What is the key to a successful business plan?

What is the key to a successful business plan?

William A. Cohen (Author & Founder, Institute of Leader Arts) gives expert video advice on: What is the key to a successful business plan?; What are the top business plan mistakes?; Should I hire someone to write a business plan for me? and more...

I would say one of the keys to a successful business plan is to “adopt a structure that you're comfortable with.” You're telling your story. That's why I think a business plan ought to be fun. If it's not fun, something's not right somewhere. The financials of a business plan are not fun for me, by the way. Nowadays, they have computers anyway, and you can just plug in the figures they tell you, and it punches these things out. Even the parts that you are less comfortable with can work. I think the fun thing is thinking out the business plan and working out the strategy. I think it's fun thinking about the tactics. I think it's fun when you think about all the profits that you can make.