meaning anything older than the absolute present. Modifying your course is not always a bad idea; in fact, it’s usually necessary to do so. Never let a plan hold you back or be the “final say” in your business’s direction. You dictate the business, and the business dictates the plan—not the other way around.
This is no time to be an English teacher . Don’t get caught up with remedial activities like spelling or grammar. Should your company go on to generate millions of dollars, investors won’t turn you down because your business plan resembles a fifth grader’s homework assignment with fragments and run-on sentences. Besides, you’ll be paying someone else to write your plan by then, because you’ll be too busy growing your business.
Use real-people language . All of the tools you produce must be quick reads and references. Write plainly and matter-of-factly. Avoid tech talk, business jargon, buzzwords, sales speak, and verbose, thesaurus-ridden prose. The only thing smart about “smart talk” is avoiding it entirely.
Save a tree; skip the fluff . Business planning isn’t meant to be a creative-writing exercise. If something isn’t important, don’t include it. Get to the meat and potatoes. Each and every word needs to be useful, focused, and purposeful. Stay on point—you’ll be better for it.
Skip the cutesy crap . Do you feel the need to surround yourself with colorful graphs and pretty charts? Then steal a kindergartener’s artwork and put it on your refrigerator. No one’s going to reward you with a gold star or extra credit for creativity. Don’t waste time designing business-planning documents. They need to make money, not win a pageant.
Avoid factoids and data dumps . Being a successful entrepreneur is not about diagrams, stats, and charts. It’s about getting off your ass, securing a meeting, and selling something to someone else to generate income. This isn’t the time for writing a term paper—so don’t concern yourself with statistics that claim your business is part of a $10 billion industry. No one else cares—and neither should you. After all, what percentage of that figure is in your bank account? Not much, I wager. Let your amateur competitors waste time writing dissertations backed to the hilt with mounds of facts and data. You’ve got market share to capture.
Don’t play with Monopoly money . I’m truly glad that you plan to reinvest 30 percent of your profits into your marketing budget once you generate $10,000 in revenue. However, how do you intend to create that amount of income in the first place? Your business plan cannot write checks. If you have $0—well, then, you need to plan for $0. Only plan with the cash and resources you currently have in hand. Keep your life burn rate in mind every step of the way.
If you wouldn’t do it, then they won’t either . No matter how wonderful you think a marketing tactic may be or how perfect you think a service offering sounds, if you wouldn’t buy into it, they won’t either. Scrap it. Bad assumptions lead to poor business decisions; grandiose concepts and complex ideas lead to failure. Remember, you are asking prospective customers who don’t care about you and know nothing about you to suddenly take an interest. Keep your assumptions grounded in your reality, and keep your action steps simple and practical.
Stop writing about selling and go sell something . There’s no way to predict or prepare for every possible occurrence. Attempting to do so is a fool’s errand. The more time you spend theorizing and imagining, the less time you’ll actually spend executing and testing. And, yes, those lost minutes will add up fast. So just get it done; don’t overplan. Every day that you don’t make money is one more day you’ll be unable to support your life burn rate. Don’t set yourself up for failure with unachievable cut-off dates, but don’t be afraid to remove yourself from your
This is no time to be an English teacher . Don’t get caught up with remedial activities like spelling or grammar. Should your company go on to generate millions of dollars, investors won’t turn you down because your business plan resembles a fifth grader’s homework assignment with fragments and run-on sentences. Besides, you’ll be paying someone else to write your plan by then, because you’ll be too busy growing your business.
Use real-people language . All of the tools you produce must be quick reads and references. Write plainly and matter-of-factly. Avoid tech talk, business jargon, buzzwords, sales speak, and verbose, thesaurus-ridden prose. The only thing smart about “smart talk” is avoiding it entirely.
Save a tree; skip the fluff . Business planning isn’t meant to be a creative-writing exercise. If something isn’t important, don’t include it. Get to the meat and potatoes. Each and every word needs to be useful, focused, and purposeful. Stay on point—you’ll be better for it.
Skip the cutesy crap . Do you feel the need to surround yourself with colorful graphs and pretty charts? Then steal a kindergartener’s artwork and put it on your refrigerator. No one’s going to reward you with a gold star or extra credit for creativity. Don’t waste time designing business-planning documents. They need to make money, not win a pageant.
Avoid factoids and data dumps . Being a successful entrepreneur is not about diagrams, stats, and charts. It’s about getting off your ass, securing a meeting, and selling something to someone else to generate income. This isn’t the time for writing a term paper—so don’t concern yourself with statistics that claim your business is part of a $10 billion industry. No one else cares—and neither should you. After all, what percentage of that figure is in your bank account? Not much, I wager. Let your amateur competitors waste time writing dissertations backed to the hilt with mounds of facts and data. You’ve got market share to capture.
Don’t play with Monopoly money . I’m truly glad that you plan to reinvest 30 percent of your profits into your marketing budget once you generate $10,000 in revenue. However, how do you intend to create that amount of income in the first place? Your business plan cannot write checks. If you have $0—well, then, you need to plan for $0. Only plan with the cash and resources you currently have in hand. Keep your life burn rate in mind every step of the way.
If you wouldn’t do it, then they won’t either . No matter how wonderful you think a marketing tactic may be or how perfect you think a service offering sounds, if you wouldn’t buy into it, they won’t either. Scrap it. Bad assumptions lead to poor business decisions; grandiose concepts and complex ideas lead to failure. Remember, you are asking prospective customers who don’t care about you and know nothing about you to suddenly take an interest. Keep your assumptions grounded in your reality, and keep your action steps simple and practical.
Stop writing about selling and go sell something . There’s no way to predict or prepare for every possible occurrence. Attempting to do so is a fool’s errand. The more time you spend theorizing and imagining, the less time you’ll actually spend executing and testing. And, yes, those lost minutes will add up fast. So just get it done; don’t overplan. Every day that you don’t make money is one more day you’ll be unable to support your life burn rate. Don’t set yourself up for failure with unachievable cut-off dates, but don’t be afraid to remove yourself from your
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