One of the first articles I wrote in my other life as an Internet marketing consultant and copywriter was called Business 101: Passion Before Planning. At the time I wrote that piece, I was still a budding entrepreneur whose lessons in business were mainly gleaned from either my post-secondary education in business (I still think that’s an oxymoron but whatever) or casual observations of my husband’s empire building activities (oh the sleepless nights).
Four years later I’m now speaking from a different place when I say that if you’re an aspiring work at home mom slaving over a dissertation style business plan (like I did), you’re planning for your own derailment.
Here’s why you need to stop sweating the details and invest your caffeine-induced energy into visioning instead:
- Business plans cannot cover every possible contingency. Who knew the biggest economic downturn since the 1930s was upon us while we were all racking up credit card debt in early 2007? Spending attitudes have changed dramatically and so will numerous other external market conditions change while you burn the midnight oil one more night trying to decide if you should allocate $100 a month to your cell phone budget or $125.
- You will learn and grow as business woman faster than you think. Even though you’ve perhaps spent more time in the last few years playing with lego or wiping bums than you have studying the Financial Post or writing anything more in depth than a grocery list, you will be amazed at the synaptic firing that ignites once you dive into the complexities of launching and running your own WAHM start up. Trust me. What you plan for today will be a distant memory less than a year from now.
- A business plan is not worth the paper it’s written on without a clear vision of what success means for you. In other words, it’s more important that you know where you’re going than having a perfect roadmap for getting there. Why? Because today’s business landscape, especially the online version, is changing faster than you can type budgetary line items into a spreadsheet. Plans help you get things done. A vision makes sure you do the right things.
- Business planning is more an exercise in intent than it is a blueprint for your long terms success as a WAHM. By putting ideas to paper (or a computer file) you force yourself to set clear intentions for action. That’s powerful. And it explains why a business plan is more about articulating to-dos than it is about long term visioning.
So when you do sit down to create your business plan, make sure you’ve done the hardest part first: craft a vision for your future as a successful WAHM. Then write that vision in bold at the top of page 1.
The rest is just details.
About this Alpha WAHM Blogger: Karri is the Alpha WAHM who owns this joint. She also happened to write the book. 
