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Entrepreneurship
by tj on September 28, 2004
Jeffrey Cornwall analyzes why it is often a good idea to delay writing a comprehensive business plan and instead going forward with your real business:
"1. Business plans should be the last thing you do, not the first. The common wisdom seems to go like this: "I've got a great idea, so I guess I better write a business plan". Wrong.I totally agree. A business plan can be beneficial in aligning different business objectives and help you to set targets and streamline your thoughts. But very often in early stages of a company facts change so quickly that a business plan can hardly be a "handbook" for a company, Instead it is only a picture of an idea at one point of time. And for this the work on a 50+ pages business plan is not such a good investment.
....
3. Research the market to make sure that there is really a market. Try to figure out what a customer might pay for what you want to sell. And look carefully at all of the competition to see if that market is already being nicely taken care of. And by the way, there is always competition, no matter what you try to tell me to the contrary. If the market potential is marginal, go on to your next idea.
Permalink: delay writing a business plan
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Vote for delay writing a business plan:
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Rating: 6.00 out of 2 vote(s) cast.
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Response from:
Jim Bursch
(09/29/04 7:26pm)
Response from:
johann
(09/30/04 2:10pm)
Assuming that bankers won't even allow you to open a bank account if you do not have a business plan (i m in France, so it could be specific to this country), how many pages do you think an idea should fit in?
BTW I m addicted to your website :)
BTW I m addicted to your website :)
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Doing the database first imposed a certain discipline on my thinking and brought out an elegant order and balance.
Doing the Web site next forced me to think in human communication terms.
Now I need to take it all and put it in business terms - the business plan.
The work I've done before the business plan will help keep the plan tethered to some reality different from my visions of wealth and grandeur.
Check it out at Quinset.com
Cheers!
Jim Bursch
jimbursch@quinset.com