Sakib Mahmud Aka Visionary Geek

I’m a big fan of Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, most recently I was busy to search a books of Mike. Finally I got a PDF inside my ebook store. I start to downloading and that touched me and greatly 10,7, 6 and 1. I figure out that, I’m ruining my life and messed-up my life for business which is totally uncertain — though I know no risk no gain but that doesn’t make sense to spend the full time for business. I’m doing BBA and side by side doing web business. To managing  or merging or concentrating in both terms at the same times such as need to take serious decision about business and at the same time exam is knocking that is really tough to handle — I wish I’ll handle it smoothly from today. Oh, I forgot to mention, Mike released his first books, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur^[i], I wish it will read this book soon.

10. Trying To Get Rich Quick
Most overnight successes take 15 to 20 years to achieve. If you go in expecting to be rich overnight, you may become discouraged early on and give up your dream prematurely. Know that success takes time, takes perseverance and takes a little bit of luck. Give your business the time to grow. Only if your company is stagnant for a long time, should you take it as an indication to try something new.

9. Assuming No Competition
Even if you have the latest, greatest, never-been-done-before approach to something, don’t assume you have no competition. Competition is more than just the direct, obvious competitors. Competition is also all the available alternatives. What else could the consumer do instead of using your product or service? Could they do nothing?!? The customer almost always has the option of walking away; and that is a serious competitive threat.

8. Being a Weak Leader
The success of your company is contingent on you being a strong, effective leader. This does not mean you need to be an authoritarian, and this does not mean you are everyone’s buddy, either. A great leader sets the course for the company, communicates it constantly and inspires the team to get there.

7. Being All Business All the Time
Many entrepreneurs put their personal lives on hold to focus exclusively on their business. Ultimately both suffer. No question your business needs your full attention and effort, but only in short spurts. Just like a peak athlete, in addition to cranking up for game time, you need to have a proper healthy diet, get enough rest, and take breaks. Balance your personal and business life and you will actually do better in both.

6. Pie-In-The-Sky Financial Goals
If all business plans came true, being a billionaire would be nothing extraordinary. Many entrepreneurs go into a new venture planning astronomical returns. Yet, most never even get the business off the ground. Unrealistic goals not only hurt your credibility, but can also be an emotional drain. Set Specific, Measurable, Accountability, Realistic, and Time specific (SMART) goals to ensure continual progress; chances of being an overnight success (albeit in 15 to 20 years) are much greater!

5. No Rallying Point
There is a reason why employees leave high paying corporate jobs to go to start ups, and it sure ain’t for the money. People are driven to serve an important purpose, in addition to bringing home enough bacon to feed the family. Many businesses never define their real purpose for existence and continually attract a mix of employees who are seeking success in different ways. Clarify the purpose of your company, beyond just making money, and you set the stage for attracting like minded employees. A team focused on the same goal is a very powerful force. The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, “I Have a Booger Hanging Out and No One Is Saying Squat”

4. Cutting Price
Often, the first thing entrepreneurs resort to when business is tough is to try differentiating on price. Cheaper prices mean more customers, right? Wrong! Most customers are willing to buy more expensive items because of the greater quality or the better convenience. During tough times, often an increase in price, coupled with improvements in quality or convenience can bring the customers in droves. Price slashing is a dangerous game. At some point you have to slash yourself to keep costs down.

3. No Clear Marketing Message
You never know where, when or how a new prospect is going to hear of your business. If you have a mix of messages out there, the prospects will have an unclear expectation of what you offer. Your company must be presenting a consistent clear message on all fronts. You will never get a second chance to make a first impression. Make sure every opportunity a new prospect will get to see your business for the first time, sends the same consistent message.

2. Not Being Forthright
The days of cover ups, died out with Bill Clinton’s denial of sexual relations with Monica. The anonymous nature and grand size of the Internet allows someone in the know to share anything with anyone at anytime. If your business tries to cover up a mistake, it is just a matter of time before the word leaks and you are labeled as a liar. That’s not good for business. Be the one to break your own bad news, you just may be perceived as honest and trustworthy.

1. Trying To Do It All
The greatest mistake entrepreneurs make is to believe they can do it all by themselves. While an entrepreneur can do most things, they do most things poorly. Just like any other person, an entrepreneur has one or two God given talents. As an entrepreneur it is your job to identify what you are great and do those few things to your fullest. Surround yourself with people who are strong where you are not. Great companies are built on the foundation of exploiting a few strengths, not on trying to be masters of everything.

