Business Plans – Writing the life of a business
If a business were a person, a business plan would be the person’s DNA makeup, their physical features, their personality, their manner of speech, their thought processes and ultimately, what the person is destined to be five, ten and twenty years down the road. Just like a person’s life – impossible to predict and full of ups and downs and risks.
Why do we write a business plan then? Also the same reason we plan out our lives. We don’t want to end up failing. Yet, like a life, a business is so fragile that with the most intricate and detailed of plans, many start-ups fail.
Finding out what a business plan entails is quite a fright to me because I used to account for failures of businesses commonly for a lack of foresight, that the people in charge of the business didn’t do enough planning. But no, business plans require you to pour your heart out about the business.
Business plans are not only written for investors who you want, but ultimately for those on the team of the business. Maybe the failure of a business is failure to follow a business plan. Or maybe failure can account for a poor business plan. Or neither. But ultimately, a plan better prepares a business for success.