Do I Really Need A Business Plan

Loring A. Windblad Copyright 2004 by http://www.organicgreens.us and Loring Windblad. This article may be freely copied and used on other web sites only if it is copied complete with all links and text intact and unchanged except for minor improvements such as misspellings and typos.

When I was a young soldier I learned: “There’s the Right way, the Wrong way and the Army way!” The implication here being that the Army way could be right, but……

We also learned The 6 ‘P’ Principle – Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. This has been genteely modified to The 5 ‘P’ Principle for drawing room society!

Starting a home based business without a plan is like choosing the Wrong way.

Starting any kind of a business requires a “plan of action”. This is doubly true of home based business ventures if for no other reason than the added complexities of home based business operation.

You are starting your business. You need a plan.

What business are you going to be in? Are you selling apples, oranges, pencils on the corner, what?

What kind of space are you going to need for your shipping? Inventory? Office? Pick-up and Delivery?

We’ve already jumped the first big consideration. What kind of zoning exists in my residential area which might affect my home based business?

Do you need a comprehensive 500 page business plan full of color graphs and charts and color 8 x 10 glossy photographs, going into gory detail and providing a 5-year and 10-year projected income statement? No, not really.

But you do need a business plan which is complete enough to anticipate typical problems you will face and provide solutions to overcome them.

About the Author

Loring Windblad has operated his own HBBs for nearly 40 years, is a published author and freelance writer. Loring has written grants, business plans and resumes that got the job done right. His latest HBB endeavor is http://www.organicgreens.us