To Plan or Not to Plan....

Draven, his wife, and myself have been doing some serious planning for a bookstore/cafe/coffeeshop/space in our area. Serious planning. The following is an excerpt from a book called Hurdle that Draven has suggested that all of us read. I see SOOOO many parallels between this and church planning in the modern context. I really do like what I read here for planning businesses, but how many of us have sat through church business meetings that sound JUST like this stuff? I just hope that we never making living for God manageable and totally understandable. I love the mystery of living for God, though it's taken me awhile to realize that mystery is an OK thing.

But this is good stuff for business planning....


Business Plan "Do's"


Use a business plan to set concrete goals, responsibilities, and deadlines to guide your business.

A good business plan assigns tasks to people or departments and sets milestones and deadlines for tracking implementation.

A practical business plan includes 10 parts implementation for every one part strategy.

As part of the implementation of a business plan, it should provide a forum for regular review and course corrections.

Good business plans are practical.


Business Plan "Don'ts"

Don't use a business plan to show how much you know about your business.

Nobody reads a long-winded business plan: not bankers, bosses, nor venture capitalists. Years ago, people were favorably impressed by long plans. Today, nobody is interested in a business plan more than 50 pages long.