A business plan makes smes more profitable

Small businesses who had  a written business plan in 2013 were consistently more profitable than those that did not, according to research by business and finance software provider, Exact. The research revealed that  70% of companies with a plan turned a profit, compared to 52% of businesses without a plan. The results also showed that that those who had a business plan in place were more than twice as likely to achieve their goals than those who did not – achieving a 69% success rate compare to 31%. Despite the statistics, 34% of respondents said they did not have a business plan in place, with 68% of these saying they didn’t think they needed one. Lucy Fox, General Manager UK Cloud Solutions for Exact, said: “The findings clearly show there are many SMEs who are missing out on the added value a business plan can offer, the consequence being that many may be failing to reach their full growth and business potential as a result.”