The Streamlined, Painless Way to Create Your Business Plan

by Barry Lenson

An interview with business-planning guru Tim Berry

When Trump University was searching for the best business plan
software to integrate into our Entrepreneurship Mastery Program, we
found a blockbuster program in Business Plan Pro. Little did we know
that it was the brainchild of a business-planning guru named Tim Berry
- a man who has spent nearly three decades helping successful
entrepreneurs bring their dreams to life.

So if you are scared of writing a business plan, worry no more. That
will all change when you read this conversation between Tim and Trump
U's Executive Editor Barry Lenson . . .

Barry Lenson: Why do people get paralyzed at the thought of writing a
business plan?

Tim Berry: When I think about writing a business plan, I resist too. I
feel like I need to drink a pot of coffee just to get started. But
when I think about planning my business, I get charged up. I want to
think about my business! I love my business! I want to control my
destiny! I want to do that!

And the difference between "Oh no, I gotta do a business plan!" and
"Wow, I want to plan my business better!" is an approach I call "The
Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan."

BL: Why use that name?

TB: Because planning a business is not a sequential thing. It isn't a
series of hurdles to jump over.

Planning a business is like planning a trip. You can't expect all the
plans you make ahead of time to be set in stone, because things
change. Let's say that you planned a trip last month, and that next
week you are supposed to fly to Miami. Only a hurricane is about to
strike Florida. So of course you'd be foolish to fly there, just
because you don't want to change your plans.

But when planning their businesses, people often make plans ahead of
time and stick to them, even when it makes no sense any more.
Sometimes people don't stop to realize that the business plan they
wrote two months ago is no longer working, no longer showing them
where they need to go. When things change, you have to wake up and
change too.

So that's the mindset. You're excited. You're planning. You don't just
have a plan and follow it, no matter what changes take place.

BL: But you have to start somewhere. Where do you jump in?

TB: The first important thing is to not get trapped into somebody
else's defined sequence. You start anywhere, knowing at the start that
the planning is like working with a collection of blocks that will
come together into a structure over time, and that the plan will never
be finished. The first block you pick up is the one that excites you
the most.

That block is different for everyone. I've worked with people who
wanted to start their business planning by getting onto a spreadsheet
- maybe thinking through what they could sell in terms of units, unit
price, units per month. On the other end of the equation, I've worked
with people who needed to do their mission statements first, because
otherwise they wouldn't feel right. And then other people have focused
on wider, higher concepts like, "How am I different in the market?
What are my people really buying? Who are my real customers? How am I
different - what is my core competency?"

If your planning works right, you pick up the block that appeals to
you first and get moving. But you also have to avoid the idea that
doing a business plan is something that you do once, in the time
between thinking about the business and starting the business - and
then you stop. You're always doing the business plan!

BL: So you get started where you want and then jump to the next block?

TB: Yes, but realize that no block will ever be finished. Your sales
forecast is going to change every month. Your marketing objectives
will change.

BL: You said that getting trapped in somebody else's plan is not a
good idea. But you might need help, right?

TB: Right, You need people who can provide real, valuable feedback.
But most of the help should come from the people who are going to
share in the implementation of the plan. To go back to the trip
analogy, you can't be the only person to plan a journey that three
people are going to make with you. That's deadly, yet a lot of people
have made that mistake. The founder or owner makes a plan and expects
everyone in his organization to adhere to it. You need the planning
help of the people who are with you.

BL: And doing a plan electronically helps, of course, because of the
flexibility. Since you are the developer of Business Plan Pro, can you
offer some objective advice on the best programs to use?

TB: I think that biases should be stated ahead of time. I am biased! I
am proud of Business Plan Pro. I have put a lifetime of experience
into the product. It is an ideal tool if you use it in a way that
respects your own thinking - you only let it manage the mechanics for
you.

The flexibility, plan-as-you-go approach is critical. Because I'll
tell you, I writhe in anguish when I see people who just use the
program to create a business plan, and then walk away and stop
planning.

You are on a computer, after all. You've got navigation. You can move
from block to block. You can say, "I am tired of working on the
mission statement right now, so I will go to the sales forecast. Oops,
the sales forecast just told me that I need more cash, so I will now
jump to cash."

Business Plan Pro, if well used, lets you do exactly that. I like to
think of it as a modern version of one of those old loose-leaf folders
where you can pull pages out, insert new ones - do whatever you need
to do. But of course it does things that a notebook could never do.
You can transfer your data over into a PowerPoint, for example, or
print out different documents for your team.

But the beauty of the computer is that things keep changing as you do
your Plan-As-You-Go Plan. Your business plan will evolve into
something remarkable - a vision that is a reflection of you, your
business and your dream.