Business Plans are Overrated (Part 1)
Are you thinking about starting your own wellness practice but feel overwhelmed by the thought of having to write a business plan? Did you, like me, take that ONE course in grad school on how to run your business and had it beaten into your head that unless you write a thorough business plan your chances of becoming a successful business owner are next to zero?
Guess what? I am here to tell you that unless you need it for a bank loan or a grant, you can do just fine without ever sitting down at your computer and writing down that dreaded 5 to 10-page business plan. I have started 3 businesses without having ever put together a formal business plan and truly, I did just fine, but all the while feeling a slight tinge of a critical voice inside telling me I was maybe just a bit lazy and didn’t do it “properly”. When I was about to start my 4th business, I still had “write a business plan” on top of my Business Launching To-Do List and when I got through most of my list but still had that first box unchecked, I stared at that line and asked myself, “Why do I feel like I need to have one?” My answers to that had nothing to do with anything practical. It was more like a save-it-for-my-therapist type of thing.
It took me a long time to realize that writing a formal business plan is actually completely optional and that there are many, many different ways (other than spending hours in front of your computer contorting your brain and your soul to try to type paragraphs of boring stuff that no one will ever read again) to go about creating one.
A business plan is a “classical” tool in the field of business and economics. Its main purpose is to give us a space to think about what we are going to do before we do it, help us think practically and tangibly about the many aspects of running a business and calculate a realistic amount of time and money we have to be prepared to invest. It’s meant to provide us with either affirmation (yes, this will work!) if our business idea is solid or with a reality check (well shoot, I didn’t realize all this would add up to this much money!) If our idea is only half good. So, in its original intent, a business plan is a super useful thing. However, when it comes to its form, its classical version has been designed by and designed for nerdy MBA dudes that geek out on numbers and write boring but necessary paragraphs for a living. And just like classical education or classical music, it’s not for everyone. Some people love it and it fits them well and others absolutely hate it and thrive on other educational or music styles.
I am risking an overly broad stereotype here, but I think I can safely say that in general, helping professions attract many gifted people that are deeply intuitive (Myers-Briggs “N”, anyone?). This is one of the characteristics that actually makes us good at what we do. And that intuition is not compartmentalized for us, it applies to everything—how we make choices, how we relate to others, how we create, how we make big life decision and yes, you guessed it, how we run our businesses. For a deeply intuitive person like myself, leaning into that intuition, has been the biggest anchor of business ownership. So, at the initial stage of coming up with a vision and trying to figure out if it’s going to work, your intuition is essential. Please own it and don’t feel like you have to turn if off in order to turn on your logical brain that is somehow supposed to produce this “business plan” thing. The business plan is meant to be a tool to serve YOU. If it doesn’t, there is nothing wrong with you, it just means you are using the wrong type of the tool.
Let’s be 21st century innovative non-conformists, ok? We don’t have to throw out the baby with the bathwater and poo poo on anything “classical”. Instead, we can embrace the key intention it carries (i.e. to help us think through what we are going to do before we start doing it) but find our own form of that tool that fits better with what we value and how we are wired.
In my next post, I am going to share one example of a pared-down business plan template for intuitive people. I hope it can help open up the possibilities of creatively engaging in the process of setting up a sound business plan while honoring our emotional and relational intelligences.