The One-Paragraph Business Start-Up Plan

4. Revise your draft plan.
Based on the information gathered while executing your checklists, determine whether the original assumptions in your draft plan are true, false or incomplete. My original idea about how my business would work was incomplete. Not only did I miss an entire client category, I failed to research the right decision-makers.

Sometimes you'll validate your hypothesis. In other cases, you'll see that you were far off base. Whatever the outcome, identify and plug the holes in your false or incomplete statements in your draft plan.

5. Continue to update your plan.
Scrap what failed and improve on minor successes to create home runs. Adjust your plan accordingly so you can begin transforming each of your flawed assumptions into true and complete statements. Use your findings to create more educated insights and craft more in-depth, specific checklists. Repeat this process on a regular basis.

Just because you prove all of your original premises doesn't mean you're done and on your way to easy street. In fact, you're only at the beginning. Always look for ways to improve your checklists. Doing so will keep you on top of your game and allow you to produce a series of well-defined blueprints for every part of your business.

Constantly questioning and improving my one-paragraph start-up plan has led me to building a profitable, scalable company poised for strong growth in various markets.

Your one-paragraph startup plan is a living, breathing document that has a symbiotic relationship with your business. If it dies, your business may not be far behind.

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