The Dread and Necessity of Doing a Business Plan
Currently the WOOband team is in the process of
putting the final touches on our business plan. And let me tell you right now,
there is about 0% fun in doing a business plan. It is a ton of work if you do
it properly. It's page after page of endless web research. It's page after page
of writing. It's page after page of editing and formatting. And the really fun
part is when you change something in one section of the plan; it will affect
almost every other section. It is truly a grueling process. But you know what?
In the end, having a good plan is a necessity to running a successful business.
It forces you to answer the really tough questions in detail. It builds you a
living breathing roadmap to follow. And when things get tough in your business,
you can target what was wrong with the plan and adjust accordingly.
The pitfalls of people who don't do plans is that
they end up jotting down a few cool ideas, then decide who might buy them,
figure out one or two really cool ways to reach the customer, and then say Price
- Cost = (hopefully) Profit. Anyone can do that. And that is why so many
businesses fail and usually fail after committing substantial amounts of money
to the idea. Do you really understand the market you are going after or are you
just assuming because you are the market that everyone behaves like you? Do you
understand the markets buying behavior? How big the actual market is or could
be? What about reaching that market (marketing)? Have others done it
successfully before you? Do you have something unique to offer the potential
customer? I could list question after question that needs to be answered before
going forward and building a business. The fact is, you must have a plan or
odds of success are highly against you.
Two things to understand:
1. I do believe that actions speak louder than
words and that many people can build map after map and never actually take the
journey. The same can be true of business planning. I'm not saying plan to
death. But would you go on the football field without practicing and planning?
Of course not! And hopefully you would put a decent amount of time into
practicing and planning before going out on the field. The same should be done
for your business.
2. There are exceptions to every rule. I know
plenty of successful people who never had a formal business plan. But just
think, what if they did have a plan? Could they have been even more successful?
Give yourself an extra boost to being successful and build the plan; because
trust me, when it comes to building a business you should take any boost you
can get.
There are a ton of great resources out there for
free that can give you an outline of what should be in a business plan. Just do
a quick Google search of “business plans” and see what you get.
Write the plan. Know what you are selling; know who
will buy it; know how you will convince them to buy; and most importantly know
how your business will actually turn a profit. Once you do that, TAKE ACTION,
TAKE MASSIVE ACTION!
Co-Founder/CEO – WOOband
Dream Big or Die Small
Reformed Broker Turned Entrepreneur
Texas Born, Florida Grown
No comments:
Post a Comment