I’m almost done reading Rework, the book by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, founders of 37Signals.com.  The book is about rethinking the way businesses are started and developed.  For the most part, I like this book.  I like what the authors have to say about doing more with less.  I operate by this philosophy and teach you to do the same.  But, there is one topic I keep thinking back to, that I completely disagree with.  The authors believe business planning is a waste of time.  UGH – HOLD THE PHONE!  WHAT?!?!?!  The authors also believe that business plans are inflexible and never used.  OH BOY!  WRONG.

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Your business will undoubtedly never go as planned.

This should not be news to you.  Things NEVER go as planned.  Sometimes they go better.  Sometimes they go worse.  They usually just go “different”.  It’s very rare in life that anything EVER goes as planned.  Did college go as planned for you?  It didn’t for me.  Yes – I graduated with an BS in Accounting just like I planned.  (Funny because even tho I “planned” this, my career ended up being very different.)  I also planned to marry my high school / college boyfriend and have 4 kids before 30 with him.  That plan fell through and it is a really good thing.

Few people were able to predict the economic crush of the last few years.  I doubt too many people had this written into their business plans.  But a well thought business plan would force a business owner to take a look at the foundation of the company: the mission statement, core values, strengths, core services, and niche.  Examining these fundamentals and adjusting your plans (see below) would certainly give a man with a plan a competitive advantage over one without a plan.

Do weddings ever go as planned?

We are in the business of planning weddings.  Some of us plan the whole shebang.  Some of us plan a small portion of the wedding: the flowers, the invites, the cake, etc.  Rarely does that wedding go through exactly as planned.  (And if you aren’t teaching your clients that this is true, then I recommend you start curbing expectations.)  There is NO perfect wedding.  And, in that imperfection lies the beauty of the experience.

But, we still plan the weddings, do we not? We would be crazy to think that wedding planning is a waste of time.  What would these wedding be like if they were not planned?  What sort of celebration would it be for the guests of the event?  Even a small intimate ceremony at a courthouse takes some planning on the part of the couple.

Business planning is goal-setting.

When you write a business plan you are setting goals for your business.  It is a set of master goals for your company vision, its marketing, its operations, and its finances.  You may exceed or not meet the sales goals.  But, it’s important to have this target in mind.  (How can get a bullseye if you don’t have a target?)  You may underspend or overspend, but without a budget you’ll never have a gauge for how to spend your cash.  The ad in which you invest may bring you TONS of business or no business.  But if you haven’t sat back to identify who your target customer is and where they go for information, you won’t even know the best fit for that advertising decision.

These are all goals that you set for yourself as a part of the business plan.

Business plans need to be LIVING.

Your business plan needs to be a living, breathing document.  If you stop planning for your business, your business is dead.  Your business plan is never done. Why write a business plan if you aren’t referring back to it and making it a “PLAN IN ACTION”?  I agree – that would be a huge waste of time.  I don’t think you should rewrite it all the time.  I do think that you should make updates, changes, reassessments based on what is happening now.

KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Business planning should be simple.  We overcomplicate so many things in our lives and businesses.  We create a thousand steps of action and fail to take the first one.  Keep your business planning simple and you’ll have a plan in action.