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Subject:Re: Starting a business From:"John Fleming" <johnf -at- ecn -dot- ab -dot- ca> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 28 Jun 2001 00:33:36 -0600
> Subject: Re: Starting a business
> From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
> Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 14:57:43 -0700
> X-Message-Number: 56
[snip]
> More importantly, I'm skeptical about business plans for a number of
> reasons:
> - Having helped to write a couple of business plans, I'm aware how
much
> they consist of guess-work and wishful thinking. I know: they're
called
> "projections," but they don't mean any more because you change the
name.
I agree, a lot of business planning is guess work. And as I said in
my first post in this thread, a year after writing one, you realize
you might have a career as a writer of fiction.
What the planning process does do is force you to think about what you
are getting yourself into.
> - Although having direction may be useful, it's just as likely that
a
> plan will lock a company into too rigid a way of doing business,
making
> it miss other opportunities. I've even seen companies turn down
> lucrative opportunites because they weren't in the business plan,
and
> varying from it might look bad to investors.
Again, a good point.
But as one old Roman once said, "It's an ill plan that can't be
changed." That's just as true of business plans as it is of any other
kind of plan.
> - Business plans take effort that might be better spent developing
the
> business. I've seen a couple of CEOs focus for weeks on fine-tuning
the
> business plan. I can't help thinking that this effort would be
better
> spent looking for business or managing the company.
That may be true.
But perhaps a bit of my own support for business planning comes from a
man I've come to consider both a friend and a mentor. He's
successfully run his financial planning business for close to a
quarter of a century. And every year, he and his staff take an
afternoon to sit down and update the business's business and marketing
plans.
And I don't think he'd invest the time and energy if he didn't see
some value in the process.
--
John Fleming
Technical Writer
Edmonton, Alberta
email: johnf -at- ecn -dot- ab -dot- ca
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