Do You Need a Start Up Business Plan?

A start up business plan is a common thread of any small business start up. Having a plan is very, very important.

But just how important? And how detailed and specific does it need to be when you're in the early stages of starting your business?

If you base the importance of a business plan on the way business publications and college professors talk about it -- you can't survive without it. Not having a business plan, according to some 'experts' means death to your business before you even hang your shingle.

Well, the fact is that, at least for those professors, they "study" and "learn" about starting a business. But very few have actually had a business of their own. Very few have been entrepreneurs where changes occur not just every single day -- but by the minute.

And that's my big concern.

Writing a formal plan and spending all your efforts on the plan can often hold you back.

So, yes, you ABSOLUTELY DO need a small business plan.

Just don't spend the next two years working on it.

Small business plans equal procrastination

I get calls and emails all too often because someone is stuck trying to figure out what goes in a business plan.

Where should it begin? What details do I need? How long should it be?

These are all very common and important questions.

And I don't think anything in your plan should be taken lightly. I do, however, think if you are a real entrepreneur and you're ready to get your new start up off the ground, you need to get your plan in writing, use it as a guide and just get started.

Use your plan to keep you on track and follow a course without being afraid to make changes on the fly to your business plan and to your business.

As Yogi Berra said, "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going -- because you might not get there."

The fastest way to finish your business plan

Technology and the internet has made creating a business plan a lot easier than it was even ten years ago. (Or go back even further where you had to type in a plan and make little -- if any changes along the way.)

Sometimes all you need is a simple fill-in-the-blank business plan template or even a free sample business plan you can copy

You can also get help with your plan from the US Small Business Administration, but the fact is they're set-up more to help you with your financing and if you don't necessarily need to borrow money from a bank, the SBA is not always the best place to turn.