Page 126 - 6 Secrets to Startup Success

Your Math Story 105

thinking skills) provide the engineering, direction, and steering so that
you can aim yourself in the right direction and adjust your progress
as you go.

In the sections that follow, I’ll address three areas of focus that will
help you convert your idea and your passion into a business with tan-
gible, enduring value:

1. Planning. What planning approach makes sense for your
business, and what principles will help you make the most of
your enthusiasm without getting trapped by it?

2. Math. What is your math story, the organizing logic of your
venture, with numbers attached, and how will the elements
of your business come together in a way that is profitable
over time?

3. Funding. How will you bridge the gap between the amount
of money your startup will need and what you currently have
on hand?

Planning Is Clear Thinking

A common question among aspiring founders is whether to develop
a full-blown business plan and, if so, what to include in it. According
to most business schools and books on entrepreneurship, writing a
business plan is one of the first essential tasks of launching a business.
It’s a rite of passage, one that has spawned its own support industry:
business plan competitions, websites offering sample business plans
(enter the search term “business plan” for a quick tour), and services
that will write your business plan for you.

At the same time, we all know successful business owners who
never bothered with a written plan, who just leapt in, and some studies
that show little or no correlation between the writing of a business
plan and startup success.1 A number of experts insist that business
planning is actually counterproductive to the startup process, because
it siphons valuable time and attention away from more urgent tasks
(such as selling), is full of assumptions and flat-out guesses about an

American Management Association • www.amanet.org