Reasons to Not Spend More Time on Your Business Plan

Even the thought of
starting a business is daunting. When you finally muster up the courage to take
the first step, test the waters, it is easy to be weighed down by pieces of
advice from all over the place, most of these from people, who have already done
what you set out to do, is logical and helpful but some can pull you under.

One of these is
having a solid, well-detailed business plan. Having a plan is necessary and one
of the crucial steps, everyone agrees on that. What I have a problem with is
the advice that you need to have a solid plan for everything, a market
strategy, product strategy, competitor analysis, financial projections, and all
that comes with it.

This can discourage
someone before they even begin or worse take up all their initial meager
resources into doing this, leading them to drop their plan altogether.

The market is dynamic, your plan is not

When plans are
created, by people who are starting, they are most of the times created in the
moment – taking into account the present scenario or the near future scenario.
The market for businesses is dynamic and changes occur rapidly, the document
becomes useless after a point of time. Sticking to it can be a cause of
failure, so, micro-details won’t be of significant help anyway.

Business Plans take up a lot of time

It’s easier to get lost in creating the perfect document and have as much detail as possible to show possible investors how serious you are, but it doesn’t work that way. The hefty document is most likely going to bore your investors. Spending a lot of energy also makes you somewhat delusional that completing it brings you closer to starting your business. When you finish it, the bubble bursts that you are still where you were with a lengthy proposal that is primarily for yourself.

Never to see the light

It’s easy to think
that you will be going through your plan each morning as soon as you wake up to
always be on track with your vision and be motivated. Think realistically, is
that going to happen? You will do it for maybe a week or two and then it will
be forgotten. Chances are you won’t even open it after you make the final
edits.

As important as
planning is, it is important to know when to step. It is also necessary to
understand that you do not have to have everything figured out to start
something. You don’t need to have a detailed 5-year plan because that doesn’t
account for much in an ever growing and changing environment. Target the major
areas and work out the details as you go because with the ever-changing time you
need to be flexible and so does your business.

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