You Do Not Need A Business Plan
You Don’t Need a Business Plan!
Phew!
You don’t need a business plan! You know a business plan is a waste of time, right? Things happen and we don’t/can’t follow the plan anyway!
Geoffrey James, Contributing Editor Inc.com wrote “…investors are not interested in business plans beyond a few PowerPoint slides setting out the basic idea and the general direction.”
So, there you have it…there is no point in having a business plan.
A few stats
Before you go, just answer these 3 quick questions out aloud:
- Do I plan out where I go for holidays and may be set bit of a budget?
- Set a limit on how much I’m prepared to pay for a new TV?
- Do I book a table in advance at some restaurants when I go out?
I don’t like to gamble but, in this case, I’m willing to bet 98% of people answer “Yes” to 2 of the 3 questions😊.
As this discussion is directed to people in business, I could say 98% of businesspeople who saw this, believe plans and budgets are necessary in some instances.
While we are talking numbers, after a little digging, I found some an article by Excellent Business Plans which highlighted some stats from various research in the USA and UK:
- 70% of businesses which survive more than 5 years have a business plan
- Larger businesses, which have a business plan, have a 30% greater chance of growth
- 30% of the small businesses do not survive the first 3 years of operations if they do not have a business plan
My own anecdotal observations over the past 2 years have seen businesses with a business plan cope better with recovering from the impacts of COVID than those which do not.
A plan or a roadmap?
Mention of doing a business plan tends to see the eyes glaze over, because often it seems too hard, takes too much time, and concern it is a waste of effort.
Well, it doesn’t need to be that hard or take too much time. Much depends on the: size of the business, the complexity of its products, services, and markets. A simple road map, and in its most basic form, has only 2 points:
1.) Start = Where You Are Now
2.) End = Where You Want To Be By When.
Here is simple table to help you get started.
| Start | End | |
| Date | ||
| Annual Turnover | ||
| Total Costs and Expenses | ||
| Net Operating Profit | ||
| Number of Employees | ||
| Number of Active Customers | ||
| Marketing Undertaken (website, newspaper, social media, radio, TV, Google Advertising |
Once you have items in the “End” column, the next part is how you are going to complete the journey, and what you will need and when.
See, creating a roadmap for your business is simple really.
The Plan
From the roadmap, you can easily develop a simple business plan which lays out what actions you are going to take to achieve your objectives and estimated costs.
The benefit of creating a plan is you can identify:
- your workload,
- the finance needed
- business cash-flow
- staffing requirements
- marketing activities and costs
- product and service changes and improvements
- product and service pricing
- by when each of the above is needed
The Benefits of a Business Plan
My clients say a key benefit of following their business plan is they can better allocate their time; therefore, they are more relaxed and more focused. As the business does better, they end up with more time to work on the business😊
If you have questions or would like assistance to develop a roadmap send me an email or click here to book a free 20 minute chat with me.
Free Gift
Are you concerned your business is not achieving the results you would like to for the hours you’re putting in?
Identify which of 10 business areas you need to work on 1st and some actions you can take by downloading our free Business Expectations Mapping tool. Once you have completed Map feel free to reach out if you have questions or would like help.
