing | | | | a very stable environment, a plan may be stable for a |
| valued customers, slumping sales figures should be | | | | long period, but in an explosive growth environment, the |
| investigated too. It's possible that a temporary condition | | | | plan might require almost constant review. In any case, |
| has caused it, but waiting too long to figure out why | | | | the financial and management controls should be |
| and searching for a remedy must be aggressively | | | | monitored constantly to see if changes are occurring |
| pursued. The reasons might be found in market | | | | and whether they need to be addressed. Recognizing |
| conditions, competitors, or the environment. New ways | | | | the need to change the governing Business Plan and |
| to address the slump must be employed. Your | | | | altering procedures are the modern requirement of a |
| business plans will need to be revised to cope with the | | | | healthy business. An astute management team can |
| changes. | | | | address the changing conditions to find new |
| Just like decreasing revenue, increasing costs are | | | | opportunities among the challenges. It is certainly easier |
| destructive. If established cost baselines or forecasts | | | | to adapt to changing conditions than to have them |
| are different, research must be conducted to identify | | | | catch us napping. The latter forcing emergency |
| the reasons for the cost changes. Then, remedial | | | | measures amid a small number of choices, which adds |
| steps must be taken to reduce them or make | | | | risk to the venture. |