I’m a fan of Maki, who is a great online marketer, just came across from anther one productive post,where he shared how you can make your web surfing more efficient and achieve the goals. Yes, I’m also thinking about it and I’ve spend a LOT time through a big percentage are totally non-productive – with pains – no gains. Also, I noted “you should always keep your mental energy focused & you’re reminding yourself of what you want.” – yes with limited energy and keep focusing onto the target to achieve the objective and finally reach to the goal.

Everyone has their favorite way of using the internet. Many of us search to find what we want, click in to a specific website, read what’s available and click out. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because it’s efficient. We learn to tune out things we don’t need and go straight for what’s essential.

This goal-oriented way of surfing the web is largely based on short-term results. For example, finding facts to write a blog post, doing a comparison before making a purchase and reading a news site to find out what’s happening right now.

If you do all this everyday it becomes like an unconscious habit. You go to the same familiar sites, click from link to link, extract what you want, linger a little for online chit-chat before drifting somewhere else.

So, how is this related to achieving your goals or being successful? Let’s use the topic of internet marketing and making money as an example.

If you’re a online marketer or business owner, you want to maximize your profits and sphere of influence. In order to achieve that, many things need to be done: on the practical side of things you need to get more targeted web traffic, optimize your sales page, promote your brand, increase your opt-in subscribers, network with peers, build links, provide customer service, create content/products, test your design/interface etc. All of these tactics are all directed towards the end goal of getting more customers and making more sales.

In order to reach this goal, incremental improvements to your business or strategy must be made everyday. You need make small tweaks, adjustments and innovations consistently to build on your success. These gradual step by step improvements will help you to reach your objective. But how do you constantly improve and stay on track to reach your income goal?

Image Credit: El Fotopakismo

A simple way to do this is to surf or use the internet with greater awareness in order to actively archive/assimilate what is beneficial. Awareness doesn’t refer to a serene zen-like consciousness of the websites you visit but rather, the awareness to connect what you do or experience online with the ultimate success of your business or goals. It should all link back to that final end.

And the way you do this in practice is easy: Maintain an all-purpose swipe file and record what you find interesting or useful when you surf the web everyday. To set this up for use while surfing the web, sign up for a free online bookmarking site or install a browser addon. Anything that allows you to bookmark webpages and/or write down your thoughts with just one or two clicks. You want to make it as easy and as hassle-free as possible.

Some of the tools you can use include evernote, delicious or the simple scrapbook addon for Firefox. It’s important to use tools that allow you to easily tag, categorize and search whatever you archive while also keeping your collection private.

Continuing with the online marketing example, I would be using these tools to record the following things while I surf the web:

• Web design/usability – Things I focus on include the overall design of the page, font type, site navigation, placement of ads, widgets, custom site features or plugins among many other things. These are details you can easily pass on to your coder or designer on the same day.
• Graphics/images – See a particular ad banner or button you like? bookmark the page and make a note of it. Or download it and put it in a folder. You may not have the rights to use it but its easy to find someone to create something similar to it.
• Sales page/Pre-sell pages – I spend a lot of time looking at sales/pre-sell pages everyday because I’m interested in how people sell. What words/images they use and how they arrange everything to make a coherent pitch. I’ll bookmark whatever I find appealing and make a note of what I like about it (important). This doesn’t just include lengthy Clickbank style salespages but e-commerce sites/marketplaces and blogs.
• Strategies/tactics – This involves marketing tactics that I find to be particularly ingenious. Examples include linkbait methods, product launch tactics and general public relations/advertising stuff. Much of these strategies can be found not just from the direct observation of marketers but from analysis of current news stories.
• Possible collaborators/JV partners – Whenever I come across a marketer, webmaster or business owner who has a product, site or service aligned with my interests, I will archive their contact details. This also includes people I comes across randomly on Twitter or those I discover via a targeted google search using keywords relevant to my business/product/niche focus. The goal here is to extend your sphere of influence by eventually leveraging another person’s reach.
• Copy and Content – This includes specific lines from sales-pages or emails/newsletters I receive while being on various mailing lists. Examples include email titles, email content, sales page titles, sales copy, adword ads, chapter listings and book titles on Amazon, language style/lines used by forum users in a specific niche etc.
• Ideas for social currency – Any interesting piece of information you come across can be bookmarked as ideas for a blog post, shared on twitter, posted to your email list, weaved into a product or used as a conversational topic in your favorite online community in order to build influence/reputation. Generally this category involves information I consume while reading news sites and not stuff I research on purpose. In other words, this is random zeigeist data (popurls.com/google trends and news/twitter trends/digg frontpage) that can be used towards multiple purposes.

