Business Planning

One thing I absolutely hate about starting up a business is : the business plan. To me they’re always a masterwork of bullshit, balancing out all the aspects of what might happen. And yet, over the last week or so, that’s what I’ve been doing. Writing a business plan.

It’s not for anything that’s going to happen just yet. This is stuff that’s all still in the offing. But for once I’ve seen some sense, and decided to get it written down. That way, I don’t have to keep it in my head, and it’s got rather more chance of actually happening.

The business name (well, the potential business name, and the concept that’s linked to it) is sorted, and so it’s more about just brain-dumping the stuff onto some paper, and/or onto a Word® document, so I know where it is. That way it’s just some more space that I can free up in my head, and use for useful stuff.

All the same, dear god, the business plan itself is still a load of old shite. Just figuring out the basic costs, profits, and predictions – it’s all shite. You can say “What If” ’til the cows come home, and basically a business plan is just a way to get banks/investors to lend you money, and so they can have some figures to say “well that’s what you said would happen – why hasn’t it?” Of course, the other side is that you can massively underestimate, in which case the banks/investors might just look on you favourably as being bloody great instead of bloody useless.

But for now that’s a worry for the future. Right now I’m just glad to have it somewhere that’s not in my head.