YANET HEALTH AND BUSINESS

COLLEGE
Unit of competency፡- Improve Business Practice
MODULE TITLE:Improving Business Practice
LEARNING OUTCOMES

LO1. Diagnose the business

LO2. Benchmark the business

LO3. Develop plans to improve business performance

LO4. Develop marketing and promotional plans

LO5.Develop business growth plans

LO6.Implement and monitor plans

2012

1. Introduction to business practice

 market definition

An event or occasion usually held at regular intervals, at which people meet for the purpose of
buying and selling merchandise or goods/products.

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A regular gathering of people for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other
commodities.

An actual or nominal place where forces of supply operate, and where buyers and sellers interact
(directly or through intermediaries) to trade goods, services, or contracts or instruments, for
money or barter/exchange.

Markets include mechanisms or means for (1) determining price of the traded item, (2)
communicating the price information, (3) facilitating deals and transactions, and (4) effecting
distribution. The market for a particular item is made up of existing and potential customers who
need it and have the ability and willingness to pay for it.

Definition of 'Market'

1. A medium that allows buyers and sellers of a specific good or service to interact in order to
facilitate an exchange. The price that individuals pay during the transaction may be determined by a
number of factors, but price is often determined by the forces of supply and demand.

2. The general market where securities are traded.

3. People with the desire and ability to buy a specific product/service.

Definition of Marketing
Marketing:  

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating,
delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society
at large

An event or occasion, usually held at regular intervals, at which people meet for the purpose of
buying and selling merchandise

2. Diagnose the business

2.1 Data required for diagnosis

2.2 Competitive advantage of the business

2.3 SWOT analysis

 The SWOT analysis is an extremely useful tool for understanding and decision-making for all
sorts of situations in business and organizations. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats.
 The SWOT analysis headings provide a good framework for reviewing strategy, position and
direction of a company or business proposition, or any other idea.

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  SWOT analysis (alternatively SWOT Matrix) is a structured planning method used to evaluate
the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business
venture. A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a product, place, industry or person. It involves
specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external
factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective.

SWOT analysis template

 Here is a larger illustration of SWOT analysis.

Note that this format is not presented or proposed as 'internal/external' matrix; it's a more open
demonstration of the sorts of issues and questions which can be addressed when using the SWOT
format as part of business planning and decision-making.

1. Diagnose the business

1.1. Acquire and determine data required for diagnosis

Enterprise is defined as a business organization that exists either to produce some products, or to
provide some kinds of service as part of their profit seeking activities. The products can be
agricultural, textile, house ware items, transportation related, sports goods, and any other
engineered artifacts. The service provided can be healthcare, finance, utility, telecommunication,
transportation, maintenance, sanitary, etc. The enterprise in the business of producing some
products is a manufacturing enterprise and the enterprise in the business of providing service is a
service enterprise

Manufacturing enterprise systems and service enterprise systems carry out the bulk of economic
activities in any country and in the increasingly connected world. Enterprise data are necessary to
ensure that each manufacturing or service enterprise system is run efficiently and effectively. As
it becomes easier to capture and fairly inexpensive to store, digitized data gradually overwhelms
our ability to analyze in order to turn them into useful information for decision making.

On the other hand, a service enterprise system exists to provide necessary service to their clients.
To be competitive, an enterprise system must be lean, able to produce good quality
parts/subassemblies/products or service, and responsive to customers’ needs/demands. A lean,
quality, and responsive enterprise system cannot be achieved without good engineering and
management practices in all aspects of system operations including marketing, sales, product
design, purchasing and supplier management, process development, task execution, process
monitoring, process control, process improvement, warehouse management, quality control,
logistics management, customer relationship management, and so on.

