Searching Amazon.com for business plan books provides over 36,000 results. Few other areas of the business section in Borders is so crowded. Why is this? I believe it is because somehow business owners think that if they have a good enough business plan, they can convince investors to give them money and make their business successful.
Entrepreneurs just like you are constantly seeking the silver bullet of “the perfect business plan” that will get them financing and bring them to the promised land of business fortunes. I have some bad news for you if that is what you are looking for. A plan, no matter how good it is, will not make you rich or successful.
If running a successful business was as easy as writing a plan, very few businesses would fail. Current statistics show that the more than half of all new businesses fail in their first two or three years. This is not news. The majority of businesses have been failing since the first owner put out a shingle. Why? Bad ideas? Bad execution? Some of both? We do not always know.
What we do know is no business ever failed because it did not have a business plan. A plan on its own has little value. What is valuable, though, is the process of writing a business plan. Writing a business plan forces you to put into words all of the ideas and concepts of your business. It leads you to examine your financing, marketing, competition, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). This excellent process will increase your chances of having a long-term successful business. That is what you are really looking for. If you have that, investors are easy to find.
