Take a seat on the couch and get comfortable, because I’m about to bust open the conventional wisdom on starting a business. Are you ready? You DON’T NEED A BUSINESS PLAN.
I know that goes against all that you’ve ever heard about starting your own business, but I’m serious. Skip the business plan. I had started writing a blog post on this issue with a snarky title like “The Only Reason to Write a Business Plan is if You Make a Living Writing Business Plans”, or some such other equally sarcastic title.
But, before I finished writing my post, I serendipitously came across this post from Quick Sprout on the exact same issues, without all the snarkiness. Neil Patel is dead on. In fact, I could’ve written his post. In fact, I did–well, at least I was half way through mine on this subject. But, there’s no sense in re-creating the wheel, just so I could enjoy the pride of authorship, so I’m going to encourage you to read his blog post.
Really. If you are thinking about launching a business and are spending any time on a business plan…please read this post. And then, STOP working on that business plan.
Instead, Go. Launch. Your. Business.
What are your thoughts on business plans? I’m really curious, so drop me line and let me know.
I totally agree with you. I think you need to consider the aspects of a business plan when starting a business, but you don’t need to write it all out and create pretty charts. As you run a business, the parts of a business plan are always front and center. You’re actually DEALING with them instead of just writing about them.
Thanks for your comment. You are absolutely right. I don’t want to trash business plans, but I hate to see women stuck writing a business plan rather than launching their business!
I totally agree about business plans. I’m just wondering why they are still thought of as a necessity. Recently I was a mentor for an entrepreneurship program at my former college. What did the program consist of? A banker from Chase taught the students how to write a business plan! That was their exposure to entrepreneurship. I’d be surprised if any of those students went on to start a business after that extremely dry and tedious program. I agree, I think people who like business plans either write them for a living, or really know little about actual entrepreneurship.
Thanks Deborah for your insight. Those poor students! They were really robbed of an opportunity to get them fired up for entrepreneurship, rather than boring (or scaring) them death with the same old tired business plan lecture. People often look at me like I’m nuts when I say that business plans are over-rated. Apparently, this school of thought is pretty radical. But, I’m convinced it will be mainstream one day–and business plans will become passe.
By the way…I’m a fan of yours! Thanks for dropping by Launch Therapy!