ABSTRACT
There are two well-known business maxims: that 'organisations do not plan to fail - they fail to plan' and that 'perfect planning prevents poor performance'. Careful planning in business means first, survival, and second, prosperity. Business advisors have long argued that a formal business plan is one of the fundamentals of a successful business. From a business planning perspective, planning for a marketing operation precedes operational implementation. The marketing planning process for a private medical consultant business normally consists of reviewing the so-called 'four Ps of marketing'. Particularly for those consultants who are daunted by the prospect of an in-depth business planning exercise, there is a simple technique available that has proved to be almost universally successful in generating business planning ideas and in formulating strategies. Retirement planning, to be effective, should begin early in a consultant's private practice career and should cover a range of factors.
