16.8% of the Surveyed Businesses Do Not Have a Business Plan Yet – GoodFirms Survey

32.6% of the business owners believe leveraging business planning software is an efficient method to draft a perfect business plan.

Washington, Nov. 23, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — GoodFirms, a universally renowned B2B ratings and reviews platform, recently released its new research report-“Business Planning: Process, Principles, Importance, and Scope for Startups.” The research gathered some original input from the survey participants to study the process and elements of preparing a good business plan. This survey from GoodFirms on business planning highlights the driving factors, benefits, and challenges organizations face when drafting a business plan.

GoodFirms’ survey reveals that nearly 16.8% of the surveyed businesses still need a business plan, and around 70.4% already have a business plan with a documented strategy to define goals, objectives, a roadmap to achieve them, and a vision for the future. About 68.4% of the survey respondents believe that business plans are crucial and valuable for startup success in many ways.

Benefits of business planning as indicated by the participants are: 81.5% believe it helps to focus on specific goals, 73.7% say it improves marketing strategies, 63.2% think it assists in financial projections, 61.8% feel it eases funding, 59.1% assume it prioritizes business processes, 57.9% says it allocates resources wisely, 42.7% consider it to track achievements/milestones, etc.

The survey discloses the challenges that  startups face during the business planning planning – gathering accurate market analysis (68.4%), getting the financial details on paper (63.2%), having realistic goals (57.9%), projecting/managing the cash flow (55.8%), starting to write the plan (53.7%), making the business plan interesting (31.5%), keeping the plan flexible (26.3%) and having an efficient contingency plan (31.6%).

According to GoodFirms’ survey, around 31.6% of businesses have already explored the application of business planning software for creating their business plan, whereas 42.1% of business owners are yet to use it. 

GoodFirms concludes by indicating that by staying focused, adapting to the changing demands, and leveraging technological advancements like a reliable business planning software can create a significant impact on startups and small business owners to set milestones, track the results, and review and revise the business functions and thrive in the market. 

Key Findings:

• A business plan is a roadmap that mentions the goals of the business and the path to achieve them.
• Along with serving as a roadmap to achieve the goals, a business plan is essential to attract investors.
• The introduction of dedicated software for business planning has made the process of business planning easy for small businesses and startups.
• The business plan software market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7% between 2020 and 2027.
• Thorough market research and accurate market forecasting can help create an efficient business plan.
• 31.6% of the surveyed businesses have already leveraged the business plan software to create a business plan.But, a major percentage are yet to explore.

About Research:

GoodFirms Survey- “Business Planning: Process, Principles, Importance, and Scope for Startups” queried 570 small and large businesses to understand their views on the importance of business planning and the benefits they have leveraged.

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About GoodFirms:

GoodFirms is a Washington, D.C.-based B2B review and rating platform that focuses on delivering rich, original, and in-depth coverage of IT products and services to the B2B service users. Both service seekers and service providers benefit from the reviews, ratings, and research insights delivered by GoodFirms.

CONTACT: Sophia Jayden 
(sophia@goodfirms.co)