Business Plans (are) for the Birds, Part 1

From time to time I am asked advice about business plans.  I usually refer people to a couple of online resources, including Jack Derby’s Writing the Winning Business Plan and Guy Kawasaki’s The Zen of Business Plans.  I also recommend Jeff Timmon’s New Venture Creation both for advice on business plans and as an all-around resource for the entrepreneur.

My personal experience with business plans is that they’re a little bit like painting a room, which can be kind of fun—at least when you think about rolling fresh paint on neatly prepared walls.  The problem with painting, of course, and the reason we all avoid it like the plague, is that the preparation is a killer.  Scraping.  Peeling. Washing, masking and priming.  Only then can we take out the roller and "have fun" painting. 

So it is with a business plan.  The document itself is the distillation of lots of heavy lifting around "potential" customer visits, proving-out technologies, competitive assessment and sound financial modeling which, in the best case, creates a concise, logical, compelling argument for building and funding an idea.

The most common flaws in business plans—when ideas are rolled on the wall without the proper preparation--are captured especially well in John Mullins’ Why Business Plans Don’t Deliver.

Having assembled all of this good advice, however, there’s still an element of art in writing a business plan.  Each deal has its own kind of internal logic, and each entrepreneur his own style, so that the elements proposed by Derby, Kawasaki and Timmons can and should be reassembled to meet the unique needs of the plan and its creator.

Let me demonstrate.

I operate a hugely popular retail establishment in my backyard that has come under heavy competitive pressure in the last few years, such that a change of location seems like a very sound strategic move.  We’re coming into peak season for my business, so in my next post, I’ll offer (what I hope will be) a compelling and sound business plan for recapturing momentum in the market and having a blockbuster Christmas season.

And you'll see how the elements of a business plan can be mixed and matched for the specific idea.

Stay tuned.

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

Tweet