Another Business Plan Perspective

When writing your business plan always use simple language to document all the issues. Make your plan easy to read and to understand. Technical or verbose language may lose its precise meaning when you review it later. The KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) plan is always good to follow! It is less about how your business plan looks and more about what it actually contains. In the final analysis it must be useful to you and to the business associates you will present it to.

It is always a good idea to place some reasonable limits on long-term projections. By long-term we typically mean in excess of one year. It is probably a good idea to stick to short-term objectives and then modify your business plan as the business progresses. All too often, at least for many people, long-range planning becomes almost meaningless because the reality of an operating business will usually be different from the initial concept upon which the business was established. The further out you go the more variance is likely to occur and the less likely your long term planning will actually apply.

It may sound strange to hear this but you should avoid being overly optimistic in your planning. One might say that to offset excessive optimism you should be extremely conservative in predicting your timelines, suggesting capital and other requirements, and forecasting sales and profit projections. Very few business plans ever correctly anticipate how much money and time will be required in developing the original business concept and, therefore, you do not want to ignore detailing your strategies in the event of unforeseen business, and other, adversities and set-backs.

It has often been said that success comes to those who "start businesses with great economics and not necessarily great inventions". This may well be very true. Having a unique idea or even a pattent is good. No competition can mean the whole market is open to you, but it can also mean that no one is interested in what you have to offer either. Do your research. Check market saturation and market test your product or service. Know the economics of what you are intending to do as much as, or more than, you know your product or service.