A qualitative study on the concept of business planning in the context of leaders of small-medium enterprises

All great and successful business leaders and entrepreneurs reiterate that to be successful in leading a business, one has to completely understand the concept of business planning first. A proper business plan not only highlights the business’s core strategies and their execution methodologies but it also serves as a roadmap for the company’s goals and achievements. While, it is possible for an organization to be successful without an in-depth, formatted business plan, but for most entities out there, especially in the modern times where the number of variables in business has increased, it is becoming more and more vital to have a plan that serves as the guiding light for the company’s operations. Nowadays, even a Small-medium Enterprise (SME) must have some sort of core business and/or strategic planning behind its operation in order to be successful as the amount of competition is rising. SMEs tend to face a lot more challenges and risks than just competition from the bigger companies, hence a plan to account as well as navigate these challenges and risks, are crucial. In SMEs, since the number of people leading the organization, tend to be low, the importance of a well-structured plan is much higher as the number of feedback possible for the plan as well as the margin for error is low. This management research study will focus on what the concept of business planning means to the leaders of active SMEs in Malaysia. This qualitative research paper will highlight some of the methods through which the SME owners, participating in this study, created a recipe for their own successes. This will include the various methods and nuances that are similar among the respondents as well as different. This paper will also present the background of what the concept of business planning is as well as its nuances, through established theory and literature