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Are Business Plans Obsolete?

Written by: Casey Dawes

Article Overview: Women entreprenuers are often reluctant to write a business plan. This article looks at whether or not it's important to have a business plan in a light-hearted way.

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Are Business Plans Obsolete?

Businesses seem to come alive, experience a huge blast of exposure, and then fade away. This is particularly true of Internet businesses. Very often the person behind the business is a serial entrepreneur. He (generally, it’s a he) takes what he learns and creates a new business. Then the business fades away, gets sold, or morphs into something else.

Is there any planning going on? Or are entrepreneurs just running their business as a type of second life – seeing what happens and then adjusting what they are doing from that?

The answer is yes…and no.

Your business will benefit from having a basic structure. This is your business plan. The plan sets down what you intend to do. How formal the business plan becomes depends on what you use it for. Just putting down plans for yourself? The back of a napkin might do. Want to get a loan from a bank? Be prepared to do some real digging and writing.

Many women entrepreneurs shy away from writing a business plan. It’s as if they believe that their business really doesn’t count. If they have enough money (“enough” is rarely defined), then they are doing o.k., they think. To actually have to define the amount of money you want to earn in a business is an intimidating thought.

Yet many women are also great believers in the idea of putting an intention out to the universe. We’ve been doing it since we were teenagers, hoping for “Mr. Right” to come along. We knew exactly what he would look like and how he would treat us.

It’s the same with our business. We need to decide exactly what our business looks like and how it will treat us. That is part of your business plan.

Women also put a great deal of time and effort into finding and attracting the right man. We make sure our image is just right; maybe even a little daring. We go to places we wouldn’t normally go and we put up with really boring dates on the way to finding the man we want.

That’s marketing. It’s time to apply the same techniques to your business. Marketing is also part of your business plan.

Finally, we develop detailed plans to attract someone we have our eye on. We willingly spend money on a new dress, certain that the return on our investment will be great. If the dress doesn’t work, we figure out what was wrong with it and get a new one.

We plan, execute our plan and evaluate our results. A business plan is no different.

But there’s an element of chance underneath all of this. What if the dress doesn’t attract the man of our desires, but attracts someone who is even better? Do we stick with the plan or go with the flow? Most of us go with the flow.

And so it is with business. We need to be able to work the plan, yet grasp an opportunity that comes along.

Business plans aren’t obsolete. It’s only rigid adherence to them is obsolete.

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Article Tags: amount of money, business marketing, daring, fades, intention, internet businesses, new business, right man, second life, serial entrepreneur, teenagers, universe, women entrepreneurs, writing a business plan

About the Author: Casey Dawes
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Casey Dawes helps women small business owners get on the fast track to business success through consulting, education, coaching and speaking. She is passionate about helping women business owners succeed. Go to www.WomensBusinessFastTrack.com to get a free report that tells you how to get on the fast track for business success.

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