Your Business Plan: Don’t Start Up without It

You say you don’t need a plan?

Sure, and neither did Wrong Way Corrigan, Alice in Wonderland, or Dr. Livingstone (who presumed to know where he was going as he disappeared into the African bush), as well as tens of thousands of other folks who got lost along their way. If you prepare a well-defined plan and if you update your plan as you proceed, point A will lead to point B rather than to point Q or to no point at all. And so it is with your business.

If ensuring that you’re traveling in the right direction isn’t enough of a reason to prepare a plan, talk to some of the people in the business of loaning or investing money (see Chapter 5). These folks won’t even think about doling out their cash unless you present a quality business plan. And it had better be a humdinger of a plan, at that.