There are many benefits that can be obtained by diagnosing your business:

      There are an enormous number of activities you can undertake to improve your
business. Business diagnosis can help you identify which of these choices will the
most effective in growing your business

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       Business diagnosis saves time and improves returns by providing more accurate
and effective decision making

      Business diagnosis allows you to identify business goals and to describe them in
concrete manageable terms

      Business diagnosis provides you with a benchmark against which to measure your
progress

      Growth Plan business diagnosis will provide a holistic analysis of your businesses
covering financial, staff structure, resource and client productivity, management
issues, lifestyle, representation systems and leadership.  This is consistent with
Growth Plan philosophy of assisting to provide growth in financial and non-financial
returns

 Growth Plan Business Diagnosis provides reports in both written and PowerPoint form
to allow easy communication of results to others within the organization

1.2. Determine competitive advantage of the business

What does your company do best? Or better yet, what can your company potentially do better
than any other company? And perhaps just as important, what can it not do best?

Specifically, it is your company's unique skills and resources working to implement strategies
that competitors cannot implement as effectively. Understanding your competitive advantage is
critical. It is the reason you are in business. It is what you do best that draws customers to buy
your product/service instead of your competitor's. Extremely successful companies deliberately
make choices to be unique and different in activities that they are really, really good at and they
focus all of their energy in these areas.

Sustaining Your Advantage over the Competition

Of course once you have identified your competitive advantage(s), you're not done. It is not
enough just to have an advantage over your competitors. For your business to be great, it needs to
weather competitive and environmental storms. You have to be able to combat today's fierce
market forces and uncertainty. In other words, your competitive advantage needs to be
sustainable and able to endure the test of time for your company to be great. Why? Because most
advantages can be duplicated within a period of time.

What is Your Competitive Advantage?

So, what is your firm's competitive advantage? Do you have one? And if you do, are you
focusing on it? Here's a quick way to check your pulse. Do any of these statements sound
familiar?

 "Our competitors are too big and slow. They'll never respond quickly."

 "All we need is one big contract."

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 "We'll have first-mover advantage. We'll lock our customers in before our competitors know
what is happening."

 "No one knows our customer like we do."

 "My competitors are too stupid. Our team is much more innovative."

 "If the big guys buy our product, we're home free."

 "We're it. There is no one else in our market who does what we do."

If any of these statements do sound familiar or if you are banking on the general incompetence of
your competitors, it's time to get serious about the purpose of your company. First, assess what
your company does best by looking at what you are good at and what you are not good at. Turn it
into a competitive advantage by focusing your energy on these activities. Lastly, make it
something that will endure by continually developing and working at it.

Putting Competitive Advantage to the Test

Now it is time to put your competitive advantage to the test. How do you know when you have
developed a sustainable competitive advantage? Here are three criteria that can help evaluate if
you are on the right track and keep you there:

 Customers must see a consistent difference between your product/service and those of your
competitor's. This difference needs to be obvious to your customers and it must influence their
purchasing decision. Example: Coca cola vs. Pepsi.

 Your competitive advantage must be difficult to imitate

 The above two items combined must be activities that can be constantly improved, nurtured,
and work at to maintain that edge over your competition.

1.3. Undertake SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying
the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors
that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective. A SWOT analysis must first start
with defining a desired end state or objective. A SWOT analysis may be incorporated into the
strategic planning model. Strategic Planning has been the subject of much research.

 Strengths: characteristics of the business or team that give it an advantage over others
in the industry.

 Weaknesses: are characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to

others.

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  Opportunities: external chances to make greater sales or profits in the environment.

 Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the
business.

Identification of SWOTs is essential because subsequent steps in the process of planning for
achievement of the selected objective may be derived from the SWOTs. First, the decision
makers have to determine whether the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective
is NOT attainable a different objective must be selected and the process repeated.

Internal and external factors

The aim of any SWOT analysis is to identify the key internal and external factors that are
important to achieving the objective. These come from within the company's unique value chain.
SWOT analysis groups key pieces of information into two main categories:

 Internal factors – The strengths and weaknesses internal to the organization.

 External factors – The opportunities and threats presented by the external

environment to the organization.

