Ignore The Business Plan At Your Own Risk!
A number of years ago a friend came up with a killer product idea targeted to fishermen. It was one of those devices that, when you think about it yourself, makes you wonder why you didn t come up with the idea. I expected my friend to become a rich man. I planned to be there of course to remind him who his friends were when he was still a nobody . He asked for my assistance in setting up his business and in designing his web site. My first request was let me see your business plan . To which he responded, my what. I managed to stifle a groan and instead offered to help him with it. So we sat down together and came up with a three-page document. The definition, and purpose, of a business plan is straightforward. It defines the goals and objectives of your intended business, and provides an outline of how you plan to get there. The plan we developed for my friend included that, along with an outline of how he was going to market the device. We left out the usual competitive analysis since his was a one of a kind product. We included...