Before you start

You’re itching to start creating your business plan, and that’s a good thing. But before you get started there are a few things to consider.

Unfortunately, many business plans are wildly unrealistic. It’s not hard to understand why. It’s exciting to start a new business. You’ve got big dreams, big goals, and huge amounts of ambition. You want to make a serious impact.

The problem is that this excitement often causes entrepreneurs to massively overestimate how successful they’ll be and underestimate the problems they’ll encounter.

To be effective, a business plan needs to be realistic. Remember, ultimately, you’re the one who’s going to be pouring time and money into your venture. Before you launch, you want to be relatively confident that you have a good chance of succeeding.

Jeff Haden says:

For many entrepreneurs, developing a business plan is the first step in the process of deciding whether to actually start a business. Determining if an idea fails on paper can help a prospective founder avoid wasting time and money on a business with no realistic hope of success!

Be thoughtful, methodical, and careful

In many ways, a business plan should help you decide whether your idea will pan out. This doesn’t mean that you need to anticipate every risk. There’s no way you can do that. However, it’s important to be thoughtful, methodical, and careful as you put together your plan.

It’s possible that you may put together your business plan and then realize that the potential outcome isn’t as bright as you initially thought. You might realize that the competition is much tougher than you realized or that the market is smaller than you anticipated.

That’s okay. In fact, it’s a good thing. It forces you to go back to the drawing board and reevaluate. It’s better to realize these things before you launch your business and spend tens of thousands of dollars!

At a minimum, your business plan should convince you that you’ll succeed. When you logically evaluate all the data you’ve assembled in your plan, you should feel confident that you’re going to achieve your goals. When you’re confident, you’re more likely to convince potential investors to back you too.

So, with all that said, be patient as you assemble your plan. Take the necessary time to do the market research, analyze your financial needs, and map out your strategy for the future

Conclusion

Is it a pain? It all depends on how you look at it. If you see it as the thing that’s preventing you from getting started, then creating a business plan will seem like a necessary evil. But if you view it as building a foundation for a successful, lasting business, it changes your perspective.