Notes on Creating and Using Your Swipe File

Image Credit: felipe_gabaldon

1. Keep everything organized. Use tags appropriately so everything is in the right category and can be easily pulled up for reference. You don’t want a long chaotic list of webpages you can’t use. You want them to be action-friendly examples that are highly specific. Very useful when you want to hire someone and need to show what ad banner image, design style or site feature you want.
2. Don’t steal (at least not overtly). Keeping a swipe file doesn’t mean you should just copy and paste whatever you bookmark and use it for your site. One or two lines of copy might not hurt but try tailoring it to suit your persona/style/website. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. Find a good idea and instead of just applying it to your business, think about how you can improve on it even more.
3. Don’t stay within your niche. For example, you specialize in sports news, don’t just bookmark other sports-related websites. Read widely. A lot of the best sites in terms of content structure/delivery/display will be outside of your niche. Once you find them you can easily transplant their methods to give you a competitive advantage over other sports sites that just follow what everyone else is doing.

You should probably get the hang of this method by now. To clarify once more, I’m not talking about specifically doing research to find and archive data. This isn’t some competitor analysis method where you sit down for an hour and start going through all the websites or people in your industry in order to swipe their greatest hits.

The technique I’m proposing in this article simply involves changing the way you naturally surf the web everyday by developing a much greater attention to detail and aligning what you see or do online with a long-term end goal. Your switch is always on and you’re always looking to build on your current success. Always. All the time.

Develop a Web Surfing Pattern that Makes You Take Action

Image Credit: eriwst

If you’re really serious about building a profitable online business or becoming influential/successful in whatever you do, you should always keep your mental energy focused and your activities directed.

This is especially the case when you spend a LOT of time working online. Sure, you can relax from time to time but keep the line taut. If your online activities are always random and short-sighted, you’ll just jump from one link to another. This becomes a huge time-sink. While Wikipedia and Youtube or your favorite forum/social news site is a fun place to hang out, they aren’t always beneficial. Your attention and energy is limited so use it wisely.

Of course, if you’re only interested in killing time, you can use the internet anyway you want. But if you’re trying to become rich, influential and successful, you need focus. Eventually this unwavering attention will lead to success because you’re always tuned in towards constant improvement while keeping track of your goals. Every single time you click a button to archive something, you’re reminding yourself of what you want.

While the field of internet marketing was used for this example, this purposeful web surfing mindset can be thought of as a self-actualization tool. A well organized swipe file could be thought of as a constantly evolving vision board of some sort.

Like a vision board, your swipe archives are a constant reminder of your objective and tasks to be done. After all, you’re constantly collecting inspiring/interesting material you experience while web surfing and arranging them so they motivate you to move towards your specific goals. Be it to lose weight, learn spanish or improve your website. This is different from the old way of casually surfing the web without any particular focus on a long-term end goal.

So two things to put into action immediately after reading this article:

1. Consciously connect whatever you do online with your ultimate goal. Structure the time you spend on the web so that it always flows towards that objective.
2. Develop the habit of archiving whatever you experience on the web in order to use them as references/methods to improve what you are currently doing.

Keep this focus in the center of your mind and actively swipe whatever helps you reach your objectives. Do this consistently every day and you will develop a natural web surfing rhythm that will in the long run help you to accomplish your goals.

Content courtesy via How to Achieve Your Goals by Changing the Way You Surf the Web

I’m little bit excited today and I’m just coming from an excellent  articles, where Gilbert Ross shared 20 Powerful Beliefs That Will Push You Toward Success — I’ve learned lots of new things from his great share and even I’m astionsed some points has existence inside of me and some are not. I’m trying to figure out and lets see the full contents below.

Written on 12/21/2009 by Gilbert Ross. For more great articles by Gilbert make sure to visit his Blog Soul Hiker. Subscribe to his posts here or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

I’m sure you have met at least one person in your life that is successful, motivated and self-empowered. This is someone that always seems to land on their feet, turns everything into gold and every success seems to come their way faster and thicker.

I’m also sure you have stopped to think about why these chronically successful people are so energetic, driven and successful with no apparent struggle while you seem to have such inertia impeding your progress.

