A business plan is not a novel you write for a banker and never open again. In this episode of Optimized Entrepreneur with Jeremy Hanson — Episode 3 of the “10 Steps to Know You’re Ready” series — the plan is treated as a working document: what you sell, who buys it, what it costs, and how you will know if it is working.

Most plans fail because they are theater. This one should be short enough to use and honest enough to scare you a little. If the numbers only work in the fantasy version, the plan did its job — it told you before you spent the money.

You’ll learn

• What a useful business plan has to include
• What you can skip
• How to turn the plan into decisions instead of a binder
• Why writing it down exposes the holes in the idea
• How a simple plan beats a pretty one you will not follow