Is a business plan a good idea?

Why a plan?

It has been said that when a starting entrepreneur writes a business plan, they have a far greater chance at success. Sometimes a business plan is an obligation, for example when applying for funding or a bank loan or if you want to start an enterprise from the Unemployment Act.

Stop writing! Read this first…

Before you start writing consider first who will read your business plan. When you, yourself are the reader, you write a different plan than for a bank. This is important, because there a many examples of business plans on the internet, with which a fledgling entrepreneur can work with.

All business plans start with a general description of the entrepreneur´s life and continues with an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the entrepreneur. The bank can determine from the analysis and the description whether or not you are suitable and experienced. However for you, you yourself, this is useless. The business plan should be about the enterprise and not about you, right? Not education and experience determines success but perseverance, a lot of faith and a bit of luck.

You must also ask yourself what and why you want to tell. It is not important how long the business plan will be, because the business plans you can find on the internet are quite extensive. A consequence of these matters is that an entrepreneur must wade through the plan and the formats can be seen as an box-ticking exercise. The available plans are similar to each other, furthermore, it is a pity that these formats appear to miss the essence of enterprises and entrepreneurship.

In short, available business plans are aimed at the entrepreneur and limiting risks. This leads to the abovementioned box-ticking exercise and as a consequence the passion of the entrepreneur can be extinguished.

Seeing and taking opportunities

 The weird thing of these business plans is that the key question is what you are going to sell, to whom and through what means are not answered. In short, you should start with the opportunities of the enterprise and not a description of the life cycle. Because entrepreneurship is about seeing opportunities and taking them. How do we do this?

The WWHW model

We use the WWHW model before writing the business plan. This principle only applies to the chance you see (What), Why you see this (Why), how you think you will succeed (How) and with who you will do this (Who). This plan is maximally 2 a4 papers long. If this is correct we expand to the planning and budgeting of money and time. Dependent on the goal of the enterprise we add extra necessary information. And if you follow these steps, you will eventually have a business plan.

Advisors help!

In many situations it is advisable to consult someone, mostly for tightening your choice and to see if it is a realistic plan. Because many starting entrepreneurs have difficulty with making an overview of the total costs or they have no idea of the size of the market. This is why we see a lot of misguided or incomplete business plans.

Working on your idea for an enterprise together

Artlupa (part of Lupacompany) has deviced the WWHW (WHAT –WHY- HOW – WHO) model. In this model all aspects of converting an idea to an enterprise are considered. The WWHW model is meant to map who is your target group, what the added value of your idea is and what makes this idea unique (WHAT and WHY) The model ensured in addition that we think about financing of your idea and the marketing (HOW). And last but not least the WWHW model pays attention to WHO, who you are as an entrepreneur, are collaborations with other parties necessary to realise your idea and in what ways can you reach your network.

By writing down the WHAT – WHY – HOW and WHO of your idea, you are already making choices about the content of your idea. Because of this, your idea gets focus and becomes tangible. The more tangible the WHAT – WHY – HOW and WHO, the easier it becomes to profile your enterprise and you can indicate what your idea stands for and what goals we can formulate.