Road to Nowhere
15-Oct-2021
Would you tackle a road trip across Australia without planning? Of course not you answer but why do so many budding entrepreneurs tackle business ventures without the adequate planning.......
Business planning gets a bad rap. When you mention planning it probably conjures up images of a tedious process of creating a detailed business plan. Bored to death but forced to do it because you need it to apply for that business start-up loan or to satisfy a commercial landlord. What value do you get out of a business plan you ask. It just sits on a shelf collecting dust and is never referred to again. It is not something you need to do, it is something boring that accountants can do for you if someone asks.
Let's go back to the analogy of the road trip. You could just wing it and head east from Perth or west from Sydney and hope for the best but you might end up stranded in the Outback and living out your own Wolf Creek nightmare. What is minimum amount of planning needed to safely make it across Australia? Have you got the resources required?
- reliable and well-maintained vehicle,
- resources like fuel or money to buy fuel,
- resources to sustain you and your passengers like food and water,
- maps or GPS to guide you,
- mobile phone in case you need assistance.
Not planning to make sure a proposed venture is viable could end up in a different kind of nightmare, one where you lose a lot of money and maybe even the family home.
We have all heard the stories and stats about how two thirds of small businesses fail in the first three years of operation. What "they" don't tell you is a lot of those businesses should never have started in the first place. If the adequte planning was done at the outset the businesses would never have commenced once the planning process pointed to lack of feasibility or excessive risk of failure.
Failure to plan is tantamount to planning to fail.
Good planning using a dynamic business plan that is not shelved but rather constantly referred back to and updated is key to success in business. A good plan can stop an impending disaster or map out another route to the goals you set in the first place. You might just need to take a few detours and refuel along the way!