- April 17, 2018 -

I can hear the rumbling already starting.

“But I’m an MBA, and we were taught to have to have a business plan.”

Yep...I know that according to Price Waterhouse Coopers, two thirds of CEO’s of fast growth organizations develop some type of business plan.”

We even say on our website's blog sidebar that “Businesses don’t plan to fail…they just fail to plan.”

All true.

In fact, one of the first things we do when working with new clients is to develop a strategic business plan…just not a 5-year plan.

Ever.

And here’s why:

With small businesses...things don't generally go as planned.

It's just fact of life...like death and taxes!

So how are you going to write a 3-year, let alone a 5-year, projection with a straight face?

One client recently said, "I've had some success, but it was all from trial and error. Had I known BEFORE what I knew now after working with you guys I could have had a plan in place and reached my goals earlier."

Here lies the fallacy: You never “know before what you know now.”

If success is “all from trial and error,” how exactly do you write a plan?

Well, marketing is trial and error, people!

Core offer, messaging, the path to customers, your competitive edge, your pricing model — all this gets figured out as you go.

You can’t know with any degree of certainty what’s going to work ahead of time... so why are entrepreneurs concluding that they should have written a business plan?

The very idea of long-range "planning" is ridiculous...

Why?

Because what's working now may not work in 5 years.

Remember MySpace? It was the first social networking platform Cheryl and I cut our online teeth on.

Well, MySpace is dead - long live Facebook.

Remember when Web 2.0 was a buzz years ago?

It's passé. No longer hip and cool.

Good thing you spent all that time planning, right?

Which is why I personally hate trends...

And probably why I haven’t looked hip since the 80’s 🙂

At the beginning of a new venture...you don't know ANYTHING about what your business is going to look like.

You have no supernatural, crystal ball, woo-woo powers.

+ Your product line will evolve to fit the market.

You may need to rebuild or scrap some products you currently are using.

Growth is a good thing - growth implies change. There's no place for ego.

+ Being stuck to a long-range plan set in stone can inhibit brainstorming and creativity.

Ask the most successful entrepreneurs when their best ideas are born...

Walking the dog.

At 3am.

During a daily run.

Waiting in the airport for a delayed flight.

So now that we've pretty much ripped apart the logic of developing a 5-year business plan, what's the answer?

The only plan you should make is to plan on improvising.

There's nothing wrong with planning where you want to be in five years.

What I'm saying is that by the time you put the finishing touches on an elaborate business plan (that your clients will never ask to see - nor will your investors take the time to read)...your plan will be irrelevant.

The best plans have been scribbled on a napkin.

The act of planning is good.

But taking action and implementing on version 1.0 of that plan is better.

Tweaking, evolving and growing to scale is what keeps being an entrepreneur exciting.

Ready to move out of "planning" mode and into "doing" mode? Then set up a free consult with us.
 
Later!

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