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Business which have passes this stages are on their way to sophisticated planning. many enterprises are classified in each of these stages.

• Unplanned stage. At the start of the business, the owner manager is busy looking  for funds, customers, materials and equipment. He has no time for planning. His entire attention is devoted to the daily operations of his business in his intense desire to survive.
• Budgeting system stage. Eventually, the owner-manager realizes the need to develop and use a budgeting system Estimated incomes from sales and expected expenditures are made. This is done to facilitate the orderly functions of the growing enterprise.
• Annual planning stage. the owner manager drafts an annual plan. He can use either the top-down planning  or bottom-up planning. In top-down approach, the owner-manager provides the goals and let the employees comply with them. In the case of the bottom-up planning. In top-down approach, he encourages his employees to participate in planning is autocratic while the one is democratic.
• Strategic planning stage. As the business enterprise becomes bigger, a long-range planning is needed. This is a three or five year plan. Such plan has flexibility to able to adjust to changing conditions.

A small business is closer to the market place. Not a few small business conduct their operations right inside the market place. Being closer to the buyers, compared with corporations, they get first hand information about consumer tastes and preferences. Such advantage enables the small business to respond quickly to the needs of consumers. It is not possible for big business to act as a quickly to satisfynew demand.

Generally, the owner of small businesses are also the managers. Most of the  small enterprise in different countries are like these. The owner-manager employs his wife and children. If the busiess grows, the owner hires more employees, usually relatives and towmates.

Capital comes from the owner or small group. In some places a small business is usually finance by the family through its own savings and/ or loans. if ever the business is funded by a small group, it comes from relaties and close friends.

The area of operations is small. This means the business is community based. The owner and the employees live in the community where the enterprise is located.

The size of the enterprise is small in relation to the industry. For example the shoe industry is a large one. But there are very many shoe stores. Clearly, one shoe store cannot dominate the market for shoes.

Entrepreneur are generally careful. They implement their decisions on a trial basis or limited scale. This is to test the feasibility or profitability of their decisions. if they happen to be right in their decisions, they implement their business projects in full-scale. The idea is that if they were wrong in their decisions, their losses have been minimized.

However, the problems of implementing a decisions can be eliminated or minimized if the decisions has been the product of group action. As a democratic process, the beneficiaries, the affected ones and those concerned in the implementation should be involved in decision making process mus be involved from planning to the implementation of the project.

japan has many successful entrepreneurs, because it considers employees the most important resource of business. Employees are involved in planning, decision-making and implementation. Top management allows them to participate actively-within their areas of competence- in the vital aspects of the business. Through this approach, it is much easier to implement programs or projects. This approach , it is much easier to implement programs or projects.

The problem has to be identified and defined. Then gather the data relevant to the problem. Organize and analyze the data to be able to come up with alternative solutions. The next step is to determine the best solution. Naturally, the best solution is measured in terms of profitabilty.

The implementation of the solution that counts. A best solutiin which cannot be put into practice is not a solution. The best solution criteria can be a Presense of risk, Economy of effort, Time Factor and Availabilty of resources.

An ideal solution is one that does not create another problem, and it is most economical in terms of time, labor and money. But of course, the final determinant is the availability of resources. For instance. are there competent employees, adequate funds, necessary materials and facilities to implement the decisions or solutions?