The internal factors may be viewed as strengths or weaknesses depending upon their impact on
the organization's objectives. What may represent strengths with respect to one objective may be
weaknesses for another objective. The factors may include all of the 4P's; as well as personnel,
finance, manufacturing capabilities, and so on. The external factors may include macroeconomic
matters, technological change, legislation, and socio-cultural changes, as well as changes in the
marketplace or competitive position. The results are often presented in the form of a matrix.

SWOT analysis is just one method of categorization and has its own weaknesses. For example, it
may tend to persuade companies to compile lists rather than think about what is actually
important in achieving objectives. It also presents the resulting lists uncritically and without clear
prioritization so that, for example, weak opportunities may appear to balance strong threats.

It is prudent not to eliminate too quickly any candidate SWOT entry. The importance of
individual SWOTs will be revealed by the value of the strategies it generates. A SWOT item that
produces valuable strategies is important.

2. Benchmark The Business

What is benchmarking?

 Benchmarking is simply the process of measuring the performance of one's company

against the best in the same or another industry. Benchmarking is basically learning from
others.

 Therefore, benchmarking is a continuous systematic/ structured/formal process for

assessing/measuring/comparing the organizations.

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  In business, benchmarking has come to mean variety of things. It has assumed a very
special significance in today’s competitive world. Benchmarking is one of the many
techniques that one can employ to gather management information.

2.2. Sources of relevant benchmarking data

Identify relevant of source and Key indicators for benchmarking

Benchmarking is the process of identifying "best practice" in relation to both products

(including) and the processes by which those products are created and delivered.

The objective of benchmarking is to understand and evaluate the current position of a

business or organization in relation to "best practice" and to identify areas and means of
performance improvement.

The Benchmarking Process

Benchmarking involves looking outward (outside)to examine how others achieve their
performance levels and to understand the processes they use.

Application of benchmarking involves four key steps:

(1) Understand in detail existing business processes

(2) Analyze the business processes of others
(3) Compare own business performance with that of others analyzed
(4) Implement the steps necessary to close the performance gap

Benchmarking should not be considered a one-off exercise. To be effective, it must become an

ongoing, integral part of an ongoing improvement process with the goal of keeping abreast of
ever-improving best practice.

Types of Benchmarking

There are a number of different types of benchmarking, as summarized below

 Strategic Benchmarking
 Performance or Competitive Benchmarking
 Process Benchmarking
 Functional Benchmarking
 Internal Benchmarking
 External Benchmarking
 International Benchmarking
2.3. Like indicators of own practice

Compare own practice with benchmark indicator

A little insight about what your competitors are doing can dramatically improve your strategy
and investment decisions.

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Among businesses in the same market space, the owner should answer the following critical
questions to know the status of their own business.

 are the most financially successful performers investing heavily on certain functions?
 Are some businesses vulnerable to attack because they aren’t investing enough in a game-changing
process?
 Where are the cost gaps that represent opportunities to improve efficiency?

Without industry-specific performance metrics, your company is flying blind.

Benchmarking can help you better understand how efficiently different parts of your business are
operating by comparing your process performance to those of your direct peers

Effective benchmarking can help an organization on its effort to:

1. identify opportunity to reduce service costs and increase service quality

2. gain insight into relative strengths and weaknesses compared to other organizations in the
same industry
3. combat organization competency and the perception that current performance is
acceptable
4. change the way they view their performance by providing both qualitative and
quantitative measure of service operation effectiveness
5. support business imperatives/very important

2.4. Areas for improvement

Identify area of improvement

Measuring and improving performance starts with our unique three-step benchmarking process:

• Benchmark current operational efficiency against the most efficient service providers in mature
and emerging markets

• Assess the efficiency of work processes to identify areas for improvement

• Develop solutions to raise performance in these areas.

Role of Benchmarking

The role of benchmarking is to provide management with knowledge of what constitutes ‘best
performance’ or ‘superior performance’ in a particular field. Best performance relates to output,
efficiency, quality and any other measurement relevant to performing the job.

