Surely the most exciting part of building you’re own business is that week spent writing and honing the business plan document, or is that just me? Only kidding, it is hardly the sexy end of the business, cutting the deals, marketing and counting the money more you’re style I am sure. Certainly you are moving at a pace that given every opportunity would give you an excuse to ignore the plan and all the number crunching that goes with it. Anyway your business is scaling so fast it will be practically out of date before you even get it on paper, so why would you bother?
Even if you agree that you need one, it is always next week/month we will get round to it, meanwhile making hay while the sun shines. You know what, that is still the top priority, getting the deals for whatever it is you are selling, but in the end this one is going to bite you so hard it is going to make you’re eyes water. At some point someone somewhere is going to want to see the plan, even if it is only an executive summary. Why do I know this, well just like you in the early days I used to try to avoid this like the plague, putting in a CFO to handle the numbers and cover that side of the business.
Unfortunately you the C team are the business, have the vision, ideas and plans in your head as to how this company is going to develop. If you have a commercially led finance person they can input, but finding that balance of what the company is today and what you want it to be has to be thrashed out.
This is the hub of it, by going through the process and it will take long hours, you will get close to what this business is all about. The messages to the market, the monetisation layers and what it all comes down to in the end what resource, financial and physical is it going to take to execute and win. You need a document that will hold you all to account at board/management meetings, it’s about measurement. Yes the figures won’t necessarily be accurate, forecasts after 12 months rarely are, but it is not set in stone rather something that continually needs to be updated as you gain more feedback from the market and historical numbers to play with.
Yes, Yes I can hear you say, you are right, we must do it ….. I hear it every month from companies that use me as a sounding board …. so we agree …… well get on with it then.
Mentor & Board Advisor 