A business plan should be regarded as an absolute essential, whether you're:
• A bright-eyed and bushy-tailed entrepreneur with a GreatIdea-dot-com.
• The owner of a "real-world" business who wants to enter the dot-com domain.
• The proud possessor of a very popular—but currently unprofitable—Web site who is ready to garner more than compliments from your success!
When I told a friend that I was writing this book, she said cheerfully, "Well, I'm starting my own business, but I certainly don't need a plan! I'll be the only employee, and I'll be working from home. And I'm financing it with the haul I took in from trading Internet stocks!"
Hmmm. The product that my friend (let's call her Cheerful Cherie) plans to market is her homemade jam. She hopes to sell it to gourmet stores locally and, via a Web site, to retail customers worldwide.What I gently suggested to Cherie—and what I would advise anyone who wants to start a business without a plan—is that she pretend that, rather than starting a business, she's getting prepared to build a house on her own.
"Would you construct your house without some type of blueprint?" I asked her.
"Of course not," Cherie said indignantly. "I'd need to have a plan to follow. And what if I discovered I couldn't do it on my own? I'd have to hire someone to help, and I'd need a blueprint for that person to follow."
Exactly.By creating a business plan, you build:
• A résumé that can make or break your ability to secure financing, wow prospective investors, and lure top employees.
• A roadmap for the future, for both you and your colleagues, a way to plan for tomorrow—and the next five years.
• A method for evaluating just how you can most effectively manage your business and market your product or service, and a blueprint for implementing those concepts.
• A way to develop descriptions of your company, your products or services, your financial projections, as well as a method for detailing how you can beat your competition—all of which you should have in place before you begin.
Thus, the answer is: "Yes, Cherie, you need a business plan to build a solid foundation under your dream castle in the air."
• A bright-eyed and bushy-tailed entrepreneur with a GreatIdea-dot-com.
• The owner of a "real-world" business who wants to enter the dot-com domain.
• The proud possessor of a very popular—but currently unprofitable—Web site who is ready to garner more than compliments from your success!
When I told a friend that I was writing this book, she said cheerfully, "Well, I'm starting my own business, but I certainly don't need a plan! I'll be the only employee, and I'll be working from home. And I'm financing it with the haul I took in from trading Internet stocks!"
Hmmm. The product that my friend (let's call her Cheerful Cherie) plans to market is her homemade jam. She hopes to sell it to gourmet stores locally and, via a Web site, to retail customers worldwide.What I gently suggested to Cherie—and what I would advise anyone who wants to start a business without a plan—is that she pretend that, rather than starting a business, she's getting prepared to build a house on her own.
"Would you construct your house without some type of blueprint?" I asked her.
"Of course not," Cherie said indignantly. "I'd need to have a plan to follow. And what if I discovered I couldn't do it on my own? I'd have to hire someone to help, and I'd need a blueprint for that person to follow."
Exactly.By creating a business plan, you build:
• A résumé that can make or break your ability to secure financing, wow prospective investors, and lure top employees.
• A roadmap for the future, for both you and your colleagues, a way to plan for tomorrow—and the next five years.
• A method for evaluating just how you can most effectively manage your business and market your product or service, and a blueprint for implementing those concepts.
• A way to develop descriptions of your company, your products or services, your financial projections, as well as a method for detailing how you can beat your competition—all of which you should have in place before you begin.
Thus, the answer is: "Yes, Cherie, you need a business plan to build a solid foundation under your dream castle in the air."
