Why The Business Plan Isn’t Everything You Need As a Startup

So you are planning to start a business, huh? Perhaps you’ve heard much talk about having a sound business plan in place. It good, important even. But is it the only thing needed to develop a business for success? Absolutely not.

You must have a general idea of what you want to do, what your vision, mission and goals are and what you want to accomplish with that product or service.

It is critical to make plans without subjecting yourself to those over-the-top documents called business plans. If we must be honest, they are overrated.

Life is Unpredictable

Admittedly, it is still used by banks and other stakeholders when seeking investments and other similar uses, but there is something to say about how much it keeps you locked into whatever forecasts you have made for yourself. The things you have predicted to happen, will not always happen the way you anticipate.

Almost no pregnant woman can say they had their child even close to the predicted date given to them by their doctor. No one can say they predicted their car would break down or that they would have a cold next week. Nothing is guaranteed and sometimes we forget that.

The Creative Canvas

Instead, make your business a part of your life. Just as how you plan for dinner tomorrow night with a significant other or your family members, plan the things you need to accomplish tomorrow or this week to ensure that your business will flourish. If you still think you need at least a short term plan to get you going, how about the creative canvas? This will help you see what you need to execute to get your business off the ground. What it lacks in detail it makes up for in allowance of freedom for you to make changes where needed.

According to Carl Schramm, professor at Syracuse University, in an interview with Forbes about his book Burn the Business Plan: What Great Entrepreneurs Really Do: “… [a business plan] actually puts blinders on, particularly if you’ve got investors who you’ve promised to pursue this line. Michael Levin…had to buy his investors out because he would’ve crashed and burned if he stuck on the business plan, and then suddenly, he realized that he had a software business, not a steel business, which was a huge revelation.”

Make Room for Flexibility

So, make your plans, yes, but don’t be too hard on yourself on where you think the business should go and how long it should take to get there. Make your plan with enough room to grow and be flexible in that growth.

What you will need to move forward

You will, in everything you do but especially in business, need confidence. Oh, you’ve heard that before? That’s because it is one of the constant truths out there. If you have doubts about what your doing, that is totally natural. We all wonder from time to time if what we’re doing is really what we want to do. That is why it is important to have a solid WHY (that answer that you proudly declare to others when they ask why you decided on this path to begin with). That is what will keep you going in the challenging times (and rest assured that they will come).

Best wishes with your business and following the path you have set out for yourself.

We want to hear from you? Have you done a business plan for your business and how is that working for you?