{"id":961,"date":"2009-09-30T09:15:31","date_gmt":"2009-09-30T07:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tsiblog.potlikker.com\/blog\/?p=961"},"modified":"2009-10-22T02:36:34","modified_gmt":"2009-10-22T00:36:34","slug":"business-plans-why-you-need-one-and-why-they-may-not-deliver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/?p=961","title":{"rendered":"Business Plans: Why You Need One and Why They May Not Deliver"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A strong business plan is essentially the cornerstone of your business and yet many entrepreneurs drag their feet when it comes to writing one \u00e2\u20ac\u201c possibly because it involves a good deal of work and may bring back childhood memories of writing a tedious book report on summer vacation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d according to Coleen DeBaise from her upcoming book \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Wall Street Journal Complete Small Business Guidebook\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 She goes on to state her reasons why:<\/p>\n

It forces you to identify your (and your company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s) strengths and weaknesses.<\/em><\/p>\n

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It helps you figure out how much money you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need.\"Business<\/em><\/p>\n

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It gives you clear direction, which can help eliminate stress.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

It will serve as a resume when you seek lenders, investors or partners.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

It makes you evaluate the market for your product or service and size up the competition.<\/em><\/p>\n

These are all solid reasons to create a plan yet is there something missing?\u00c2\u00a0 The term business plan has become rather clich\u00c3\u00a9 but what about the notion of what it takes to write a successful plan.<\/p>\n

In my reading I came across a helpful article by John W. Mullins in the WSJ entitled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why Business Plans Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Deliver<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0 Mullins discusses his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Five oh-so-common varieties of plans that go quickly into the trash without further consideration.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Not only does he identify these five types but he emphasizes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the three key elements that go into a successful business plan: a logical statement of problem and its solution; a battery of cold, hard evidence; and candor about the risks, gaps and other assumptions that might be proved wrong.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Mullins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 five problematic types of plans are summarized below:<\/p>\n

Here I am, never mind the problem<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In this kind of plan the writer is smitten with the elegance of his or her technology.\u00c2\u00a0 The plan begins not with the identification of a customer problem to solve but with a detailed explanation how the technology works\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

A Coke for every kid in China<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The gambit rests its case on a plethora of secondary data to show how large and fast-growing a market is.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.with the large number of customers in our market, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll easily get enough.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Sadly it is never quite that simple.<\/p>\n

Just look at our (paper) profits<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Often referred to as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcdream sheets\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 one can easily Excel just about anything to a successful conclusion.\u00c2\u00a0 While at times difficult to spot, those with a critical eye can certainly ask the tough, poigniant questions that can quickly turn a projected profit into something far less desirable.<\/p>\n

Our team walks on water<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Pedigree is nice but does the team have the hands-on experience to take on your plan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s challenges.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A business plan that identifies its critical success factors and shows how the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expertise and experience are suited to addressing is much more likely to attract capital-or at least a second look.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything is wonderful<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The most common type of business plan and the one that goes most quickly into the trash, is the one in which the writer can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find anything but good things to say about the opportunity and plans to pursue it. Rather than attempt to paper over the rough spots and uncertainty, identify them yourself and deal with them candidly in your plan.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

What do you think makes someone want to read your business plan?\u00c2\u00a0 Is your plan guilty of some of the 5 items noted above?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A strong business plan is essentially the cornerstone of your business and yet many entrepreneurs drag their feet when it comes to writing one \u00e2\u20ac\u201c possibly because it involves a good deal of work and may bring back childhood memories of writing a tedious book report on summer vacation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d according to Coleen DeBaise from her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[32,34,45,96,178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1050,"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions\/1050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}