Business Plan is an Enterprise’s Foundation
By Dan Boudreau
As a writer, I’ve come to realize that the most beneficial part of business planning arises from the act of writing the plan. In writing a business plan, we clarify our thoughts. This, along with the necessary research, sets up a very healthy learning process.
Lately I’ve been reading books to learn more about the craft of writing. As learning is prone to do, the deeper I dig the more I find there is to learn, and the more I learn the deeper it gets. Two concepts from two different authors caught my attention because they apply so readily to business planning.
In Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us, Jessica Page Morrell writes about the underpinnings for various structures and how plans are helpful, even necessary for writing novels. She supports her argument with comparisons to having plans for building skyscrapers, suspension bridges and cars. In order to travel confidently across bridges, we want to know that they are built on well-planned structures.
In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott compares the writing process to a developing Polaroid picture. Although the Polaroid is now old technology, I am still fascinated at the way each layer of the picture reveals itself. What begins as a blank sheet develops, layer by layer, into a detailed photograph.
Businesses begin as ideas in the minds of entrepreneurs, and over time and as more is learned, those ideas become clearer, until the business is born. A person who knows little about a business can be very knowledgeable by the time the business plan is fully developed.
Why is it that so many people will leap into business without the benefit of a business plan? Here are a few reasons:
- Ignorance. Some people don’t know what a business plan is or how it helps their business. More importantly, many newbies just aren’t aware of the amount of risk a business brings into one’s life.
- Fear of Failure. A business plan is written evidence of your promises to yourself (and your investors, lenders, and partners) that can be used to measure your success or failure. It makes you accountable, to yourself and to others.
- Fear of Success. If the business plan vision materializes, your life might just change forever. Change can be scary, and there’s no slope as slippery as the fear of success where we unconsciously slide back into old habits that keep us from achieving what we really want in life.
- Perceived Time Constraints. Many people are lulled into not taking time to research and write a business plan because they believe the opportunity will pass them by, or because they feel that they are too busy and that the planning will be a waste of time.
A structured business plan is the foundation for a business, and the writing reveals the details of the business to the owner or writer just as the Polaroid unleashes its detail to the observer, layer by layer. In the same way structure comforts the novel writer, those planning a business are comforted to learn about the structure a business plan offers.
Your business might be one of the largest and riskiest investments you make in your lifetime, and certainly in your career. A business plan will provide structure for your learning journey and when it’s done, it will be the foundation for your business.
You are welcome to publish this article providing you attach this statement with the link back to the RiskBuster website:
“Dan Boudreau is President and CEO of Macrolink Action Plans Inc and the RiskBuster Business Plan Oasis at http://www.riskbuster.com Writing your own business plan can be easy, fast and fun! Instantly download a free copy of Dan’s popular fast-track business plan template, The Shell, when you subscribe to the RiskBuster Oasis Insider at http://www.riskbuster.com”
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