🤔 QUESTION: Why do so many entrepreneurs avoid planning?

😊 ANSWER: Most people sit at one of two extremes.

Either:

1. They believe planning means creating a 50-page document full of goals, metrics, and perfect formatting. Something that they will be judged against and that triggers anxiety.
2. Or they’ve come to believe that planning is pointless because “everything’s going to change anyway.” So why bother?

Both mindsets can stall progress.

Sometimes, it’s even worse: you try to use a recommended template, spend hours and hours filling it out…and you end up more confused than when you started. You still don’t know what your business needs, you’re frustrated, and you sure as heck don’t want to show this “plan” to anyone else.

The result? You default to flying by the seat of your pants, armed with instinct and a general idea of what you need, but no clear plan that gives you confidence or helps you take action.

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So is planning even worth it?

Yes. But not the way most people think about it.

Planning is not about creating a beautiful document that goes in a drawer. It’s about building an actionable vision of the future that evolves.

Planning is ongoing. It adapts as your business grows.

The goal isn’t perfection – it’s clarity. As a practice, planning gives you the ability to make better decisions, faster.

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What if I don’t know all the details?

Flip the script.

Instead of starting with, “I need $50K for marketing” (and then feeling bad about not knowing what to do first), focus on the specific marketing activities you’re considering.

Ask yourself, what kind of marketing do I want to do? (I want to run two weeks’ worth of Instagram ads.) Then figure out what it will cost to do those things.

This shifts the process from abstract to actionable.

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What if I don’t even know where to start?

If you wonder whether you should focus on marketing, product or something else, don’t start with a spreadsheet – start with your business engine.

Every business, no matter the industry, has to do these five BADDS things:

1. Build something that solves a problem
2. Attract Buyers
3. Deliver what you promised
4. Delight the people you delivered to
5. Support the business (systems, money, people)

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If you’re having trouble getting started, think about one of these five areas and ask:

What am I doing in this area right now?

What might I do?

Don’t worry about getting it “right” for now – focus on getting all of those ideas out of your head first.

Once you have a list of all of your activities, you can start to compare them and decide which activity, if improved, would create the most momentum?

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What’s the bottom line?

Take the “perfect” out of planning.

Forget the 47-tab projections. Forget impressing people.

Focus on what you’re trying to do this month, this quarter, or even this week.

Make it real. Make it useful. Make it relevant to you.

That’s the kind of planning that helps you build a business that you believe in.