Most consultants recommend a written business plan to help a business succeed. The banks want to see one, and the SBA requires one for a loan. Nancy Staton more Staton columns Most of my clients complete a business plan only after being coerced by the bank or me. Whether this is true or not, I do not know. I do know that completing a written business plan and using it increases the chances of succeeding.
Many business owners fail to follow the written business plan even if they compile one.
Daily business activities seem to have no relationship to the business plan. The plan ends in a drawer or on a shelf with no further thought about it. We declare that doing a business plan is useless. When the business gets in a crisis or fails, an owner does not see the relationship between that failure and failure to plan. For a business to thrive, there must be a multitude of activities coordinated so that all move in the same direction.