The Difference Between a Business Plan and a Business by Igor Fishelev

A business plan is a description of a world that does not exist yet. That is not a criticism – it is simply what a plan is. The trouble begins when people forget the distinction and start managing the document instead of the reality. The controlled environment problem Plans are built on assumptions. Customers will behave as the research suggests. Costs will land within the projected range. The right people will be hired on schedule. Competitors will do roughly what they have always done. Each of these assumptions is defensible on its own. Together, they describe conditions that are cleaner and more cooperative than any actual market has ever been. The real business begins the moment something the plan did not account for appears – which tends to happen earlier than expected and more often than projected. A hire falls through. A customer segment that looked promising turns out to be less interested than the interviews suggested. A cost that was treated as fixed turns out not to be. Indi