Most SMEs have no business plan

[PBDPCOnsulting]

Here is another excellent article from BNet. It outlines the "next-generation style of business planning" in a clear way.

Business Planning for the 'Lean Startup' | BNET

PBDP Consulting - People & Business Development for Performance - Business and Executive Coaching

People and Business Development for Performance

[Simply-Fone]

In my humble opinion, full business plans are usually only required if you are actively seeking investors, seed capital or bank money.

I reckon most businessmen - who are running their businesses for a while - have a pretty damn good idea or a picture of their business & its progress in their heads.

More importantly, I think it extremely helpful to allow someone else in to look over your business.
I don't mean an expensive advisor or life coach or a bloke with a fancy title, but simply a business mate, an intelligent friend or a family member who has experience and can look over your business and methods with fresh eyes..

More often than not, this 'advice' will prove amazingly valuable and help change paths....

After running your own business for a while we all become a little stale, set in our ways and unwilling to change or compromise...

Fresh eyes, creative ideas and intelligent input can only be advantageous

[SteveH]

Speed to market and reaction to trends that facilitate more potential sales should be the key..... A plan may not add value to a business in some situations!

[rob_filtuh]

I'd suggest that the minimum you need is a strategy and a summary of your tactics.

At the risk of sounding pretentious, sun tzu said "strategy without tactics is the slow route to success, tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat"

Even startups in idea/prototype should have a plan of sorts, even if the goal/strategy is just to identify & refine their business proposition over the next 6 months.

Most planning is just guessing, but having a strategy and an idea of your key tactics is priceless.

[Business Plan Pro]

Business plans are not just for startups! Growing businesses need a thorough business plan to take them to the next level be it to secure additional funding, to decide the future strategic direction or to launch a new product or service.

[gbmaccounts]

The implication from the OP (ok, I know I'm late!) is that 46% of businesses do have a business plan - that's a nice sentiment, but I fear it's extremely over stated. As mentioned, the most common requirement for a business plan is to gain funding. But every business should have a business plan. It's an essential document which shows that you've considered - objectively, not through rose tinted binoculars - your competitors, your markets, your suppliers, your products, your risk startegy, your marketing strategy, etc..

Of course, a lot of people say that they have a plan, it's just that they've not documented it. Good luck with that one!

[ENERGYSAVINGLED]

Originally Posted by Postie

via Latest News | small business news and advice

Many small firms take a spontaneous approach to business planning, according to a study.

Research by business insurance comparator SimplyBusiness.co.uk of 400 British entrepreneurs shows that 54 per cent of firms have no written business plan.

More than two thirds of entrepreneurs make decisions on gut instinct alone, while... Read More >>

What do you think?
.

Never had a written business plan and never will. In my opinion it's a huge waste of time. I set goals but if i had a written business plan and updated it every time something changed or altered i'd have no time to spend on the business itself. Being able to change and adapt very quickly are the strengths of my companies, i'm afraid a business plan doesn't come into this theory. It would only slow things down.

[ENERGYSAVINGLED]

Originally Posted by chameeya

Planning long term - even for one year - is often useless. One cannot say from day to day what will happen. Business plans are quite utterly useless. Objectives fine, planning long term, useless.

Couldn't agree more. One of our main customers 7 days ago informed us that they were going to enter a new pricing strategy and enter into a lower cost market. We didn't have anything that suited them, so we either found them something pretty quick or they would go elsewhere. I have a person in Asia who finds me things, i sent my head technician out and in under a week we have found products, negotiated prices and quantities with the manufacturer and have sent samples and presentation to our customer.

No business plan i could have ever come up with could have predicted any of this or have been of any use. As i have said before, i always consider them a hinderance in the modern fast paced business world where major things change in an instance.

[Kids Bee Happy]

We find that many people starting in business don't always know what to expect and therefore some business plans, particularly those that have been prepared from one of the banks templates, can be of very limited use. Its no use simply having 1/12 of your marketing budget allocated to each month. However, if you do it properly, and really work out what you're going to be spending each month, based on what you're doing, what you're selling, what you're buying etc, then preparing a business plan really makes you think at a far detail level than you maybe otherwise would have.

Business plans aren't there to be stuck to, they're there to make sure that you're really thinking in depth about your business. The value is in the preparation, not in the words on the paper.

[Nicholas_B]

The aim of starting a business for most people is to provide a degree of independence, the ability to have some fun and the opportunity to generate a reasonable income. However some get caught up with making their millions without sitting down and actually planning how their going to get there.
Every business no matter how small needs to know how their business will move from where it is now to where they want it to be.
"failing to prepare is preparing to fail"

[ENERGYSAVINGLED]

Originally Posted by Nicholas_B

The aim of starting a business for most people is to provide a degree of independence, the ability to have some fun and the opportunity to generate a reasonable income. However some get caught up with making their millions without sitting down and actually planning how their going to get there.
Every business no matter how small needs to know how their business will move from where it is now to where they want it to be.
\"failing to prepare is preparing to fail\"

How do you think the guys at Google would respond to this theory?

[rob_filtuh]

A plan is a tool and like any tool it depends how you use it.

For a startup, I think a plan is useful. For someone thinking of starting up, a plan is vital, critical and you'd be stupid not to have one.

For pre-startup, a plan is your viability document. It states (having prototyped your product or service offering) how you're going to deliver, to who, how you'll attract them, support them and grow.

