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Business plans are fairly intense pieces of work; I know
this because I have been fully immersed in the creation of one over the last
month. From this invaluable experience I have learned so much about what is
required and not required in order to navigate through the hurdles that arise
when you are trying to take a nebulous concept from your mind and have it make sense when
you put it on paper in order to start a business that has any chance of getting funded.
Throughout this process, many things that I thought would be
the easiest to implement have turned out to perhaps be the most difficult
challenges to overcome. I have battled boredom and frustration on a number of
occasions, not because I’m bored with my concept, but because certain things
can be downright difficult in the process towards achieving fruition of one’s
desires.
Therein lies the biggest challenge for many people, how to
carry on through the pain of boredom and into the breakthrough stage which
Robert Greene calls “the cycle of accelerated returns”. This stage, which
Greene describes in his book “Mastery”,
is the point where through vast amounts of trial and error, hard work, and
focused effort, a person is able to complete a given task, making it appear to
be automatic and easy. For me right now, I’m not at that point yet with my
business plan writing skills. I’m not worried about the fact that I find the
process of business plan writing challenging and more than a little bit tedious
because, from past experience, I know that I’m close to having a breakthrough
in the process of learning how to do it well.
In my last post, I described the methods of two experts
concerning business plan writing, William
Sahlman and Tim
Berry. Both offered advice that I have used in conjunction with the advice
of my two fantastic course instructors who have guided me throughout the
process of writing my own plan. Most significantly, for me, is to keep things
as simple and focused as possible.
Any 25+ page document that is detailing the complexities and
inner workings of a business startup will be a notably exigent process, but if
the overall concept is something that can be boiled down into a succinct phrase
that provides a distinct solution to a public point of pain, the entrepreneur
has an opportunity within his grasp to receive the funding that they may need. I
have found that combining the advice from Sahlman and Berry to be incredibly
useful.
Sahlman and Berry aren’t the only ones in the business plan
world that seem to have an affinity for the number four either. Akira Hirai of
Cayenne Consulting talks about “The
Four Cornerstones of Every Business Plan" on the company’s “Hot Sauce!
Blog”. According to Hirai’s theory, the opportunity describes the point of
pain, the solution is the way your business eases the pain, the execution
tells how you plan to do it, and outcomes tells of your vision of the
business in the future. Pretty concise method if you ask me I feel like I’m
seeing a pattern here. All of these
experts use very simplistic ways to describe what can be an overwhelming
process, but when viewed through a simple four-step plan of action, the
pressure is relieved a bit and a starting point is far more obvious.
My advice is to breathe, go through the plan in steps, write
down ideas, and try to be as organized as possible. Even though these are
fantastic four-step methods towards accomplishing a successful business plan
write-up, the details can sink the ship before you even leave the harbor. Throughout
the entire process make sure you go back and look to make sure you’re keeping
on task and within both the structure and process of a well-written business
plan as prescribed by Sahlman, Berry, and Hirai…these guys definitely know what
they’re talking about.
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