Throw Out The Long Term Plan - Do Something Now
From a post on 37 signals:
A couple of Getting Realish ideas spotted in Best Life magazine:
Greg Gianforte is the author of “Bootstrapping Your Business: Start and Grow a Successful Company With Almost No Money.” In Follow Your Dream, he advises throwing out your five-year plan and focusing on building something now instead.
Gianforte describes how to build a company from sales rather than enlisting professional financiers. The secret is to stop sweating your five-year plan and start moving the product from day one. If your business idea requires more money than you have at hand, then shrink the idea.
“An entrepreneur getting started doesn’t need a $100 million idea,” says Gianforte. “A $1 million idea is enough. The beauty of a $1 million idea is that big companies don’t care about it. Find a niche within a niche.”
Seems a bit dangerous to me to give such advice without context, but the gyst illustrates a “get out and do” or “stop pontificating” point of view which might give people the kick in the pants they need to go sell.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 am
Actually it is good advice for most small businesses. I write similar advice on my blog Wealth and Wisdom.
Your number one concern is selling your product or service. Focus on a small niche that you can dominate.
Once you have accomplished this it is time to broaden your approach. What other products and services does your market need? Ask them! Then take what you have learned from your first product and apply it to your new offering.
None of this required mahogany desks, financing, or a business plan developed by an MBA.
It isn’t that having a plan is bad. In fact it is vital. It is just that most businesses focus on things that don’t grow sales or improve the customer’s experience. A one page plan that defines your market, your USP, and other critical facts is all you need. And it is a useful document unlike the pretty bound volumes that some entrepreneurs have collecting dust on a shelf.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I agree.
I find that people fall into two categories: those that like doing over planning and those that like planning bc of a fear of approaching customers.
For some, there is a sort of light fear-factor in the “cold” conversation and planning offers that refuge to their comfort zone.
One might argue that might be a sign these people don’t belong in small business - I disagree. I just think it’s something they need to be aware of.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Christine,
I think too many small business owners get carried away with trying to find that “dream business” idea, when in reality each and every business that you start could develop into a multi-million pound, successful business.
I’m an advocate of getting stuck in and involved before looking too far ahead.