How to Write a Business Plan

184 | HOW TO WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN

Introduction

If you have followed all the steps in this
book, you have completed a thorough
plan for your business. You should feel
good about completing a hard, demanding
task. It’s also important to remember that
completing your plan, finding the money
you need, and opening or expanding your
business are just the first three steps in
your journey.
Many small business books take fairly
extreme approaches. Two common ones
can be summarized as follows:

1. Here comes another lamb to the
   slaughter—hopefully this book can
   frighten him out of his dumb idea.


2. Anybody can find fame and fortune in
   a small business; just read this book
   and get a big strongbox in which to
   store your surplus gold.
   I hope to steer a middle course by
   offering you both encouragement and
   caution. In my view, small business is
   one of the last great frontiers of both
   individualism and opportunity, but like the
   prairies of yesteryear, there are more than
   a few rattlesnakes among the poppies. This
   chapter contains some highly personal
   recollections and observations on pitfalls
   and diversions you may encounter on your
   way to business success.

Watch Out for Problem Areas

As a small business owner, you’ll have to
work hard to meet your goals. It takes a lot

of determination and drive to make things

happen. As a result, you may focus so

completely on the immediate goals at hand

that you lose sight of the larger picture.

Recognizing that you don’t know every-

thing is a good first step toward business

success. If you’re unsure of yourself in

any particular area, please take advantage

of the advice and help that is there for

the asking. That way, you’re less likely

to be sabotaged by something you didn’t

know—and didn’t know you didn’t know.

It’s Lonely at the Top

As a business owner, you often make

decisions in a vacuum. Most of the time

you won’t have immediate peers who

understand your business and can also offer

you good, dispassionate advice. Probably

you have to go it alone, and that can be

pretty tough.

You and your business become targets

for an army of job-seekers, government

regulators, charities, competitors, consul-

tants, salespeople, insurance brokers, and

so forth. All these people have their own

goals and objectives, which may or may

not coincide with yours. As a matter of

survival, you must become skeptical about

what people claim they can do for you or

your business. This isn’t necessarily either

bad or good, it’s just the way things are.

You are the only one who can decide what

is good for your business.

You also have to manage relations

with your three primary sources of