So why does a business plan matter? It’s your road map to future. Would you get in a car to go on vacation without a map to get you to your desired destination? Not unless you’ve gone route a few times previously, right? And since this is your first go around with your new business, it’s wise to create a business plan to increase your odds for success and give you a definite direction.

A business plan is also used for securing capital from banks, venture capitalists, investors and like. None of which will give you time of day unless you’ve done your homework. If you don’t care about future of your business, why should they?

So, as they say, “Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan”. Beginning business plan is often most intimidating part so let us help you along. It’s not so difficult and can even be quite fun. Imagine that? Building your business plan is a little like building confidence in your future and that always feels good.

Let’s start with what elements are in a business plan.

In end, what these million dollar CRM systems do or do not do, matters little to small businesses. The price tag is too high for most.

Is "Personalization" The Useful Part?

The better approach may be to look at some aspects of CRM to see what can be done with software on our website to provide our visitors and customers with a more pleasant and enjoyable experience. It may help to exit CRM derby, stroll down a related path, and think of only part of it: personalization.

Neat things flow forth from this orientation. For example, maybe invite visitors to check on things new since their last visit. Or on specials for day, specifically tailored to this visitor in some way. Or when a customer clicks a form to reorder, fill entry fields with data provided earlier. A great time saver for customer, something they will appreciate. Simple, effective things such as these can be abstracted from CRM models at modest cost.

Large Scale Models

Large firms with bucks to burn can make personalization central to a new kind of website. At a minimum, each page can address visitor by name. At extreme, entire site can be presented according to previous information collected about this visitor. For example, if visitor has kids, and a appropriate new product is available, it can be offered. And not offered to another visitor without children.

Building a website on fly is a bit heavy for a small business. The coding challenge alone is heavy. The price tag for software is high.

Still, a small business can implement simple ideas as suggested above. And more will spring from these.

For Starters

As a fellow into site performance and promotion, I'm always leery of anything that may annoy a visitor. Hits are so hard to get, there's just no point in inviting anybody to leave. So I'm very concerned about any technology that risks turning visitors away.

I used a Pentium II PC for almost two years. Beginning about a year back, some sites would not allow me to visit because I didn't have latest and greatest. Maybe giants can get away with this, but a small business can not afford to lose even one visitor.