If you think it’s a good idea to write a business plan before setting up your business, think again.

Check out: Why You Shouldn’t Write a Business Plan Before Your Launch

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Glossary

• drawn-out – lasting or seeming to last longer than is necessary
• toss out – discard: throw or cast away
• volatile – liable to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse
• trenches – a long, narrow ditch; in the trenches = in battle

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Think about it

Answer the questions below.

• What is the the similarity between a battle plan and a business plan?
• What kind of ideas did the author include in his attempt at creating a traditional business plan?
• What happend to the plan two months into the business?
• What, according to author, is the only one thing that will help you achieve success?
• Is there any use for a business plan at any stage of the life of a company?

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Practice makes perfect

 Fill in the blank spaces with the words in brackets use in the correct forms and/or tenses.

Two months into the business, we ________ (realise) that everything we ________ (plan) for just wasn’t working. We ________ (be) going to have to change our prices. We were going to have to adjust our target market. In fact, we pretty much ________ (must change) everything there was to change about the business as we ________ (plan) it.

If we ________ (not be) ready to toss out our plan, we ________ (fail) — as would any business that proves itself unable or unwilling to adapt to the ever-shifting conditions of our volatile marketplace.

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