Benchmarking not only investigates what best practice means in terms of performance yardsticks
but also examine how best practices is achieved.

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  Generally, there are three reasons that benchmarking is becoming more commonly used
in industry.

These are:

 Benchmarking is a more efficient way to make improvements.

 Benchmarking speeds up organization’s ability to make improvements.

 Benchmarking has the ability to bring organizational performance up as a whole

significantly.

 Types of benchmarking

 There are four primary types of benchmarking.

 Process benchmarking

 Performance benchmarking

 Strategic benchmarking

 Internal benchmarking

There are four main steps that should to be followed to conduct benchmarking.

Step 1 – Plan the study

 Establish benchmarking roles and responsibilities

 Identify the process to benchmark

 Document the current process

 Define the measures for data collection

Step 2 – Collect the data

 Record current performance levels

 Find benchmarking partners

 Conduct the primary investigation

 Make a site visit

Step 3 – Analyze the data

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  Normalize the performance data

 Construct a comparison matrix to compare your current performance data

with your partners’ data

 Identify outstanding practices

 Isolate process enablers

Step 4 – Adapt enablers to implement improvements

 Set stretching targets

 “Vision” an alternative process

 Consider the barriers to change

 Plan to implement the changes

3. Develop Plan To Improve Business Performance

3.2. Develop a Consolidated/combine list of required improvements

Every executive and business owner has one key objective and that is to improve performance.

You can improve your business on a number of fronts:

 by increasing profits,
 reducing losses,
 getting more customers,
 expanding the markets,
 becoming more visible in the community,
 Going public or a number of other items deemed/considered desirable.

You must have a vision of what you want to achieve, where you want to go, and what you want
the business to become. Learn ten ways you can improve your business: 

1. Start the year in high gear (mechanism).

2. Dust-off your business plans. Review, review and review your businesses plan.
3. Rekindle/renew your relationship with your customers. The start of the year is the perfect time
Contact your customers to greet them "Happy New Year!" and remind them that your business is ready
to serve them this year.
4. Evaluate your pricing. You don't want to overprice
5. Find ways to cut your costs
6. Resolve to improve your weak spots.

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7. Institute measures to assess the performance of your business.
8. Keep employees involved.
9. Explore new markets or improve marketing. Start the year by exploring new markets for your
business.
10. Find out how you can live a more balanced life.
 Learn to have fun! Spend more time with your family.
 Take a vacation
 Engage in activities
3.3. Determine Cost-Benefit Ratio For Required Improvement

A benefit-cost ratio (BCR) is an indicator, used in the formal discipline of cost-benefit analysis,
that attempts to summarize the overall value of money of a project or proposal.

Cost–benefit analysis (CBA), sometimes called benefit–cost analysis (BCA), is an economic

decision-making approach, used particularly in government and business.

In CBA, benefits and costs are expressed in money terms, and are adjusted for the time value of
money, so that all flows of benefits and flows of project costs over time (which tend to occur at
different points in time) are expressed on a common basis in terms of their "present value."

Example:-

Benefit Cost Ratio is ratio of all the tangible benefits to all the cost incurred in undertaking the
project i.e.

Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) = Benefits / Cost

Higher the ratio, more benefits. Hence, a project with highest BCR is selected. Also, note that,
benefits = revenues or paybacks, it does not include profits.

To put it very simply, if you invest/spend $100 and get $110 in return:

1) Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) = Benefit / Cost = 110/100 = 1.10

2) Cost Benefit Ratio (CBR) = Cost / Benefit = 100/110 = 0.91

3) Profit = 110 - 100 = $10

4) CBR is just an inverse of BCR, i.e. CBR = 1/BCR

3.4. determine work flow change resulting from proposed improvement

A workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps.

A workflow is a model to represent real work for further assessment.

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a workflow is a pattern of activity enabled by a systematic organization of resources, defined
roles and mass, energy and information flows, into a work process that can be documented and
learned.

