Lost Job Start Business

We have all seen it. The behemoth 80+ page business plan.  It’s a sight to behold. Very impressive indeed.  A lot of work went into it. In fact, it took four and a half weeks to write and proof read. It contains every conceivable detail and the writers believe that it leaves no stone unturned.

Okay, it sounds good doesn’t it? Well, in fact when you think about it, it’s not. Here are seven reasons why.

1. If you are looking for investment,  the people who you want to invest in your business don’t have the time to read it.
2. If you can’t condense what your business is about into a five minute read, either you are an extreme scatter-brain or your business has way too many moving parts for a start-up.
3. If you are going to use the plan in the day to day management of your business it’s not practical to have a plan that resembles a telephone directory.
4. It’s good to take care of the environment. Mammoth business plans = less rain forest = not good at all.
5. The more technical jargon there is, the more you are diluting the two core elements of the plan. How is this business going to make money? and how much can it make?
6. Law of averages are against you when you have an eighty plus page plan. Less people will read it. So if you are looking for investment, there is a smaller pool of people that you can draw from.
7. You have wasted time writing it when you should have been working on getting traction and making sales for your business. Sales matter much more than a business plan.

What do you think? Feel free to add more reasons in the comments. If you disagree please feel free to comment as well.