Do You REALLY Need A Business Plan?

One of my mentoring clients wanted to ask me “Do You Really Need A Business Plan?” specifically a written business plan.  He felt a bit uneasy moving forwards and taking action without one.  He’s not alone, many people feel that way.  I notice particularly, that my internet marketing mentoring students often want to see the whole programme and go through it all, before getting started on Step One.

I’m not like that, so we must all be wired a different way.  I get overwhelmed with too much information all at once,  and I know that Rich Schefren’s programmes are carefully structured so that he builds new knowledge on previous knowledge.

I’m happy, providing I trust the person whose system I have bought into, to just get on and do Step One, trusting that everything I need going forward will be included in future steps.

Back to my client, so before our call, I sent him a link to a great article  I had found, when searching for a “One Page Business Plan” template that he might like.  I’ve included the link further down in case you want to read the whole thing, but here’s the pertinent bit! Does A Business Plan Make A Difference?

“A study undertaken a few years ago by Babson College has some good news for you. The study, entitled Pre-startup Formal Business Plans and Post-startup Performance, looked at 116 businesses started over an eighteen year period, from 1985 to 2003.

Here’s what they found…..
http://www.thebusinesssuccessfactory.com/?p=3504

Marketing Mistakes : A Tale Of Three Vans

Three white vans, naturally!  You can learn a lot about marketing your business just by keeping your eyes open and an enquiring mind, tuned in to the idea of being a customer, or potential customer, of the marketing you see all around you.  One such eye-opening event happened to me and I wanted to share this cautionary tale of how to use your business vehicle to market your business effectively (or not so effectively, as the case may be!)

I was driving back from Worthing the other day, and the first white van was right in front of me, and it had some intriguing statements on the back of it, in various colours, such as

….Special Occasion….….Happy Birthday….…Get Well Soon …….Dont’ Forget ….….Well Done! ….

And other similar statements.

OK, they had my attention, one of the most difficult things to do in this day and age, they had interrupted my thoughts and made me actually look at the back of their van.

Only to find…..Read More Here
http://www.thebusinesssuccessfactory.com/?p=3485