Workflow concepts are closely related to other concepts used to describe organizational
structure,

3.5. Rank proposed improvement according to agreed criteria

In a perfect world your action plan would never have to change. But inevitably due to new
priorities or unforeseen circumstances you will need to evolve your action plan. That’s fine.

Plan reflects this and you make the appropriate priority choices to make it happen

3.6. Develop Action Plan To Implement The Top Ranked Improvement

Once the goal is defined, the task should be explained in great detail.

Description of the Template Columns

Actions column should indicate steps to establish key committees or seek funding / resources to
carry out the planned activities

Responsibility column should indicate the person / position responsible for carrying through
specific action,

Resource column should indicate those specific resources [human and financial]

3.7. organizational structure

An organizational structure consists of activities such as task allocation, coordination and

supervision, which are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims.

4. Develop marketing and promotional plans

4.1 How to develop objectives and vision statements

4.1.1 Developing business growth objectives

Objectives are at the center of everything does business so a firm must be careful when setting to
objectives to ensure they can be met. It is good practice for firm to set SMART objectives:

 Specific: set out clearly what is trying to be achieved

 Measurable: so they know when it has been achieved (Put a figure or value, such as a
dollar amount or percentage, to the objective)

 Achievable: it must succeed

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  Realistic: Make goals challenging, but consider your resources so that you can actually
achieve them reasonably

 Time specific: a time span to achieve them within (Set a deadline to keep things on
track)

There are three objectives that are commonly associated with all organization. Those are;

 Survival objectives

 Growth objectives

 Profit objectives

4.1.2. Develop Vision Statements

A Vision is defined as an image of the future we seek to create.

A Vision Statements is a sentence or short paragraph providing a broad, aspiration image /goal/
of the future business. Vision Statements therefore contain details of the company- its vision (the
future plans with aims and objectives) and these types of Statements focus on tomorrow.

4.2. Identification of Target markets

4.2.1Definition of target Markets

Target markets focus marketing and sales efforts towards the companies and people /most
likely to buy your products and services.

A good methodology is to introduce profiles of the four broadest markets. Each profile defines
potential target markets for sales opportunities.

1.Non-Customer Profile

The non-customer profile is someone who has never been a customer of you.

2. First Time Buyer Market Profile

First time buyer is a person or business has purchased your products for the first time.

3. Customer Market Profile

The customer market profile consists of companies or people who have purchased from you more
than once.

There are several good methods for segmenting your customer base.

 Frequency. How frequently the customer purchases from you.

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  Recently. How recently the customer purchased from you.

 Duration. How long the customer has been purchasing from you.

 Intensity. How much the customer purchases from you.

4. Loyal Customer Market Profile

A Loyal Customer is a customer with a successful track record with the company and has been
purchasing from you for three years or longer. Loyal customers are your best customers.

A primary goal of every business is to build loyal customers.

Targeting a specific market does not mean that you have to exclude people that do not fit your
criteria from buying from you. Rather, target marketing allows you to focus your marketing
dollars and brand message on a specific market that is more likely to buy from you than other
markets. This is a much more affordable, efficient, and effective way to reach potential clients
and generate business.

4.2.2 How to identifying your target market

Here are some points to help you to identify your target market;

 Look at Your Current Customer Base

 Check Out Your Competition

 Analyze Your Product/Service. Write out a list of each feature of your products or
service.

 Choose Specific Demographics to Target

Figure out not only who has a need for your product or service, but also who is most likely to buy
it. Think about the following factors:

• Age 
• Location
• Gender
• Income level
• Education level
• Marital or family status
• Occupation
• Ethnic background

 Divide Your Markets

Your target market may include several different segments in terms of:

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  demographics

 geographic location

 attitudes and beliefs

 purchasing trends

 Choose Which Markets to Serve

 Consider the Psychographics of Your Target

Psychographics are more personal characteristics of a person, including:

• Personality
• Attitudes
• Values
• Interests/hobbies
• Lifestyles
• Behavior

 Evaluate Your Decision

 Collect Additional Resources

4.2.3 Benefits of Knowing the Target Market

The more you know about the people in your target market, the better. You can spend more
advertising and marketing dollars focused on a smaller audience more likely to purchase your
product or service, rather than a larger group that is less likely to purchase.

