The Real Business Plan For Small Business

As a small business owner, opening up a business plan template or attempting to decode instructions found on some random website proved to be just a little intimidating. It became clear that if I didn’t have an MBA at least, along with a talented research team, and servers full of detailed data, then I had no business opening a business.

Guess What? You're Not Actually a Small Business

Very rarely is the term Micro Business used when referencing the little guy. You know the ones who start out working from their garage? You don’t hear about them very much, but a few of them have done ok. Here’s couple you may have heard of: Apple, Google, Amazon, Hewlett-Packard, and Disney. And there’s plenty more. Still, the government doesn’t really care much. They’ll talk to you when you make the cut.

Governments tend to believe that you aren’t really a small business until you hit somewhere between 5 and 20 employees and are generating millions of dollars in gross revenues.

Rise of The Micro Business!

It turns out the more appropriate term for little fish like us is Micro Business. Be proud. Mighty oaks from little acorns and such.

Business plans are built for those government-defined small businesses. Micro Businesses are rarely trying to raise mega millions from investors. Instead, we’ve sold some prized possessions, maybe borrowed a few bucks from anyone who loves us lots, or is foolish enough to take a flyer on our wild dream. Heroes like us need a different kind of business plan. One that’s a little less pretentious. Call it the Micro Business Plan (or MBP ’cause it sounds more important and we can play that pretentious game too!)

The Micro Business Plan Has Landed

Small business plans include stuff like Executive Summary (I always just filled in “Me, my dog, sometimes my wife if she’s free”), Competitor Analysis (“just my buddy in his garage three doors down, with the same bright idea), and other silly shit that we don’t have time for.

Yep, I Hear You

You’re thinking what I was always thinking. “But this stuff is important, and I want to win so shouldn’t I know all this stuff?

Yes & No.

Yes, it would be wonderful if you could construct such a document single-handedly, however if you’re like most Micro Business owners, you have neither the time and likely not the administrative skill to research, analyse, and construct such a weighty document. And that’s ok. Because it would mostly be a pointless waste of time. You need something uniquely suited to you.

Let's Do This

OK, time to create our MBP! This someday-to-be historical document will serve us in a couple of ways. For me personally, I found that it removed the necessity of thinking, and reasoning my way through something I already figured out. Say I had some issue. I plow a bunch of time and mental energy into getting the solution down to 3 possible options.

Scenario 1: I didn’t jot down or document any of my research or thought process. A week later I think “Oh Ya! I need to solve issue X. Where was I at on that? I spent the next hours rethinking the issue and still only coming up with 2 of the 3 options.

Scenario 2: I scribble down my thoughts and attach any relevant research. I make a point of keeping all my scribbles in the same place. I always have a means of capturing a thought. If it isn’t in the primary storage I use for my MBP, then I have a system for making sure it gets there. Mostly anyway.

It’s pretty clear how things will go in Scenario 1. I just came closer to being a small business failure statistic.

Scenario 2 is a different story. If a little time is spent each day or two reviewing, revising, expanding, and taking action on this little bundle of gold, it leads you in a very good direction. To begin with, it will save you time. It will also keep you on task. Preplanning your path…

Begin With The Jump-Start Business Plan

The Real Business Plan for Small Business is Simple.

It brings you up to speed quickly on any aspect of your venture.

It captures ideas for later review.

It is a place to record key data and numbers.

A good business plan is never a finished product. It is an evolutionary document, growing, and developing as your progress.

Things to include in your MBP

Start with the key topics, one page each

Stick a title on it and as much personal info as you feel like.

The Real Business Plan: For Owners, Not Investors