Effective planning is no doubt what differentiates a successful man/business from the other, it has become the key for goal achievements and business management.

It would be proper, that i first throw some light on the topic, so we would know where we are coming from and where we are going to.
Planning on it's own from my perspective, is an act of making out a detailed way to achieve a goal. So the first thing you should know is

Before you plan, you must have decided on all your goals

Not to go too much into goal setting, I just want you to know that a goal is SMART - Specific - Measurable (broken down into stages) - Attainable (even the smallest task in the goal must not have doubts) - Reliable (it should achieve the purpose you expect) - realistic (the available resources should be put into consideration) - Time related (it should have a particular time frame).

Difference between a plan and a goal
A goal says what you will do and when, a plan gives how you will do. A goal says 'we are going to produce five pen before the 12am today', a plan says 'we are going to order 5 piece of rubber first by 8am, the melt the rubber by 9am, then it would be shaped....' and so on. Try to picture more examples if you can.

So moving on...
Now, when we say effective planning, for something to be effective,it should be able to produce the desired result. So the second thing you should note is that
It's not just about making a plan, its about how far and well the plan can go


So three things you must do before, during and after making the plan
- Know what you are planning for before planning
- Consider resources, probabilities and other factors that will affect the plan while planning
- Look at the plan and analyze if it will actually work after planning, then carry out the plan.


So I would continue this course for a while, as also hope to learn from contributors too (everybody is allowed) . My name is Paul, and thank you for joining us.

Where can I learn how to write a good business plan and business proposal.