4.3. Obtain Market research data

4.3.1. Defining of market research

Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the
marketer through information.

Information used to:-

 identify and define marketing opportunities and problems;

 generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions;

 monitor marketing performance; and

 Improve understanding of marketing as a process.

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Market research is simply research into a specific market. It is a very narrow concept.

Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the methods
for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes, and
communicates the findings and their implications."

4.3.3 Major Sources of Market Research Information

Various methods of market research are used to find out information about markets, target
markets and their needs, competitors, market trends, customer satisfaction with products and
services, etc.

That source information’s are internal and external source of data.

1. Internal source of data;

 Employees
 Comment Cards;
 Competition;
 Customers;
 Documentation and Records;
 Focus Groups;
 Surveys by Mail;
 Telephone Surveys;
2. External source of data are;
 Census Bureau/survey agency;
 Chamber of Commerce;
 Department of Commerce;
 Ask Librarians;
 Trade and Professional Organizations;

 trade associations/journals;

 Internet;
 client surveys
 industry report;

4.3.3.1 Other source of market research data

 Primary marketing research: is collected for the first time.

 We consider some of them:

1. Interviews 4. Projective techniques

2. Mystery shopping 5. Product tests

3. Focus groups 6. Diaries

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7. Omnibus Studies

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  Secondary marketing research or desk research; already exist in one form or another. It is
relatively cheap, and can be conducted quite quickly

4.4. Obtain Competitor Analysis

 Competitor analysis in marketing and strategic management is an assessment of the strengths

and weaknesses of current and potential competitors.
This analysis provides both an offensive and defensive strategic context to identify opportunities
and threats.

Elements of Competitive Analysis

There are several important elements of competitive analysis; Major aspects of competitive
analysis include the following:

Defining competitors;
Analysis of competitor strengths and weaknesses
Analysis of internal strengths and weaknesses;
Analysis of customer needs and wants;
Studying impediments/obstacles to market for you and your competition;
Building strategic plans to improve marketplace position;

4.4.1. Competitor offerings/contributions

Competitive offering is an offering of securities through competitive bidding/request.

4.5 Market position development

4.5.1 Definition of market positioning

Marketing positioning mean the process by which marketers try to create an image.

4.6. Brand Development

Brand is a set of perceptions and images that represent a company, product or service.

Brand is the trademark (name, logo, slogan etc.) used by marketers to distinguish their products
from other products in the market and to position it rightly. Or

Brand is a symbol, name, graphic identity and logotype that allow the effective identification of
one company, product or service from its competitors and is able to create an emotional response
in the minds and hearts of its customer base.

Style Brands provides marketing, design, printing, websites, promotional gifts, corporate

clothing, printer cartridges, furniture, and office supplies.

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4.7. Promotion

4.7.1. Definition of promotion

Promotion is one of the four elements of marketing mix (product, price, promotion, and place).

Promotion includes all activities designed to inform, persuade and influence people when they
are making the decision to buy.

4.7.2 Components (elements) of the promotion system

The specification of five elements creates a promotional mix or promotional plan. These
elements are;

1. Advertising-
2. Personal selling
3. Sales promotion-
4. Publicity- uses mass media and it is none personal.
5. Direct marketing

Fundamentally, however there are three basic objectives of promotion. These are:

1. To present information to consumers as well as others

2. To increase demand

3. To differentiate a product.

There are different ways to promote a product in different areas of media. Promoters use

 Internet advertisement,

 Special events,

 Endorsements, and

 Newspapers to advertise their product.

4.8. Identifying Benefits of best practice products/services

What is a Best Practice?

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A best practice is the process of finding and using ideas and strategies from outside your
company and industry to improve performance in any given area.

