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Fault Finding in Business Planning
By Mike | December 28, 2008
So you just had this great idea about a business that will make you tons of money in just a matter of weeks. It’s so good that you can’t sleep and eat because you’re thinking about it all the time. It’s so perfect that you’re wondering how come other people haven’t tried it before.
Next thing you realize, you’re already working so hard on it doing everything according to your plan. You’re pretty sure cash will start pouring in really soon that you start to think of that family vacation at the end of the month. You tell your family about it and they’re all excited about it as well.
A month after, still no money. No family vacation too. Where have you gone wrong?
A few weeks ago, I had an hour-long talk with a traditional businessman. He’s pretty old but he’s also pretty rich. I told him about my plans of putting up a small pizza booth in our area then after telling him about my plans, I asked him for advice. He was generous in telling me what he thinks about but of the many advices he gave, one struck my most.
“Find the faults in your plan,” he said.
You see, when we come up with a new business idea, we often get too excited about the possibilities that we fail to see the faults in the plan. What we mostly see is the light at the end of the tunnel and there’s nothing wrong with that. The sad part though is that we fail to see how much trouble we have to go through in order for us to reach that light. Working on a goal without finding faults is like driving a car at 120mph on a very rough terrain – you simply won’t make it without damaging the car or worst, killing yourself.
When working on a business plan, always ask yourself a lot of “What if’s”. What if Plan A doesn’t work? What’s Plan B? What if Plan B doesn’t work? What’s Plan C? and so on and so forth. Do this for every facet of your business plan and soon you’ll see a clearer picture of the road that you have to take. Think of the possible failures that you will encounter and then think of a solution to each of these possible failures. Think not only of how to avoid these failures but also think of how to face them when they come.
Next, always ask somebody else to scutinize your business plan. Try to gather the opinion of as many people as possible – especially those who have experience in the field that you’re planning to work on. Two heads are always better than one and three heads are better than two. This is why large and successful companies have board members.
Lastly, don’t rush. Unless you’re dying tomorrow, you’ll probably have a lot of time to polish your plan to perfection. It may not be totally perfect in the end but it’ll be definitely better than what you had beforehand.
So, the next time you can’t sleep because of some great idea, try not to think about the bling-bling. Find its faults instead.
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Topics: Stuff I Learn | No Comments »