When should you launch your business plan?

[FishBowl]

Hi all,

Matt from Sharabang Music is one of 3 start-up businesses to feature on business reality website inafishbowl.com.

Matt, along with the other entrepreneurs, posts blogs, videos and tweets about his business as it happens. When a blog brings up an interesting question or topic, I post it to forums like this so that we can get advice for the entrepreneurs but also because the topics tend to be quite general and the discussion may help other businesses too.

Matt's latest blog post is centred around the idea of a business plan - how much of it do you launch at once?

Like many other entrepreneurs, Matt's got so many ideas. But when should he launch his business? When he has added all of his ideas and has everything in place? Or should he launch now and add to the business as he goes?

Does anyone have any advice or thoughts?

[Mark]

Could you give us a summary of his blog here?

[FishBowl]

This blog comes as a result of difficulties he has been having which are outlined on his other posts on the site.

[Mark]

Sure, but a summary here would be nice.

[FishBowl]

OK no problem - though I still think it's a good idea to read his posts to fully understand things. I am simply acting as a messenger, whereby Matt's posts bring up questions or topics which I think are interesting or require some advice, and I post them to the forum - the actual experience/issue/question comes from him.

Matt runs his own business, a band management company called Sharabang Music. As part of Business In A Fishbowl, a reality style business website, Matt is documenting his progress in the business through blogs, videos and tweets.

He seemed to be getting along ok, but has come to a point where he is confused about when to actually start 'trading' in his business. He has a business plan, but it keeps on changing because, every time he tries to pin it down, he has new ideas that he wants to incorporate.

When is the best time for Matt to launch his business? In your opinion, should he go for it now and add his new ideas further down the line, or does the business plan need to be as complete as it can be before he gets going? What if he keeps on having new ideas?

All advice welcome. Thank you in advance.

Laura

[FishBowl]

Often the matter is not as simple as "have a a plan and stick to it", and I think Matt's quandary brings up an interesting topic which, by discussing on here, we can gain advice for him which may also be of use to other people starting out in business. I'm sorry if you consider that spam but I just happen to find interesting topics within the In A Fishbowl website.

I think the main problem Matt has here is that he is not quite sure what his plan is. Yes, he wants to start a band management company, but he wants to do it in a way that no one has before. So pinpointing his "idea" is what is difficult for him - how many of his ideas should be put into place to make up the initial business plan? At what point do you decide that it's time to get started and let new ideas be added further down the line?

Also, if he decides to add new ideas further on which turn out to be integral parts of his business and USP, what effect will this have on his brand and the way he is perceived? Isn't it better to have everything in place from the beginning?

[B_Cal]

I'd stay have a plan - and modify it in line with your customers needs so that you offer products and services that will bring you revenue and profitability.

Part of being successful surely is to modify the game plan as a result of the feedback you get from executing it.

[FishBowl]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

We got some expert feedback on the site too on this one at What to offer on launch?

[FishBowl]

Thanks very much for all the advice everyone. I passed it on to Matt in Fishbowl One, who is now, finally, ready to launch! His business plan has changed so much over the past few months and even the concept behind his business has seen change, with Matt now feeling much more confident that his business can work.

You can read Matt's blog about how his business plan changed here. Thanks again for the advice everyone.

[B_Cal]

"A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week."

GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON, JR.

I doubt for example if any airline had a plan 6 months ago for ash clouds causing major disruptions, with the notable exception of somebody like Cathy Pacific who had to ground most of it's fleet for weeks following the sars outbreak.

Regard it as interpayroll said as a living guideline document, not as the definitive state of affairs.

[FishBowl]

Nice quote :-)

[echoestranslation]

Originally Posted by interpayroll

A business plan should be used as a 'guideline'. (...)
We would recommend sitting down and spending a lot of time on working out a business plan as soon as possible, even before starting the business itself. It will help you work out how to best approach your business and work out where you are going, and how you are going to get there.

Your business plan should then be used as a tool that you visit on a frequent basis to compare your data; where your business is now against where you predicted it to be, and also to work out where you are going.

I think this puts it clearly and highlights the key points, i.e. direction, guideline and revesit.

[echoestranslation]

Originally Posted by echoestranslation

I think this puts it clearly and highlights the key points, i.e. direction, guideline and revesit.

Sorry, I meant revisit

[FishBowl]

Absolutely, business plans need to be fluid enough to be revisited but give enough structure for the business to move forward.

[fikri4u]

What if we finally found out that we keep changing the business plan too often. Would it be identical to no plan?

I'm one such person who doesn't like paper-works. Because it too often becomes too fluid that too much time spent on planning and too little time executing. Or maybe I'm just plain stupid to plan. Or maybe my habit (being an engineer) who like to do trial and error.

Any advice you would like to offer me?

[wisteriabp]

We agree with 'interpayroll' - a business plan generally acts as a snapshot reflection of the business and it will need to be updated.