Re:When was the last time you looked at your business plan?
by skmurphy on Thursday December 11, 2008 @01:37PM
(#394594)
I am as shocked as swombat by this post from the "Getting Real" team and want to reinforce two key points about a business plan:
1. It keeps the founders on the same page both in terms of vision and key objectives.
2. It's an agreement on how you will keep score: what are you going to measure.
If you don't have a set of goals and a simple outline for how you plan to achieve them you can end up diverging from your cofounders/partners. I have always found it useful to have a one page plan that gets reviewed/updated every 6-12 weeks in small ways and every 6-12 months in a in a large way. These updates need only take an hour or two but it forces you to look up from firefighting and urgent but less important questions to have a discussion about focus and key next steps.
Unfortunately "business plan" has two very distinct meanings: a "tool for selling investors on your firm" and an "operating plan." You need an operating plan, it doesn't have to include three years of imaginary financials (although a couple of key targets that get measured routinely can act as a very useful compass).
1. It keeps the founders on the same page both in terms of vision and key objectives.
2. It's an agreement on how you will keep score: what are you going to measure.
If you don't have a set of goals and a simple outline for how you plan to achieve them you can end up diverging from your cofounders/partners. I have always found it useful to have a one page plan that gets reviewed/updated every 6-12 weeks in small ways and every 6-12 months in a in a large way. These updates need only take an hour or two but it forces you to look up from firefighting and urgent but less important questions to have a discussion about focus and key next steps.
Unfortunately "business plan" has two very distinct meanings: a "tool for selling investors on your firm" and an "operating plan." You need an operating plan, it doesn't have to include three years of imaginary financials (although a couple of key targets that get measured routinely can act as a very useful compass).