Why is forecasting important for business?

Forecasting
is important because businesses
thrive on being prepared.  If you are a business owner, you need
to know as
accurately as possible what your outlook will be in the future.  You need to
know
this in order to anticipate, for example, how much of various products
you will need to order
from your suppliers or how much (if at all) you will
need to expand your manufacturing
capacity.  If you do not have good
forecasts of things like sales volume for the next year, you
will be unable
to buy the right amount from your suppliers and you might end up with excess

inventory or you might run out of materials at a time when demand for your product
is
high.