Page 196 - Free the Idea Monkey

CONSIDER SCRAPPING THE BUSINESS PLAN
Adaptability is the hallmark of a great entrepreneur, no matter

what you may have been taught in school.
Find an honest entrepreneur and she will tell you she has

changed directions so many times that her business has little in
common with the initial business plan.

The point isn’t that business plans—or the annual plan you pre-
pare for your company—are worthless. On the contrary. They are an
excellent way to envision, create strategy, raise funds and test ideas.
But sometimes sticking with the plan is the worst thing to do.

Entrepreneurs know that freezing up, running away or laying
low just aren’t options that will work for them. They would rather
fail spectacularly than sit still and have the market do it to them.

For Maddock Douglas, 2001 marked a dramatic turning point
in our business. In hindsight, I am certain the horrific events on
September 11 pushed everyone—including our management team—
to reconsider what really mattered. This was helped along by the
fact that business just plain stopped as people tried to get a handle
on what had just happened. During this crazy time, rethinking our
position in the market seemed to be a natural thing to do. So after a
decade of growth, we rebooted our business and began to focus more
on innovation. Failure was absolutely a possibility, but the market
was telling us the old business model was dying.

Scrapping our existing plan worked. Our business has more than
quadrupled in size since then.

If you have a solid strategy, double down when the going gets
tough. If you don’t have a solid strategy, use market pressure as an
opportunity to rethink where you’re heading.

181C H A P T E R 1 3