Benefits of Best Practices for Small Business

 Reduce Costs
 Avoid Mistakes:
 Find New Ideas:

Steps for Best Practices

 Identify one business process or service to improve.

 Look for one metric to measure.

 Find competitors and companies within your industry and outside your industry

 Collect information on the successful, best practices of other companies.

 Modify the best practice for your situation.

 Implement the process then measure the results.

5. Develop business growth plans

5.1 Plans to increase yield per existing client

Customer retention is about keeping the customers you’ve spent that money to acquire. And
if you’re in an industry where they make multiple purchases over the years, your entire team
should be very focused on retaining those customers:

5.2 Developing Plans to add new clients

The growth strategy section of your business plan is about proving to others that you have a plan
for bringing your product to new customers and new markets, and perhaps even introducing new
products.

The obvious objective in outlining your growth strategy is to show how these moves will
increase sales. This can happen in a number of ways:

 Multiple locations:
 New client bases:
 New products
 Franchising/license:
 Online strategy:
 Marketing: Look back at the marketing section of your business plan
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  Decreasing costs:
 Acquisitions/achievement:

5.3. Proposed plans

Proposing a business plan can be an important process for your business.

Step 1

Review your business plan to be sure it is up-to-date with all of its data and information.

Step 2

Research your audience to find out what is important to the audience members, and what kind of
information they may be looking for.

Step 3

Develop a focus that you would like to give the audience during your presentation. Each business
proposal presentation needs to have a specific target in mind.

Step 4

Design materials specific to your presentation that you can leave with your audience.

Step 5

Practice your proposal presentation in front of colleagues and friends to make sure it flow
properly, and that you have left enough spots for questions.

5.2 Developing an action plan

Action plan a sequence of steps that must be taken, or activities that must be performed
well, for a business to succeed. An action plan has three major elements ;

(1) Specific tasks: what will be done and by whom.

(2) Time horizon: when will it be done.

(3) Resource allocation: what specific funds are available for specific activities?

An action plan is developing to implement the top ranked plans for business growth.

How to write an action plan

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When writing an action plan to achieve a particular goal or outcome, you can get much help from
the following steps.

 Clarify your goal.

 Write a list of actions
 Analyze, prioritize, and prune.
 Organize your list into a plan.
 Monitor the execution of your plan and review the plan regularly.

6 Implement and monitor plans

6.1 Developing Implementation plan

Implementation is the carrying out, execution, or practice of a plan, a method, or any design for
doing something.

Implementation plan Detailedlisting of activities, costs, expected difficulties, and schedules

that are required to achieve the objectives of the strategic plans.

An implementation plan will assist you in moving the project from development to service
provision. Implementation plans will vary from business to business. Use your implementation
plan to:

 determine a time line for implementation

 train and educate service providers

 define roles and responsibilities of service providers

 develop written protocols for referrals

 develop communication protocols among service providers and the working group

 develop policies and procedures

 confirm performance indicators based on your logic model

6.2 Agreeing Indicators to success of plan

An indicator provides evidence that a certain condition exists or certain results have or have not
been achieved. Indicators enable decision-makers to assess progress towards the achievement of
intended outputs, outcomes, goals, and objectives. As such, indicators are an integral part of a
results-based accountability system.

Types of Indicators

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Indicators can measure

 inputs,
 process,
 outputs, and
 Outcomes.
6.3. Monitoring Implementation against agreed indicators

Monitoring the implementation of your strategic plan is important for a number of reasons. First,
it helps to assure that your efforts conform to the plan.

Second, you have got to be sure the results you achieve align with your quantified objectives.
That you're accomplishing what you intended to accomplish. Monitoring helps here too.

Also, monitoring allows for corrective action

And since monitoring is part of a control process, it encourages improved performance.

Finally, and most importantly, monitoring provides the essential link between the written plan
and the day-to-day operation of your business.

It demonstrates to all that "you really are managing the business according to your plan".

Implementation plan helps to business man to changing tactics, changing strategy’s and Last
choice – you would compromise your objective.

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