In my Business Planning class, we have to have a subscription to the WSJ, and everyone has to present an article at some point in the semester. Yesterday, we had an example presentation based on the following article, which talks about conventional wisdom regarding business plans and how there is some movement away from rigid, highly detailed plans. Obviously, there's a bit of a slant here, but an interesting read.

http://startup.wsj.com/columnists/enterpri...0110-spors.html

mine is a crazy, loose biz plan.

i believe a plan is critical, but the content and format is up to you. just WRITE ONE. it will save your sanity.

That's about where I am - you need some kind of plan to organize your thoughts, but it doesn't need to be the long drawn-out plan that some suggest. I liked how they mentioned using short business summaries and how that was more likely to get people's attention. Then again, if you're in the position of soliciting people to invest in you, you might want something more.

A business plan's primary purpose is for the acquisition of capital. The more money you need, the more you need to show to the bank (or VC or angel) that you've done your homework.

If you have all the equity you need...you're business plan can be on a paper napkin.

(But you really should do at least an analysis of your company, competition, customers, products and pro forma financials on the back of that napkin...)

Even if you have a business plan on a napkin...you should really put some time and effort into your marketing plan.

A plan also needs to show how your company is going to get to whatever goal(s) you have set.

Currently I'm the head of sales at a design studio in Salt Lake City. The business was started by a web programmer. He never wrote up a business plan, still never has.

It's 7 Years down the road since he started, he's got a larger company with far more assets than when he started, but he's taking less money home than most of his employees are and he can't afford to take vacations. He doesn't own his business, it owns him. Why?

I think it's a basic failure of identifying what you want out of your business and how you'll make your business serve your life. He'd love to be able to take Fridays off, work shorter hours or even take an extended vacation from time to time - but he can't.

He's never once bothered to ask the critical questions though... How much does the business need to bring in to support my time off? How many sales do we need to make and how do we get them? How can I structure my hours/schedule to give me more time with my family? How can I get more done quicker? How can I structure a workflow process that works without me there? Etc, etc.

A GOOD business plan is one that addresses what you want out of your life, and then it identifies the logistics needed in your business to give you that. Then you set and meet goals based on the logistics. This is the difference between just taking what life throws at you, or making things happen for yourself.

I like that!

I just can't imagine running a business without a written plan, or at least a set of guidelines and goals. It's like wanting to go from California to New York, and you just walk out your door without any sort of plan. Do you just start walking in any direction in hopes that you will randomly get there eventually? How will you get there, in what time frame, with what resources, and what will you need to bring??? If you pick flying, can you afford the ticket and how will you get to the airport? If you pick driving, do you have the directions, enough time and money (gas, hotels) for this trip? It's winter now, so do you just go wearing your shorts? What about the most important question: why go to NY?

Over simplistic I know, but it's just a tiny example of how planning can help.

lol greg i knew u would chime in ha ha! i miss ya buddy..

I for one really agree with the robin/kaitlin camp but have yet to actually write a business plan out. I have a lot of ideas and plans in my head but not on paper. Greg makes fun of me regularly for this ha ha. Maybe soon one day lol...but I think if ur super focused and motivated (And im not saying that I am, infact I would actually say that im far from it ) that u can pull it all off without actually writting down this plan u just have to keep it in ur conciousness all the time is the problem! I suppose its easier to write it...there is just something about writting it that makes it even more likely to happen.

LOL The planning a trip example doesn't apply to you because you've traveled more than anybody here and I'm sure you have all the logistics in your head and you can plan a trip to anywhere in the world in your sleep!

Although my initial thoughts would be to say that a business plan is a WASTE of time, I have to admit, timothy's thoughts sound good to me, though I don't know if I'll ever go that route.

I created a business plan when I first started my business... it's 40 pages long and took me several in depth weeks of research and thinking to get it all written down. My final thoughts, it was a waste of time.

I created it because I wanted to score some startup capital. Turns out, if you don't have previous business experience, it doesn't matter how good your business plan is, they're not going to hear you through to giving you money.

I know I'm an idiot and I know next to nothing about business, but for myself, I think I'd prefer just some really solid goals in written form, not all the formalities of a business plan. This is something I feel I'd be much better off hiring someone else to help out with. Sorta like hiring an accountant! :-)

Really, that's all you need. I think business plans are what we make of them. The tradegy there is having information that could better your life without acting on it.

If you see a studio or someone else doing much better than you, or having something that you want you have to ask, "What's the difference between me and them?" I don't believe people just end up as super stars, I'd guess it took some planning AND execution.

-Tim

I think they're good, but they're obviously not critical (and not for everyone) since many of us have done without them. I had a clear idea of where I wanted (and want) to go, the biz is simple, and the idea of sitting down to write a plan seemed to be a waste of time for me. I just wanted to rock!

$.02

Business plans are such the hot topic in the entrepreneurial business world... like Tim said they are primarily used to raise startup capital for your business which banks want to see if you are asking for a business loan. I got my degree in business and in our entrepreneurial finance class my teacher had us do case study after case study of the successful leaders out there... the funny thing was that pretty much all of them did not start out with a business plan. Some of them eventually wrote one up for the purpose of direction after the startup but they would always laugh about how everyone would make such a big deal about them (it's in every business start-up book out there) and these guys would just completely bypass writing it out. I guess some entrepreneurs feel like writing the plan limits them, while others feel more freedom with it on paper. So interesting how we respond so differently to the same thing.