Plan Less and Learn Faster Through Lean Business Planning

Making a detailed business plan is a tedious process that takes a long amount of time and doesn’t exhibit dynamic properties. Apart from the hassles of writing a traditional business plan, there is no guarantee that someone will read it properly. Also, due to the ever-changing market, chances are that the plan is outdated by the time it has been finished. To resolve this issue and help kick-start businesses in very little time, Lean Business planning is the right way to go.

What is Lean Business Planning?

As the name suggests, the Lean Business Planning is one of the latest and effective methods that replace lengthy business plans with a 20-minute planning process. It basically takes the essence of major points in a business plan and focuses on the smaller steps to review results and create incremental results. Such a dynamic planning that is simpler and faster helps in starting and growing successful businesses quickly and at the same time reduce the risk of failure.

How does it work?

Lean Business Planning is a method that uses smaller steps with consistent course tracking and corrections. It wastes very little time by streamlining the essential points required for the business to function or start smoothly. The plan will include answering the following questions –

1. What does your Business intend to do?

This is highly important as it forms the key value proposition to your customers. Your identity for the business is the beginning of any lean plan and should be described in a single sentence. It is pretty much identical to answering a personal ‘What do you do?’ question.

2. What are the problems you are solving?

Every business’ intention should be to solve a problem that a customer faces. This should be the space where you define the problem that you have surveyed and plan to provide a solution to.

3. What is the solution?

Here you have to define the product or service that you will provide in a single line. Basically, it should end up being a solution to the above problem question. The answer should be crisp and clear without adding too much meat in the description.

4. What is the market you have identified?

Here you will have to put a few pointers that will describe your ideal customers. This is an important part that shows how much potential you have to build a sustainable business plan. It requires In-depth market research that helps in putting forth your point in a strong way.

5. What is the competition in this segment and how are you different?

This section should be used to put forth the competition you have identified in this segment. Also, phrase down a sentence or two describing how your business will be better or different than them to achieve market dominance.

After you have dived into answering these questions, you will have to strategize a way to start testing these plans. Float these plans across and go to the market to see the response. A good thing about a lean plan is that it doesn’t take a lot of time to read and get feedback. Once you have a list of issues identified, you can start to revise the plan. Remember, Lean Business Planning is a continuous process where you keep revising and testing the plan over and over till you achieve the most efficient of result suitable for your business.

If you still have doubts, a good way to make a plan is to check few online template or better to seek help from professionals who are highly trained in making foolproof plans and suggest the right path to help start or grow your business.