Many believe that this is some unfair throw of the dice; that they just weren’t meant to become successful. Or perhaps it’s that the ultra successful people had some advantage or social lever that you didn’t. Occasionally this is true, occasionally success is inherited or stumbled into. However, more times than not, it’s created.

Success, first of all, is not a set of achievements or a combination of external factors; it is a mindset. Success is an attitude that comes from a framework of powerful beliefs and empowering thoughts. There have been many books written about this, probably some of which you have read. In the ones I have read, there always seemed to be a certain partiality – an incomplete picture – perhaps biased towards financial success or some other area but not another.

In the following list of beliefs and empowering thoughts, I would like to present a rounder view of success. One that I hope will give you a wider angle towards the meaning of success ranging from the material to the spiritual.

1. I am in charge of my life
   The belief that you and only you are responsible of what you make of a given situation. Life does not happen to you but is a result of how you respond to opportunities and challenges.
2. I can make tomorrow better
   The belief that you can change your future by your actions today. Some people are stuck in a fatalist (and dis-empowering) mindset where they believe they have little control on their life.
3. There is a lot of opportunity out there
   Successful people have their mind set on abundance and opportunity and not scarcity and lack. Trust me this makes a world of a difference. Believe that life, energy, positivity, love, opportunities, success, happiness are abundant…because they are!
4. I don’t need the approval of others to succeed
   If you are always looking for others’ approval and consent you will not go very far off and you will certainly not be self-empowered.Successful people follow their heart even when others are skeptical or do not consent.
5. My intentions have effect on my reality
   This is not to believe in magic where you can wish things into being…well almost. Most people are blind to this but successful people know, consciously or otherwise, that a focused and strong intention is indeed a powerful thing that will make a lot of things happen and certainly get you to your destination faster.
6. People are catalysts not barriers to success
   If approached in the right way and you network with the right people, you will leverage your efforts by a thousand fold. You will get things done faster by getting help from others.
7. Positive thoughts are powerful and empowering
   Successful people know very well that choosing to start a day with a positive rather than a negative outlook means having successful day as opposed to a frustrating one. It’s definitely in the attitude.
8. I am not separate from the rest
   This is a deep insight which only the truly successful and wise ones keep at heart. Commonly people believe that they are separate and cut off from the rest because they are individuals. True knowledge will tell you that everything is interconnected and success comes from acknowledging that you are not separate but one with the forces of life and the universe.
9. How can I use this situation?
   When life throws a bad streak at you or you your plans go down the gutter, ask yourself “How can I use this?”. My life changed as I started doing this. You can always turn a situation around even by just observing, learning and sharpening your attitude.
10. Hard work & perseverance are rewarded
    This is a rule of thumb even if perhaps reward doesn’t always come immediately but is paid off in the long run.
11. My past can be reviewed and rewritten
    Some people are locked in their past or think that their past circumstances determine their future. Successful people are skillful in the art of interpreting their past and reframinmg it according to their optimal advantage.
12. There are forces and energies which can help me if I’m conscious
    You might be thinking magic? Fairies? Not exactly. We cannot perceive certain subtle energies but some successful people believe in positive and negative energy flows from things and people just like ancient Chinese traditions believed in the flow of the Chi (Qi) or life energy. You can make yourself aware of this but it takes practice.
13. Failure is good
    As in point 9, empowered people can turn a failure into success by learning from it and moving on.
14. Don’t take it personally
    Get out of the trap of taking life circumstances personally or you will end up enslaved emotionally. When you get rejections, criticisms, cold shoulders, etc., put in within an impersonal bracket. They are not rejecting me, but an idea of me they have in their mind.
15. Bad patches are temporary
    We all pass through bad patches. It’s the cycle of life. But we all get out of them unless we chose not to. Think outside of the moment.
16. What I learn can be improved and refined
    Self-empowered people have a very dynamic view on life. There is always space for change and improvement especially on skills and lessons learnt.
17. I am constantly developing and expanding new capabilities
    Just like the previous point, empowerment comes from a non-static outlook where life-affirming mind states are believed to expand not contract.
18. Things are impermanent, don’t attach yourself to things
    This is a Buddhist concept which the real successful have learnt through experience. You might think that successful people are materialistic. I think the really successful are people who have a richer view on life and know how to ride life’s waves without getting emotionally attached.
19. Forget, forgive, rejoice
    Don’t get stuck in resentment and grudges. Travel light without dragging an emotional baggage full of past disappointments.
20. I already have all I need
    Self-explanatory. The path to success is through self-discovery and not world conquest as some would believe. People who have made it knew how to uncover their skills and true potential instead of obsessing with possessing.

