04 Oct Growing a Business Development Plan

Here at Cedar Associates, we offer expert guidance towards your Business Development Plan. September is always the time of year when focus towards learning and development returns. This month sees the start of our third programme working in the landscape sector to help owners of landscaping business’s review their business situations and strategically plan the direction of their business for the next three years.

The programme grew from the fact many landscapers start out on their own and as their book of business increases they take on more staff and larger projects. This is often where businesses hit a development crisis. The owner needs to stand back more to steer and manage the business and become less hands on. Typically many owners spend time working in the business at the expense of taking time to work on the business.

The concept for the three part five day strategic business planning programme was to create time and space away from their businesses to give some discipline to forward planning their future. The programme was designed to be practical in terms of a structured approach to building a business development strategy. The programme has a modular design to allow participants to develop a vision for their business and objectives to achieve the longer term goals on the first module. They can then consult with various stakeholders back in the business to add to this. The second module takes a hands on approach to finance to help participants understand their financial reports and how to use these to develop budgets and cash flow forecasts. Business Development Plans are then created for presentation to their peers and landscaping industry leaders for review and critique on the final module. This session is highly valued by the participants for the feedback they receive on their plans and the ideas they gain from reviewing each other’s plans.

Previous participants have gained a variety of benefits from completing the programme including:

• Developing a draft three year business plan for peer review.
• Ability to clarify decisions on opportunities to expand and consolidate areas of their business.
• Greater understanding of interpreting financial reports and using budgets to review the financial impact of decisions on their Business Development Strategy.
• Identifying how they can regain a better work life balance.
• Greater confidence in taking control of their business and leading their team’s more effectively.`

For any more information please contact one of our expert team members.