This is the sixth blog post in a series by Hal Shelton, SCORE small business mentor and author of The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan. You can read his previous posts for Constant Contact here

Over the last few months, I’ve discussed a number of different ways you can set yourself up for success when writing the key components of a business plan. I’ve also looked at some of the common business plan mistakes, and how you can avoid them.

In today’s post, I’d like to take a deeper look at 10 smart things you can do when writing, and rewriting, your business plan.

1. Write a clear two-page executive summary.

Your goal in the executive summary is to energize the reader to read the whole plan. Make a persuasive case upfront for why the business will be successful and why you are the right person at the right time to lead this business to success. Be sure to include clear statements explaining your value proposition and competitive advantages.

2. Emphasize the customer need or problem you are satisfying.

 Your business plan should be about the products and services you are providing to satisfy a customer need or fix a customer problem. Show how you can drive demand: Provide evidence of the size and acuteness of the problem and how you are uniquely satisfying/solving it.

3. Understand your own strengths, skills, and time available.

Often start-ups consist of one employee — you, the founder. What are your skills, what do you like to do and not do? How much time do you have available? These are important questions to calibrate your expectations and determine where you will need support.

4. Spell out the business model.

For yourself and for a lender/investor demonstrate how you are going to generate revenue. How are you going to get paid? And for what will you get paid? Who are your customers, and in what sales channels do you find them?

5. Include a believable sales forecast.

The sales forecast must be supported with detailed action plans encompassing your marketing and sales process; including lead-generation strategies, open-for-business campaigns, demos, and overall messaging. Using industry benchmarks will provide credibility for your sales forecast.

6. Request funding consistent with the needs shown in the forecasted financial statements.

The funding request that’s made in the executive summary needs to be supported by the forecasted financial statements, which are usually for a minimum of three years.

7. Tell a banker or angel investor how you will use the funds they provide.

This is called “Use of Funds.” Investors want their funding to go to company activities that will generate future revenues and grow the business. The Use of Funds section doesn’t need to go into much detail, but it must cover all the funds requested.

8. Revisit and refine your first draft.

Write a draft, put it down, think about it, do more research and experiment; then write a second draft and repeat the process. As part of the research, learn from others, get differing opinions, and seek advice from similar businesses in other markets. It is unlikely that any one person will know it all. While entrepreneurs are usually strong willed, they also need to be good listeners and learn from others’ mistakes and accomplishments.

This will take time, but the quality of the plan will significantly increase as you come back with more information and insight with each draft.

If you already have a business plan, you many think you’ve done all you need to.

However, even the best business plans can benefit from revision. Here are a couple tips for updating your business plan:

9. Keep up with changing markets.

Just as your market will change over time, so should your business plan. While your initial business plan might rely on some assumptions about your target audience and what they need, once your business is up and running, you may discover new factors you hadn’t originally considered, including competitor reaction to your business entering the market. Be sure to incorporate this new insight into your updated plan.

10. Update your financial forecast.

Use the results of the past year as a base in developing financial forecasts for the coming year. As a small business, focus on cash flow. Use your business plan as a segue to an annual goal setting and budget process.

Key Lessons

  • A well-thought-out business plan occurs over time, including a lot of interaction with others to learn about your business and market.
  • A focused and up-to-date business plan is the path to good decisions regarding your business idea.
  • A well-presented business plan will facilitate reaching potential customers and funders.

Have any questions about business planning we didn’t cover? Let us know in the comments.

About the author: Hal Shelton’s business planning skills were developed as a certified SCORE small business mentor, corporate executive, nonprofit board member, early-stage company investor, and author of The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan: A Pro Shares a Step-by Step Guide to Creating a Plan That Gets Results. Suggestions for additional topics are welcome; email Constant Contact or Hal directly from his website: www.secretsofbusinessplans.com.

As a small business, you know how important it is to have the right information when looking for new ways to grow and improve your business.

Constant Contact recently surveyed 1,200 small business owners and asked them about how they were using data to drive business decisions. 67 percent said they believe data can help them retain existing customers, while 65 percent said data helps improve customer experience.

When you think about how your business is using data to inform business decisions, you might think of things like: email marketing reports, website analytics, social media insights, or sales receipts.

But did you also know, you can take things a step further and do research of your own?

Conducting research and collecting feedback is a valuable exercise for small businesses who want to:

  • Understand the causes of a problem
  • Improve an experience, product, or service
  • Assess customer needs and expectations
  • Determine receptivity of new products or services

You can conduct this research offline, through face-to-face interactions, or online with an online survey.

If you’re interested in digging into one or more of these areas, the first thing you need to do is to come up with a research question.

Good research questions are answerable with the resources you have available, and are directly relevant to your business goals.

Let’s say you wanted to learn more about your target audience.

Your research questions may be:

  • Who are our customers?
  • What is their demographic make-up?
  • What time of year do they need our products/services most?
  • Why are they loyal to our business?
  • How did they hear about our business?

With a research question in mind, you can then put a plan in place to collect your data.

One of the easiest ways to collect data from your customers is to use an online survey. With an online survey, you can craft a series of questions and collect feedback by promoting your survey to your email list or on social media.