content courtesy 20 Powerful Beliefs That Will Push You Toward Success

photo courtesy Fosteringsuccess.org

I’m always loving in-dependency and always dreaming to become a successful entrepreneur. So, to become a success need to hard work, have to plan, work and complete the tasks and touch the next plan or update the next plan, managing working cash flow and investing some little amount when earned and using some money for self. However, to running in same way or always busy to thinking that really harmful for the human body and soul — and sometimes you will be frustrated, when success not come to you and sometimes you will be excited when success knocked to you.

I’m just coming from 10 Tips for Saving Your Life From Your Business, Tim Berry who shared some awesome tips for us “Maximizing your chance for success means sacrificing health and family” and as well I’m excited when I’ve read Sacrifice your health for your startup — below I’m sharing the venturebeat’s posts and you really enjoy it.

(Editor’s note: Jason Cohen is an angel investor and the founder of Smart Bear Software. This story originally appeared on his blog.)

The Internet is full of good advice about how to lead a healthy, balanced work/home life.

If you don’t have your health and your family, it generally says, nothing else matters. On your deathbed, will you wish you had worked longer hours or been a better parent? Will you wish you had spent more time Twittering or more time exercising, extending your life by five years?

Compelling thoughts. And yet, in my experience this attitude is not the path to success in small business.

Maximizing your chance for success means sacrificing health and family.

This sounds controversial, but it’s not just me:

• Jeremiah Owyang of Web Strategist: “How do I Keep Up?” This is one of the most common questions I get from folks, or a variant: “Do you sleep?” or “Do you have a family?” I can answer succinctly: “I don’t, in shifts, and yes… I think.” … I’m lucky I fell into my passion. It comes with costs however, I’m out of shape, stressed, I don’t sleep well, and my blood pressure is up.
• Mark Cuban, self-made millionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks on how he acheived success: “I slept on the couch or floor … Because I was living on happy hour food, and the 2 beer cover charge, I was gaining weight like a pig. But I was having fun. … Every night I would read [software manuals], no matter how late. … I remember sitting in that little office till 10pm … I would get so involved with learning that I would forget to eat …
• More from Mark in an interview with YoungMoney Magazine: Question: “Did you have to sacrifice your personal life in order to become a business success?”  Answer: “Sure, ask about five of my former girlfriends that question. I went seven years without a vacation. I didn’t even read a fiction book in that time. I was focused.”

“So what,” you could argue, “just because many successful entrepreneurs are workaholics doesn’t mean that’s the only path to success.”

Indeed, study after study has shown that “working more hours” doesn’t translate into “accomplishing more shit.” If you’re not getting enough sleep, for instance, working extra hours doesn’t make up for your foggy brain.

Also, optimizing how you spend your time can increase productivity several times over — an increase you couldn’t possibly match by working more hours.

Yeah, but here’s the problem.

The “Rule of Closets” is that the amount of crap you own will expand to fill all available closet space. You can create more space by adding shelves and organizers, but then you’ll soon discover you have more stuff.

Well I have a “Rule of Time in Startups”: How much time does a bootstrapped company take? All of it.

Even ten people could hardly keep up with everything you do in small business — creating, consulting, designing, fixing, self-promotion, blogging, networking, bookkeeping, taxes, customer support and cultivation and all those little crappy things like losing an afternoon troubleshooting your fancy outsourced IP phone system that was supposed to let you “work from anywhere.”

One, two, or even three people can’t do everything, so of course it takes all your time. If you’re working a day job while starting something on the side, of course you don’t have time to exercise or play with your kids before bed.

It takes obsession to make a little company go. Forget “passion” — everyone’s favorite word — it’s “obsession.” It’s not just that you love working, it’s that you can’t stop working. You’re putting your entire self on the line — your finances, your career, your ideas.

The obsession is there even when you’re away from the office, having lunch with a friend or reading to your kids. As my wife would frequently point out in the early years of Smart Bear, my “mental and emotional bandwidth” was entirely consumed. You’re physically there, but you’re not really there.

Read those quotes above again and you’ll see not just passion but self-destructive devotion. You don’t put yourself through this meat grinder just because you “like something a lot.”

