Think Entrepreneurship and the first question asked is, Do you have a Business Plan? I have always wanted to write a Business Plan, but after 12 Years of being in Business, employing over 140 People, having Offices in 14 odd locations in India, having four five different Companies, I am yet to have seriously sat down and document a Business Plan. Apart from setting the Vision and Objectives what else can be written down as a formal Business Plan. We have to achieve what we have envisaged, in actual reality. This would require adapting to real time situations rather than referring to some written down documents. Maybe, the Business Plan would be more authentic if it is written after the Business is estblished. If actual statistical data is evaluated, then more often than not, there would be no correlation between a startup firm’s ultimate revenue or net income and the supposedly requisite written business plan.
Many of the contemporary entrepreneural stalwarts of like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Michael Dell did not actually have any Business Plans in hand when they embarked on ventures that became synonymous with the Word Success. The earliest however just got on and cashed in on their small efforts turning big. But sadly even though the research debunks the requirement of a business plan, the myth lingers. Don’t get me wrong. I am not debating or undermining the sanity of a Business Plan in any way. If possible, we ought to sit down and plan everything before we actually go down onto the playing field. My own belief is that a formal business plan invites the “paralysis of analysis”. It distracts in the sense that it prohibits “entrepreneurship” in its true sense. Playing by the script might inhibit our ability to innovate.
Would you rather be developing your first Customers, through a previously written down script or create the posibilities adapted and tuned aligned to the prevailing circumstances. How can you forecast and “write” about Customer behaviour and specific requirements? How to translate “thought” to “action”. Should you agonize over writing everything down in a format of a journal that says that it is the wy to do it ? Well unless it is some competition on “Writing Business Plans” – NO. The time would rather be better spent out on the street, learning all that you can from potential Customers.
Do we then write these Business Plans for our Lenders ? Then are the Banks and FI to be fooled by such documented story into which they are going to “invest” ? Yes some serious Cash Flow projections are essential, this is akin to fuel in the tank to keep the momentum intact and going. An effective and well thought cash-flow projections, coupled with a killer executive summary would be all that a Lender would require to base his decision on.
Great Business plans are mostly to obtain an A grading in Business Schools, however in real life as per my view the biggest A is that of Achievement. You would have to enter into the arena, well thought out objective in mind and create the Business as you go along. If you want to be an entrepreneur, go out and Achieve it.
And the threadbare requirement for writing one :
> Aim to summarize the plan with a Killer Executive Summary. You should be able to sell your idea in 2 Pages. If you are not able to grab the attention in the first or max second page, you’ve lost your reader, and the probable Investor.
> Don’t obsess with Words. It is the thought(s) and gist of the idea that really counts.
> Focus on Customer who is going to buy what you are selling and how you’re going to reach them.
> Remaining Focus should be on numbers. Offer well researched and well-documented numbers assumptions that can be as convincing as possible.
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Capt. Shaji Kumar 