Business Plans

Bob Dorf, a 'serial entrepreneur', has been speaking to many about the concepts of business plans and how they work, or don't work. A quote he stated while at the NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge was "It's all fiction. How can you look me in the eye, and tell me how many customers you're going to have." Not being the classiest of word choice but I do agree with Mr. Dorf. While writing my business plan the past few months, I have come to realize that the stressing over fictional numbers is a waste of time. The focus needs to be put on the creation of the company you are building the plan around.

The biggest thing that caught my eye however from Mr. Dorf was his statement of what every startup should have which included people that fall into three sections: the hacker, the hustler and the artist.

Another great motivator is Adrian Ysan who joins start up companies in early phases just to help them through the rough times. One of the biggest things I have come to learn through his blog is that no matter what kind of company it is, all it takes to keep it going is constant action from the owners.

An article from Forbes magazine stated "Rarely do I meet a startup founder who has a great idea, has done the basic analysis, created a business plan, and also called 10 potential customers..." When reading that, I was shocked and frankly, still am. While in the middle of still writing a business plan, I have to know that everything cannot be planned out for or be expected. It is wise to make one and have the start up costs accounted for and measured and really push for the big idea but things can only go so far.

For those of you writing a business plan now, don't stress. Know that no matter how many hours you put in writing numbers and equations, nothing will beat a great idea. So go out and make that great idea happen.