Trying to plan a start-up business is like trying to plan sex. Only the sex is taking place in the back of a pickup truck barreling down a washerboarded dirt road and there are fourteen other people in the back, half of whom are trying to have sex too and your partner wants to fantasize about you
being a lair (but you’re not absolutely sure whether he/she said “liar” or “lawyer”) and you have no idea how to pretend to be either and you also have no idea where the truck is going and you’re worried that someone’s going to turn the cargo light on and reveal the whole sordid mess. That’s exactly what it’s like. Trying to plan a business, I mean.
In my experience, business planning equals a futile attempt on behalf of the human ego to limit the risk of failure by spending buckets of time taking zero risk and delaying the day when the businessperson and the business idea will have to prove itself.[inset side="left" title=""]business planning: a futile attempt on behalf of the human ego to limit the risk of failure by spending buckets of time taking zero risk and delaying the day when the businessperson and the business idea will have to prove itself."[/inset]
But we try to control a process that’s almost entirely uncontrollable. From my experience -- thirty businesses of my own plus about another 100 that I’ve seen up-close and personal – there is a perfect NEGATIVE correlation between business planning and successful businesses. Mind you, I’m talking about a business launch. I’m not talking about quarterly or annual planning for an established business. Biz planning may actually make some sense in that situation. But when I see a startup business with a complete business plan, I’m looking at a casket. When I see a startup business that’s just cranking its guts out without a clue what’s going to happen, that business has a chance. I’ve never seen a single startup with a business plan survive the first year.You’ve gotta be nuts to think you can plan a startup business. Either;
1. you’re doing something EXACTLY like it’s been done before, in which case you don’t need a plan since you know EXACTLY what to do (copy the last guy,) or
2. you’re doing something new or with a new twist, in which case you don’t have a friggin clue how that’s going to work, what it’s going to cost and what awesome new ideas you’re going to run into along the way. In which case, why the hell waste your time planning the un-plan-able?
There’s just one reason to write a business plan and this one reason accounts for about ninety percent of all business plans written: to get a loan or funding, most often a loan backed by the SBA. If you’ve read Number One, then you know how I feel about business loans. They’re much more dangerous than a business plan.
So, next time you’re hauling ass down a dirt road in the back of a pickup truck with your honey, plan some sexy time and see how you do. Unlike business planning, it could be fun.
[tbanner color="green" title="Biz Fu Scroll of Wisdom #72:" style="3"]He who plans to be surprised will never be mistaken.[/tbanner][tbanner color="green" title="Biz Fu Scroll of Wisdom #28:" style="3"]To plan the course of an endeavor is to plan the path of a leaf as it falls from the oak. Except, a business endeavor may not even land upon the ground.[/tbanner]
SBA Screed
