Why the Business Plan is Not the First Step

The first step to successfully starting your own business is to write your business plan. Right?

Wrong! Your business plan should actually be one of the last steps you take before launching any business venture.  You may be thinking, “Hey, wait a minute!” because most “how-to” books and guides tell you that the first thing you must do is write your business plan. There two main reasons why we think this is backwards.

First, how are you supposed to know what to put in your business plan!? Yes, there are hundreds of great templates online that you can use, but other than an idea of what you want to do, you don’t have much information. You wouldn’t write an essay without doing your research first. The same goes for your business plan.

Second, once you really begin investigating the details, you may find that your passion is actually about doing something else. More than once we’ve had new clients arrive at the first session, show us their business plan and say, “This is what I want to do.” Then by the end of the session, they discover that the business they actually want is something completely different. Why waste time writing a business plan for something that you don’t truly want and love to do?

Instead of jumping right in with your business plan, we’ve evolved a different system to help individuals first develop a business model that reflects their interest, values, and goals and makes them feel more confident going into their launch:

Step 1: Self-Assessment -> How prepared am I?
The first step to launching your own self-employment venture is about discovering your strengths and how they align with working for yourself. Self-employment is a lifestyle choice. Make sure it’s a lifestyle you want.

Step 2: The Business Idea -> What will I sell to whom and why?
This step is about discovering what you are going to sell, who you are going to sell to, and why they would want to buy. If you want to succeed in business, you need to understand the market you operate in. That means knowing your customers, your competitors, and what is valuable and unique about your product or service.

Step 3: Income & Expenses -> Can I make more money than I spend?
The third step is about discovering how much work it will take to make a profit. This will help you set realistic prices, narrow down your expenses to necessities only, and determine if your business idea is actually feasible.

Once you’ve completed these first three steps, you can move on to Step 4: The Business Plan, where you will bring all of these pieces together, and finally Step 5: Launch & Monitor. Business plans should not be an abstraction. Do the research first and you can feel confident that your business is something that you truly want and can succeed at.

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