If you can't state this clearly in a plan, then you shouldn't be starting up really.

Sure, start up in prototype mode, but don't quit the day job.

[wisteriabp]

I think that a business plan has multiple purposes. If you need cash to start-up your business then this spontaneous approach as highlighted in the article is not going to get you anywhere!

A good business Plan service providers should be able to best illustrate exactly how your business will operate and help define and offer an impartial view on the assumptions that you have defined. Wisteria will be happy to assist you with this if you require.

[pete]

The fluid nature of the online arena puts less emphasis on structured planning in the micro/small business sector (in my opinion)

[kcooke1983]

I have been in business for about 8 months. I never created a business plan.

I sat down to create one a few times but decided I would rather run a fluid startup than stick to a rigid plan.

I don't need any funding so don't see the point.

[Dragon_FD]

Most businesses have a plan even if it its isn't committed to paper. No one just starts off a business with no ideas of what they want to do achieve. There are lots of good businesses that can maintain this situation as well.
However I see a good business plan as a basic tool for help to ensure a business achieves its ambitions. it's not just about numbers, it's about identify goals and key events required to achieve them. Once you have identified them you can decide how to go about it set timescales, define markers for success or failure. The whole thing explodes out from these basic concepts.
It's like planning a car journey with a map. Better to do it before you set off. If you don't know where you are going you won't know when if you get there.

[MGv Solutions]

The truth is somewhere in-between! There are two types of businessmen. To the first type belong individuals, who are borne with talent, people who make money out of nothing, creative and adaptive. This type doesn’t need business plans, doesn’t need papers. Everything is in their heads. Their intuition guides them and they easily find their market niche. In most cases they are small traders and owners of different kind of shops.
The second type is the so-called cultivated managers, persons who studied business management for 10 years and who obey the business laws. They need all the marketing and financial plans, the feasibility analysis, etc. This is common for the managers in the large companies, because behind their decisions is the capital of the shareholders and an investment should be justified.

[Nathan]

I think business plans are important. A lot of people will over think the BP and a lot of people won't need one, but in essence, it is useful to put your ideas onto paper. You just need to state what you want to achieve, what your opposition are doing, who your market is, how you're going to target them etc.

If you don't want one, don't get one. But if you struggle to motivate yourself, or want to improve what you are doing, maybe writing a basic plan will help you achieve this.

I also get the feeling that most readers are in one-man bands.. And i'd hope all are SMEs? :P If you're running a business by yourself, then no it's not as important. Yes, if you're looking for investment, you'll need to put your thoughts on paper and hope you can convey it to a rich person..(!) But what if you're running a business with multiple people? Having a business plan will help keep both of you on track, rather than running on multiple wavelengths. You can always review the BP as you go along!

I'm planning a venture with an American that I've been networking with for the last few months. Because of the nature of this, a business plan is golden. Now that I've learnt how to write them (and write them very well! ) it gets easier to work with them / update them etc.

Nathan

[Nathan]

Sorry for "double post" but didn't want people falling asleep on last post(!)

What do people pay for business plans (and marketing plans)? Is this what is putting some people off do you think?

Nathan

[Ray Stewart]

No-one in this thread has actually quantified what a business plan is yet.

In my 38 years in practice I have seen some extremes of planning. Businesses that startup with just an idea in someones head and become a great success and one chap with a huge 160 page book in which he mapped out in minute detail every step he (thought he) needed to take from the ground up to make the business work - only to see it fail within 4 months.

In my experience though most people spend more time planning their annual holiday than thinking about their business and until someone like me rolls up and gives them a hefty kick they can't even see that simple fact.

A business plan doesn't have to be costly or complex. It doesn't even need figures in it. But it does need a little bit of thought starting with (in the words of Gordan Brittas - a dream!) the end result.

Yes, I plan backwards. You start with where you want you and your business to be in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years right up to what you want to do with it when you have had enough/get incapacitated/die.

Once you have a vision in your head about where you want things to be you can start to work backwards and see what steps you need to take to get there.

Most of this can be done with Mindmaps or on the back of an envelope - it doesn't matter a bit. What does matter is that you know where you want to get to. Can you see the holiday analogy now?

How can you book a holiday if you don't know where you want to go?

Once you have a destination decided you can easily see what steps you have to take - choose hotel/flights/vacinations/currency/time off work/kennels for the animals/suitcases/sun cream/what clothes you need to take...etc. and the order you need to do the steps become aparant.

If you only think about your business in these simple terms you will be able spot problem areas coming up a lot more readily and already started thinking up ways to solve/avoid them - and be streets ahead of your competitors who still don't know where their business and lives are heading.

I have found the business people that do the backwards thing are consistently successful and content and more recession proof than those who can't see the point in planning because it all changes constantly. That sort of plan isn't a business plan - it is a book that once written is put on s shelf and forgotten.

A backwards plan is always flexible because you are focussing on a specific target that needs to be achieved to move ever onwards. It is like swimming in a strong current - you are buffeted around, pushed this way and that, dragged under, lose you way temporarily in the swells of the waves etc but you will always keep striving to get to the boat because you know that is where you want/need to be next.

Enough holiday tales - but hopefully you can see how planning can be fun, simple, very very cheap and flexible - but sooooooooo important.

I have a large supply of envelopes if anyone needs one for planning on the back of