10 Business Plan Mistakes You Don’t Know You’re Making

horrible mistakes

Business plan mistakes can be terrible for the small business owner. Sometimes some mistake, simply can’t be avoided, but it doesn’t mean that the same specific mistake must be repeated.

But, sometimes there are mistakes that simply you don’t know you’re making. The same thing is about business plan mistakes.

Probably, your biggest entrepreneurial mistake is when you don’t recognize that you are making mistakes. In such a way simply you continue with what you have already started even you are making mistakes.

If there aren’t persons that will tell you that you are making a mistake, you will not stop on your way until you feel the consequences because of that mistake.

Mistakes are painful when they happen, but years later a collection of mistakes is what is called experience.

~ Denis Waitley

Yes, mistakes are something that can increase your won entrepreneurial experience.

However, the mistake can be transformed into the experience only when you know that you’re making a mistake. Without that vital knowledge, they can be made again in the next process of your entrepreneurial activities.

10 Business Plan Mistakes You Can Make Without Knowing About Them

I will present some of the most unrecognizable business plan mistakes that you can make when you are performing a planning process for your company.

1. You See the plan as a document, not as a planning process.

The number one mistake that’s in the unrecognizable mistakes group is when you see your plan only as a piece of paper that someone else asks you to do. The business plan is of significant value for you and your business only if the creation is the process and not a simple document. What’s more important this process is never ending process for you and your small business.

2. You are trying to find excellence in everything.

Excellence is important, but sometimes it can trap you in one never-ending cycles of creating a plan that will never be implemented only because it is not an excellent plan. You need to be aware that excellent plans will never exist, it is not possible to create such a plan.

business plan mistakes

3. You are trying to satisfy all parties.

Simply, you want to satisfy yourself as an entrepreneur. You want to satisfy the financial institution to give you the money. Also, you want to satisfy your employees. You want to satisfy your customers. You want to satisfy shareholders… In such a way, you lose your focus and you can’t be focused on the most important business model that you need to implement.

4. You are using too many optimistic forecasts.

It is good to be an optimist, but for business planning purposes, too many optimistic views can bring disaster to your company. You need to base your forecasts and optimism on market insights that you have carefully collected. In many case this business plan mistake can be fatal for your small business.

5. You forget that there is competition on the market.

Maybe your business is so unique that you think that there is not competition on the market. However, you must remember that you can’t find a business on all possible today’s marketplaces which operates totally without competition. You need to include your most important current competition and the most important future competition in your business plan.

6. You explain only the business idea and not the opportunity.

Maybe your idea is brilliant, but if your idea doesn’t become a business opportunity then your company will fail. You must remember that a business idea is not always a business opportunity. Because of that, your business plan must explain the business opportunity, not only how your business idea is brilliant.

7. You don’t update your plan frequently.

The business plan is a not a static document that can be created and then simply forget on your shelves. Your business plan is a dynamic document that will need constantly to be measured, improved and updated.

8. You have an incomplete executive summary.

Sometimes the executive summary is the only thing that will be fully read from the people from financial institutions in charge to give you money for your venture. Because of that, an executive summary is important and must be fully complete.

9. You create a business plan without concrete action steps.

All business plans must result in concrete and clearly defined action steps that you and your business must accomplish in the future. Without action steps, your plan will be only a piece of paper.

10. You procrastinate with the implementation.

If you already have created your business plan do not procrastinate. If you procrastinate, thеn it is the sign that tells you about there is something wrong with your business plan.

I will finish this post with another quote about mistakes:

The mistakes are all there waiting to be made. ~ Savielly Tartakower

Question: Have you experienced business plan mistakes in your business planning process?