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Unplan Your New Business

Tony Wanless

| May 3, 2010

Image by: NatalieSisson.com

Take it from Natalie Sisson, "unplanning" your business can help you reap riches untold.

If you're starting a new business, or it's still in early stages, you might be better off "unplanning" it than producing a formal business plan.

Recently, I judged a student business plan competition because, among other things, I produce business plans for a living.

Frankly, I was underwhelmed by most of them. Not because they were awful – some were, some were great – but because the traditional business plan strikes me as an increasing anachronism in this modern world of agile development, rapid change, and continually evolving customer tastes.

Certainly, if you're a large enterprise planning for the next two-five years, you need a plan. If you're seeking investment, you definitely need one – investors don't really care about them, but they do care that you've thought through how to take your business to a much higher level.

But for startups and small businesses based on information or thinking – which are increasingly the norm today – I think you're better off just launching, and testing the market for your idea.

I say this because most start-ups really don't know what they're going to be doing. They may have an idea, have determined a need, and therefore spotted an opportunity that they think they can fill.

But they won't know if they're right until that concept is tested in the marketplace. Besides, they don't really have a clue where their interests will take them. It's not unusual for new businesses, especially service businesses, to change direction several times as they meet the market and have to face up to reality.

Take the case of Natalie Sisson, who has just launched a new online business for female entrepreneurs. WomanzWorld aims to be "the ultimate resource for female entrepreneurs."

Sisson is sort of a poster girl for entrepreneurs who follow their heart and find themselves in places they had never dreamed of.

A New Zealander, Sisson's prowess in Ultimate Frisbee took her around the world, primarily to Britain where she won championships and plied her trade as a marketer, then eventually to Vancouver in 2008 for a world Ultimate Frisbee tournament.

In Vancouver, she was at a networking event and met entrepreneur Daryl Hatton. Next thing she knew, they had started a tech company called ConnectionPoint, which produced a product, FundRazr, that uses social networks to aid fundraising for small volunteer organizations.

In her own words, Sisson learned very quickly how to take an idea to launch, build a team and create a product, how to create a one-page business summary, a two-page investor teaser, and eventually a full business plan, develop a positioning statement (and change it again and again), build a financial model based on assumptions and market research, and understand the art of agile (software) development.

Basically Sisson learned how to "unplan" a business. This doesn't mean having no plan, but substituting a series of goals instead in the early stages.

The goal-oriented "unplan" also is increasingly being used in place of a formal marketing plan. By setting singular quarterly goals, new or young business, can develop their market, assess regularly, and make changes quickly in response.

I don't know if Sisson has unplanned her new business, but I suspect she has. It seems like a natural thing to do.

Tags
- business planning,
- entrepreneurship,
- goal setting,
- start-up,
- the insider,
- Business Planning,
- Start Ups

To Very Good The business

Submitted by Tony Wanless on Tue, 2010-05-11 10:22.

To Very Good The business model generation book is a very good resource. I've had it for a while. Thanks for reminding me of it. I'd advise anyone who's trying to be more innovative and wants to look at their business from a different viewpoint to take a look. It will definitely make you think. By the way, there is a business in the UK, http://www.iansanders.com/, that also talks about "unplanning" your business. Ian also has an ebook on the subject. Tony Wanless

At the concept stage a

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2010-05-08 21:32.

At the concept stage a shorter document works , but as a operating business emerges, a traditional business plan is valuable. It needs to be updated quarterly or annually, but that's part of the management process. Writing a plan required management to think about all the aspects and issues of laucnhing the business, and investors have the chance to assess whether management understands the business and risk factors well enough to have a shot at success.

The real question is how can

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2010-05-05 22:42.

The real question is how can people like Ms Sisson just move to Canada from NZ without being either in the investor program ( putting a substantial amount of money down on a business) or having expired her visa ? Frankly we have an extremely lax system and this during a huge recession. With all due respect she is a talking head, everyone who is trying to find a niche here or reinvent themselves is now in social media as either a talking head or a startup. The latter is great but show me a revenue model that is realistic and sustainable that makes sense. Natalie is a chameleon of sorts that reinvents herself at will as are many recently arrived instant Vancouverites. Frankly she is all about Natalie, I give her credit for the bravado but unfortunately I see thru it and I get allot of light as opposed to substance. A business plan is the basic entry point, it tells me you are on to something or you are talking out of one's rear, yes it will go through many revisions but it is reality and shapes a vision hopefully. A Venture Capitalist who is actually from here and financed many a company.

Traditional business plans

Submitted by SusanLow (not verified) on Wed, 2010-05-05 08:29.

Traditional business plans always strike me as terribly static and confining. Replacing them with on-the-fly strategic thinking and a set of laser-focused goals is more suited to the entrepreneur's fast-moving work style. The challenge, as I see it, is how to test your assumptions about the market and your product, before you go too far down the rabbit hole. Susan Low - Strategic Planning Consultant - www.directis.ca Offering collaborative, hands-on strategic planning for leadership teams and entrepreneurs.

very good article. A great

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2010-05-03 15:24.

very good article. A great replacement for business planning (I think they need replacing) are simple agile business models. See http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads/businessmodelgeneration_preview.pdf for a fantastic overview.