The questions you include in the survey should be focused on the research question you’re trying to answer.

It is always tempting to ask about everything that’s on your mind; however, your customers will appreciate if you keep the survey short (i.e. 10-12 questions). Remember, you can always ask for additional customer input at a later point in time.

Write questions in common language that everyone can understand.  Watch out for specialized language or acronyms.

Before sending your survey to your wider audience, test it on a smaller group to get their feedback.

Did they get confused by any of your questions?  Were they able to find a relevant answer to your multiple choice questions?

Use their feedback to tweak your survey before sending it to your entire list.

Lastly, you need to make sure you have a plan in place to analyze the data and use it to your advantage.

You started with a research question. You created a survey to help answer that question. And now you have access to information that was unavailable just a short time ago.

Try to identify at least 2-3 key takeaways you can use from your survey, and take some time to access the results. In some cases, the results will be in line with your original thinking and you can confirm your ideas. But there could also be surprises or results that stand out and cause you to tweak your original plans.

So to recap:

  • Come up with a research question you want to answer. Think of something that you want to learn that you can’t easily access from your existing business or marketing reports.
  • Next, create a survey to help answer your research question. The survey should include questions that are relevant to the research question you’re trying to answer. Try to stick to a maximum of 10-12 questions.
  • Test your survey on a smaller group before sending it out to your wider audience. Make any necessary adjustments, and then use your different communication channels — like email and social media — to send it your target audience.
  • Take the time to analyze your results and identify actionable takeaways that you can use to improve your business or better serve your customers.

Follow these simple steps and you’ll be able get the insights you need to be successful.

Have questions? I’d love to help you with them. Post your questions in the comments below.

Getting negative comments on social media can feel like an attack on your small business.

After all, you’ve put countless hours and endless energy into your business, so when someone criticizes your hard work in a public forum, it’s only natural to feel upset.

Luckily, negative posts don’t have to be a crisis for your business.

The important thing to remember is that people who post complaints on social media just want to be heard. Ignoring a post will show them and your other fans on social media that you don’t care about their experience.

If you take the time to thoughtfully respond, however, you can take control of the situation and turn negative feedback into a positive experience for your business. In fact, 33 percent of negative reviews turn positive when you respond.

Here are three steps to crafting your response:

1. Breathe

Take a minute and a few deep breaths to understand that this comment is not meant to be a personal affront. Most likely, your customer simply wants to be heard and considered.

Even if the feedback seems harsh or aggressive, it’s probably caused by something small that riled them up. Read over their post and see if you can put together the root of the problem, and what you can do to make the situation better.

Understand that they were likely writing their post in the heat of the moment. With a little time and some recognition of their complaint, there’s a good chance they’ll be less negative soon.

2. Acknowledge their pain

Regardless of whether or not you think your business really was in the wrong, it’s important to say you’re sorry. An apology doesn’t mean you admit to a mistake or were wrong — it’s acknowledging your customer’s negative experience and demonstrating that it was never your intention to disappoint them.

Your response should go beyond “I’m sorry” and directly mention what the commenter was upset about. Something like, “I’m sorry you had a bad experience with a server at our restaurant. In our 25 years of business we’ve prided ourselves in our friendliness and this doesn’t follow that standard,” will be more effective.

This apology not only admits the business (in this case a small, established restaurant) is sorry for this customer’s experience, but flips the story to express their history of business in the area and the level of service people expect from them.

In just two sentences, this business turned a negative situation into a positive one.

3. Take the conversation offline

After an apology, the conversation may need to continue in a private setting. Don’t be afraid to say “Could you email me the details of your experience so we can better serve you in the future?” or (if on Twitter) “Could you DM me the details so we can better serve you in the future?”

The faster you respond to the post, the more likely you are to defuse the issue. On Twitter 72 percent of people expect a reply from a complaint within 1 hour.

There will be instances when the poster’s intent is not to get better service from you, but to get a rise out of you. These people are not likely to want to continue the conversation in a less public space.

Read each post thoroughly so you can understand what they are trying to express to you. Is a customer legitimately complaining about poor service?

You should always respond to and follow through with any legitimate concerns. If someone is being very unreasonable, you can disengage with them after apologizing and asking for more information.

Negative feedback doesn’t have to be a disaster.

Shama Kabani, author of The Zen of Social Media Marketing, wrote “Even if you do get negative feedback, you can turn it into a positive by engaging in a constructive way and showing that you’re a genuine business.”

While a negative post feels like it is ruining your business’s integrity in the moment, the way you handle it could actually prove your credibility.

Stay on top of negative feedback by closely monitoring your social media, or even using a review monitoring software.

Lastly, don’t forget to build positive reviews as well. A recent study found that 88 percent of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

By staying on top of negative feedback and generating positive reviews, your business will be ready to make a great impression online and entice new customers right from the start.

Have you ever turned negative feedback into something positive for your business? Share your story in the comments!  

About the Author: Cami Bird is the Head of Local Success for MarketMeSuite, the social media marketing and engagement platform for small businesses. She is an expert in social media engagement and inbound marketing, and loves Welsh Corgis.  MarketMeSuite was the first company to pilot Constant Contact’s Small Business Innovation Loft.