Conceptualizing a Business

Strategic Plan, Part I: Conceptualizing a Business

Name

BUS/475

Date

Instructor

Conceptualizing a Business

        Numerous individuals associate spring with tax preparation time, although most tax professionals and tax preparation businesses work the entire year non-stop. Each year's modifications to tax codes leads to a great requirement for tax professionals and businesses to help tax payers and companies in maximizing their tax returns. Although tax preparation companies demand expertise and a strong knowledge of taxes, tax preparation in itself provides an inexpensive, quick way into a small start up business. As an Accounting major and having prepared multiple federal and state income taxes for many individuals and even a few small businesses, I have selected a small tax preparation service as a business I would like to start up. In this paper I will "define strategic management and planning and explain why a strategic plan would be important to the success of a tax preparation business. I will discuss the funding of  the business start-up and determine where my business should be located. I will touch on the resources necessary and what return on investments required for my business. As well, I will explain the four functions of management relative to creating and implementing a strategic plan" for my tax preparation business (UOP Material, 2013).

Strategic Management and Planning

        Strategic planning is an business operations activity that is employed to establish focal points, concentrate resources and energy, improve operations, make certain that workers along with other stakeholders are operating towards common objectives and goals, identify agreement involving desired results, and adjust and assess a company's course as a reaction to a shifting environment. Strategic management, on the other hand, is the extensive collection of continuous processes and activities that businesses utilize to thoroughly organize and position actions and resources with vision, mission and strategy all throughout a business.

        A strategic plan would be "important to the success of a tax preparation business" for several reasons (UOP Material, 2013). One vital reason is to guarantee that if something serious or fatal were to happen to me, someone else could step in and fully operate my tax preparation business and continue its existence. Even if nothing serious were to transpire, developing a documented strategic business plan is necessary because the training of placing a plan on paper would force me to think through each facet of my business, thus empowering me to clarify and identify opportunities and obstacles, identify segments in which I must have professional assistance, establish goals, and improve tactics and strategies. Developing a strategic plan for my tax preparation business would permit me in communicating my vision to any partners or future associates and would be vital for them in helping to make significant contributions to the company. Another reason to establish a strong strategic plan would be that only a small number of investors or lenders will contribute funds except in cases where individuals possess a detailed documented business plan.