The plan-as-you-go business plan is a new approach, a new way of thinking about business planning. It doesn’t really change fundamentals, but it does change the focus. It adds some new angles, and it’s better for you, and better for your business.
What’s the difference? Why do I make the distinction?
Garr Reynolds, in his highly-acclaimed book Presentation Zen, says his approach to presentations “is not a method.”
“Method implies a step-by-step systematic process, something very much planned and linear, with a definite proven procedure that you can pick off a shelf and follow A to Z in a logical orderly fashion.
“An approach implies a road, a direction, a frame of mind, perhaps even a philosophy, but not a formula of proven rules to be followed.”
I like this distinction. It definitely makes plan-as-you-go planning an approach, and not a method. I’ve spent a lot of years working on step-by-step methods to do business planning. Some of them work. Sometimes. But the whole idea of step-by-step, attractive as it is, reinforces the myth of the business plan as a document or hurdle.
What’s the difference? Why does it matter? It’s not that important, but I do want to use the idea of an approach instead of method to emphasize that I don’t want this plan-as-you-go concept to become another list of specific steps, or another list of “do it my way” methods. I want this approach, like this book, like your plan, to be yours, not mine. You take what I’m offering here and use what you want from it, in whatever order you want to use it, and make it work for you.
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
