Write Your Business Plan In Pencil

1. Write Your Business Plan In Pencil Professor Amtmann

2. Change is inevitable • I agree • A plan is a point of departure • Flexibility is often a Hallmark of Entrepreneurs • Reasons for change • Overestimation • Underestimation • Misread the market • Unplanned contingencies • Cash needs • New entrants

3. What does a neat plan engender? • People may be afraid to change a really neat well designed and pretty plan • Today it is likely your plan was produced on a computer • It is actually really easy to amend / modify it! • So while the image of a pencil written plan is great, keep the psychology of the pencil, but also take advantage of the professionalism of the computer • Some people feel bound to a plan that received high praise

4. Many successful Entrepreneurs • Have never written a Business Plan • The author did not • I have written and used several • The author looks as a plan as a necessity only for raising money • He still believes in planning! • He believes your energies are wasted taking the time to write a detailed plan • I disagree! • I especially disagree if you are going into business with another person • If you cannot work together to write a plan don’t start the business

5. My view of the value • When your plan is only in your mind you do not draw many associations of ideas • When it is in writing you now start to think about more interactions as you read your plan • The author believes you should concentrate on writing down your goals • Comparing them year to year • If you have a good business plan and use it as your business develops you will do this • Making those changes in a written plan will lead to analysis of the current state of the business

6. A map for the business • The author suggests you wait until your business grows and then write a plan as a map for your employees, they need a way to share the vision! • Why start a trip without a map and then get one to try and figure out where you are and where you are going after you are part way through the trip? • I would rather know where I am throughout the entire trip • What about your suppliers or customers, they might like to know where you are going and if they want to take the trip with you?

7. Conclusions • Any business is an evolution and a journey • Have a plan and use it • Plan on the fact that the best made plans will always need to change, because “life happens” and no matter how good a planner you are there will always be something happening you did not foresee or plan on! • A good plan is never a waste of time! • It is always a tool for investigation • The most valuable Business Plan you will ever write is the one that proves the business will not work!

8. Source • http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/businessplans/article206658.ht ml