Page 51 - Business Plans that Work A Guide for Small Business

42 • Business Plans that Work

another may write the development plan. Since each team member has
the dehydrated plan as a guide, it will require less reconciliation when the
entire plan is put together. We also find that dehydrated plans are good
for sending to stakeholders in advance of meeting with them. Investors,
for instance, are unlikely to read a 40-page plan unless they are really
interested in the concept. Therefore, after you have completed the entire
business planning process, come back and rewrite a spiffy dehydrated
plan for external consumption. The dehydrated plan can be a tool to
build interest from investors, customers, and suppliers.
The operational business plan is really a compilation of all the intel-
ligence you and your team have gathered on the opportunity. It goes into
a fine-grained level of detail on not only the opportunity but also the steps
you’ll take in launching the business. It has too much detail for external
stakeholders, but it is invaluable to you.
Although we’ve detailed three types of written plans, most entrepre-
neurs and managers engage in a business planning process on a continu-
ous basis. While you may not always document that planning in a written
manner (maybe it is just a spreadsheet or a PowerPoint presentation),
it is the process of planning that is important. With that in mind, the
remainder of the book will walk you through the business planning pro-
cess. Keep in mind that, although the chapters present the business plan
sections sequentially, the process is more iterative. You’ll write pieces of
one section and then move to another section, before coming back and
completing other parts of the plan. We cannot stress enough that the busi-
ness planning process is dynamic and that the end result, a written plan,
is obsolete the moment it comes off the printer. The business plan is a
living document, one that you should revisit and revise often. Enjoy the
process.