The "Business Plan" That Doesn't Suck

Newsletter #15

Spent the day yesterday at Groundswell (Regenerative Agriculture Event).

Could’ve been sunnier but great to experience! And another reminder to get out of the house more!

Nothing beats face-to-face 🌷

I've read a lot of advice on business planning, and I find most of it incomplete.

People tell you to write a business plan, but they don't tell you what to do with it after. So you painstakingly write the plan on a rainy Sunday, to then never look at it again.

I think this is a mistake. A business plan should be a “living document” that you keep up to date and use for your daily decision-making.

I know what you're thinking: "I don't have time to update my business plan all the time" But you don't have to. Your plan’s purpose is to establish what the “right direction” is and to make sure that your wild idea has some legs behind it.

And then you just need to take action. Knowing that you are heading in the right direction.

What you need: KISS

Not that one… KISS = Keep It Simple, Stupid.

First, let’s establish that there are two types of business plans:

1. Internal: this is the “living document” that guides your decisions

2. External: this is the static document written for a specific reader (bank, investor, supplier).

Most guides don’t consider this difference, and as a result, all plans are written once and never used again.

I won’t go into the external plans here as there are already a million guides on this. (If you want my free template for a bank-ready business plan, just reply to this email)

The “Living” Business Plan

You don't need to write a 50-page document. Or even a 30-page plan.

As I mentioned above, the purpose of this plan is only to validate your ideas and plan of action. It should help you stay focused on your main objective, and not get distracted by all the opportunities that will come your way.

As a wise man once said:

So, what to include:

• Business goals: What do you want to achieve with your business?

• Target market: Who are your ideal customers? Do they want your product or service?

• Marketing strategy: How will you reach your target market?

• Financial projections: How much money do you need to start and grow your business?

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): How can you measure and track whether you are making progress?

• Management team: What are the key roles and who are the key people you require?

• Competitive analysis: Who are your main competitors?

• Risks and challenges: What are the potential risks and challenges that your business faces?

• Contingency plans: What will you do if things don't go according to plan?

The layout is not all that different from most plans. But how you use it is:

• Don’t Google 3-year-old research reports that give a (random) estimate of the “market size“; go out and talk to potential customers.

• Don’t only set and forget some KPIs; track them monthly or weekly!

• Don’t make your financial projections too optimistic; keep it real, and update it when things change

• The marketing strategy not working?; update it!

For example, if you're facing a new challenge, you can refer to your business plan to see if there's anything in there that can help you. Or, if you're considering a new opportunity, you can use your business plan to assess whether it's in line with the initial goals.

Useful Tools to Include

• SWOT analysis: Probably the most used business model out there. It’s a quadrant to list out your business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Simple, but effective.

• Porter's Five Forces analysis: This is a more detailed model that guides you through the five components that make up the competitive environment in your industry (rivalry, new entrants, power of buyers, power of suppliers and substitute products).

• Business Flywheel: This is a newer model that helps you think about how you can create and sustain a virtuous cycle of growth. It’s my favorite. I wrote about it here: Weddings and Flywheels

• Business Model Canvas: This is a visual tool that almost works like a one-page business plan. Pretty useful to quickly get your ideas on paper!

Reach out to me if you want any help!

For the Agriculture Folks 🌷

The AHDB has created a very useful page with some starter questions.

This is split over both Personal objectives and Business objections, which together form your plan. Worth checking out:

Final takeaway

Writing a business plan is ultimately about the process.

This is where you take a step back and think about all the aspects of your business. Where are the opportunities? Where are the threats? Use this new understanding to improve your decision-making!

Your business will thank you for it.

Best of the Week

Sweaty Startup is quite the character on Twitter. But this post was great.

He goes on about the fact that “simple” or “boring” (“sweaty”) businesses are much more likely to bring success than those wild technology companies.

Simply do it better than your competitors and keep showing up. You don’t need to invent some new AI tool or crazy tech. Solid advice.

(It wasn’t posted this week… But I read it this week…)

Take action:

• Set aside some time to review your current business plan (or to make one!)

• Make a list of any changes that need to be made.

• Start updating your plan on a regular basis.

If you want to brainstorm or get some help with this, feel free to mail me or put in a call!

https://calendly.com/joeydewit/call 

Till next week 🌷

Joey