A Challenging Experience
Business plans are meant to help an entrepreneur to invest in a venture that has a higher possibility of picking up as soon as possible. The inability of most entrepreneurs to come up with feasible business plans pushes into relying on consultancy firms that specialize in developing business ideas. I undertook an internship program on one of the consultancy firms that specialize in offering business advice and developing business plans for clients. The clients would generally provide their capital projections, and a business plan is developed for them. My outstanding experience in the firm occurred when a client came back for a redo of their business plan and demanded that the work should be redone in less than a day.
Business plans form a crucial part of any venture as they explain how a business will be operated. Firms that specialize in developing business plans for clients are expected to do sufficient research so that the clients do not fail in their ventures. As much as a business plan does not guarantee success and mitigation of risk, it gives an idea of what should be done so that a business idea can be feasible. The complaint brought back by the client was complex in that he wanted a redo of the whole plan in a single day. Also, I was in a difficult situation because the plan happened to have been worked on by an employee who had proceeded on leave, and I had to start the plan from scratch. Besides, the firm had trusted me with the ability to address any form of challenge that comes my way. The challenge of having to develop a working business plan in a day and having to stop other crucial duties gave me a different perception of preparing for uncertainties.
The firm I was undertaking an internship did not have clear strategies to avoid the occurrence of such situations. Employees would proceed on leave with pending orders which were awaiting payment. Although most people would pay after the second draft, there existed a risk of having clients who asked for new plans like the case I encountered. Considering that I eventually managed to work through the plan with the said duration, I took the experience positively and decided to build my future aspirations based on it. The experience was a wake-call for my plans to start a similar firm in the future. I learned that a firm runs at risk of encountering several cases, and if care is not taken, the firm might lose several clients. Also, I would recommend a similar experience to someone who wants to gather experience of running a consultancy firm. Besides, such experiences help in creating a strong character, and lessons learned can be used to avoid future mistakes or even worse scenarios.
In sum, my greatest experience came during my internship at a consultancy firm where I was forced by circumstances to work within a short period to complete a task that would require several days. The client’s complaint brought out the firm’s ineffective strategies to address clients’ concerns. The experience was an eye-opener in my dream to have a similar firm in the future and would thus recommend the same to anyone with a desire to build their career.