Resource Planning For Your Business Plan

A business plan helps you organize your goals and growth plans for your business. Identifying business resources you'll be starting your business with already, and accounting for the resources you'll need to acquire after launching the business, is a crucial step in business planning.

Why Is Resource Planning Important

Resource planning help you account for resources you have, plan for resources you need and ways to optimize their use. Among other things, even the most simple business plans are designed to walk you through the activity of describing every source and the exact dollar amount of your initial equity capital, as well as account for the equipment necessary to produce your products or services.

It can be difficult to accurately estimate your future resource needs, which is why this startup mistake is one of the most frequent contributors to young businesses running out of cash early on.

A very important section in your business plan is about the finances of your business, and that includes how much you hope to spend on resources you need to acquire and maintenance expenses on assets you own. Your plans for obtaining the necessary personnel, equipment, and cash to meet your capital expenses will need to be detailed throughout your business plan.

You may need financing from a bank or investors or will invest your personal savings in the business, and resource planning will come in handy for that too.

How To Start Resource Planning

There are different types of resources and you need to budget and plan for them accordingly.
In describing each of the resources that you have and need for your business to reach profitability, position each of them in terms of the value it will bring to the company, both in the near term and down the road.

To figure out exactly which resources your business is going to need, and account for those in your business planning process, ask yourself these two crucial questions:

• Does starting and growing your business require having staff on hand? If your business relies upon output from people other than yourself and your business partners, you're going to need to allocate resources for hiring staff at fair market rates. 
• What type of equipment or fixed assets will your business need to get going? If your business is dependent upon purchasing or leasing equipment or other fixed assets like retail and office space, these are major considerations as you plan out your resource allocation.

Physical Assets

Depending on the nature of your business, you may have varying need for physical assets. However, in all likelihood you'd need some sort of office furniture and definitely some computers. Physical assets could also include office space, storefronts, manufacturing facilities and equipment necessary for your business. For example, if you own a baked good business, baking equipment like mixers and ovens would be physical assets you'd need to plan for.

Personnel and People

There are different types of people that can be a part of your business. People you hire, for example, can be employees or independent contractors and there are different cost implications for your business depending on whether you hire the former or the latter.

How about mentors, key advisors, supplier connections, and other intangible resources for your business? These types of relationships whose value to your business can be immense, also need to be accounted for within your business plan as they'll have a very large impact on the future growth of your company.

Think of the massively positive effect your company would experience if you had a friend or family member that was a decision-maker at a large company who'd be your perfect first customer. It would undoubtedly be one of your key strategies for driving the early growth of your company. So, as you're planning your resource allocation, you'd naturally be spending in areas that make your young business more appealing to the target customers you want to serve.

Technical Resources

It is a good time to evaluate your technical resources and requirements as well. Some businesses rely more heavily on technology or intellectual property than others. Technology-dependent companies will need a strong IT network to get started. If building your own website won't be any trouble, then that's one major cost you'll be able to avoid as you get started with your company. Otherwise, you may need to allocate for web design, development, and other website-related expenses.

The Bottom Line

Regardless of your situation, don't be intimidated by the upfront costs of starting a business. Instead, keep in mind that in today's age, your product or service will only be as good as the technology that supports it, and if you buy or build low-grade gear, you’ll probably have to replace it in a few years anyway.

Clearly, there are a lot of different expenses to take into account as you allocate the resources for your new business. However, forcing yourself to go through this activity in extreme detail while building your business plan will save you a lot of headaches and potential failures in the future.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)