“If you love it so much, why don’t you marry it?”

Exactly.

Of course those life-coaches are still correct: This isn’t a great way to live your entire life. You need to accept that this is going to happen and ask whether it’s OK to incur this penalty right now. For me, I did all this in my 20’s when I had no kids, I had enough savings to risk everything for a while, and I had a wife who had her own business and who therefore understood how much work it took and why I was spacing out over dinner.

Bottom line: Every successful bootstrapper I know puts work before self. (Until financial freedom is achieved.) I did too.

(Curious what Jason’s wife thought about this? Check out her rebuttal.)

Photo by a.drian via Flickr

Via Sacrifice your health for your startup — Entrepreneur Venturebeat

I’m just comping from Neil Patel’s blog and he shared an existing posts. Given below,

I was reading an article on the New York Times blog today that breaks down why all entrepreneurs should write business plans.

Careful academic research on the business start-up process reveals that many entrepreneurs never write a business plan.

These studies also show that writing a business plan helps entrepreneurs in a number of ways, including improving their odds of successfully developing a new product, organizing a company, accessing external capital, obtaining raw materials, generating sales and surviving over time. Regardless of what measure of performance academics have looked at, research shows that writing a business plan has a positive impact.

I am not a fan of writing business plans! I have started a fair amount of companies and have never written a business plan. Now you could say that is the reason why a lot of my businesses failed, but I could make the argument that financially I’ve still came ahead.

Here is why I think you shouldn’t write a business plan:

Business plans ≠ Funding

If you are trying to raise money, you’re probably considering writing a business plan, right? Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t know anyone who has raised money from writing a business plan.

Roughly 30 of my close friends have taken some sort of venture capital or private equity financing. And none of them raised that money by writing a business plan.

Most of them did make a power point presentation and a few even wrote executive summaries, but they didn’t write business plans.

Remember, most investors don’t want to invest in a “plan” they want to invest in a business that is up and running. You don’t have to be making money, but they want to see something more than just a piece of paper.

And if a potential investor happens to request a business plan from you, ask them if they are actually going to take the time to carefully read through it. The chances are, they won’t even skim it.

You can’t predict the future

You can try and plan for the future, but your plan will never account for everything. Things change, so why would you waste your time writing a document that won’t be up-to-date.

Or if you want to take it to the next level, why would you start writing a plan that will never be complete? Your business will constantly evolve and change, and if you want your business plan to stay up-to-date, you’ll constantly have to modify it.

Once you start your company, you’ll soon realize that a lot of decisions will have to be made on the fly and that you are going to have to rely on your intuition. There is no a written document can help you with any of this.

Time is money

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration over 50% of small businesses fail in the first 5 years because of lack of capital and lack of entrepreneurial experience.

As I mentioned above, writing a plan isn’t going to help you get capital. And if you are looking to gain experience, you are better off spending time working on your business than writing a plan.

The biggest reason I never wrote a business plan is that it takes my time away from the business. I am a doer and spending weeks on something that has no proof on impacting the success of my company is a waste of time.

If you have somewhat of an understanding of what you are going to do and where you plan on taking your business, you should spend all of your time acting on it. Writing a plan will just slow you down from succeeding.

The businesses world has changed

For a moment, think about all of the things that have changed in the past year. A lot has changed, right?

And now, take a moment and think about all of the things that have changed in the past ten years. So many things have probably changed that you take a lot of them for granted.

Technology is constantly evolving and the way you go about operating your business isn’t the same as it used to be. But the problem with business plans is that they haven’t evolved with the business world. So why would you spend time on something that is old and out-dated?

Conclusion

If you think having a business plan is going to increase your odds of success, it won’t. There are no stats proving that writing a business plan is going to help you succeed… so do yourself a favor and save your time.

And on a closing note, I would like to leave you with a few words from Steve Rappaport.

Many successful businesses today would not withstand academic scrutiny. A perfect example is the company Red Bull. There are so many holes in the plan without the 20/20 hindsight. I can imagine what would have been the comments — didn’t we do this in the 80’s as “jolt cola” or “entrenched drink competitors will crush you if it ever becomes popular.” I think a plan is good, but serendipity and opening the business up for opportunities can be even better. In other words, diverting from the plan. Red Bull’s initial aim was a drink for long-haul truck drivers.

Do you think it’s worth creating a business plan?

Why Entrepreneurs Shouldn’t Write Business Plans [via quicksprout]