Lets put it this way; supposing you knew you needed to make a journey for your business and you had a gut feeling you should do it tomorrow. You get in you car, still not knowing where you are going at a time that feels right. You drive to your first junction and think to yourself, "Shall I go left or right"? You choose right, because it looks the better option! You keep changing direction throughout the morning based on what feels or looks right, until you decide to stop and have a break.
"Am I here yet?" you wonder to yourself sitting having your coffee and bacon sandwich. You look around, "no, I am sure this is not where I want to be" so on you go again. A little later on you think to yourself, "Why am I here by myself? Should I have brought some of my colleagues with me?" "Never mind" you tell yourself, "its too late now, I will have to get by". Eventually the fuel light comes on and now you know you have to stop at the nearest garage. At the petrol station you ponder, "how much fuel should I put in? I still don't know how far I have got to go and I haven't brought much money with me". "It's a good job I have an overdraft," you tell yourself. You fill the tank to the top and then continue on you journey. Eventually you become tired and weary and so make your way home, not really knowing if you got to where you wanted to go, or why you made the journey in the first place.
This seems like an extreme situation, but if you decide to run a business without a defined business plan, you business could end up being just like this example of an "undefined journey".
A business plan will help you define, where you are going, how long it will take you, why you are going there, who you should be going there with, how much it will cost you to get there, or even if you should make the journey in the first place.
This business map will save you many times the money and time it took to create in the first place. There are many books available to help you put to paper your "recipe of success" and if you intend to raise finance, it will be essential to have such a plan in place, professionally prepared.
The professional side of me says that you should always have a business plan that has been professionally prepared that follows a set structure of content and presentation. However the realist part of me says if the plan is purely for yourself and maybe a few employees, then it doesn't matter what format it is in. As long as it is clear, simple and covers all aspects of your business, from who should be doing what, marketing, seasonality, sales, and what your company stands for etc. Much of my planning is on the wall in my office where I am forced to look at it everyday, to reinforce where I am going.
Don't forget about change. Change will always happen and no matter how good your business plan is, there will come a time when a new revised one will need to be rewritten, or at least parts of it. So if you are proud of your business plan you wrote 5 years ago search though the draws, blow off the dust and read it again to see if it still represents your business of today.
I will finish with a question. Supposing your business is in a race with a competitor and the business that can drive to Southampton first, wins the prize. Who do you think will get win? Will it be the business that plans the route or the one that relies on gut feeling at every junction?
