A business plan is a very important business “tool” to be utilized by a company under the appropriate conditions.
As a general statement I am a firm believer in relatively detailed short and long-term business plans in the corporate world. They definitely have their place and if they are honest and have been properly thought out when written they generally provide an excellent road map to having a successful business.
A good business plan will define the company’s weaknesses, it will define how those weaknesses will be overcome and as well it will define its strengths and detail how those strengths will be leveraged for success. It should be an excellent company resource that will allow you to determine if new opportunities meet your pre defined business plan criteria and also allow you to look back at year-end and determine if you performed in the manner that you had planned.
A business plan and its complexity are relative to the type and size of the business. In my opinion the vast majority of books on the subject are designed for sizeable organizations with unlimited market potential and for entrepreneurs and management that have a vision of dramatic growth.
Any organization that has either design, research and development, manufacturing and/or a geographically large market potential, should be preparing business plans and then monitoring those business plans on an on going basis.
If however, you have just acquired a local community restaurant that seats 20 people and you are going to be the cook and your wife is going to be the waitress a 50 or 100 page business plan is not what you need to properly operate your business. The same is true if you have just acquired a franchise, as the franchisor will be the one preparing and following an overall business plan. The franchisor will supply you with a set of operating and business guidelines that are supposed to ensure success.
Only you can decide whether or not a written business plan is in the best interests of the company that you are now going to operate. If a written business plan is something that you believe would be beneficial to your company then only you can determine how detailed and for what period of the future it should cover.
A business plan should be prepared for you and all the staff concerned with the business and who because of their job functions and responsibilities have an impact on its implementation and success. I have seen business plans prepared because banks or financial institutions would not consider funding without it and as soon as the funds are advanced from the lender the business plan is thrown in the trashcan. What a waste of time and effort.