CoReen's Business Plan

Coreen and I met every two weeks. She wanted to start a business and was having difficulty in writing her business plan. We reviewed what a business plan would look like. I gave her a Business Plan workbook which provided a step by step outline to follow. We discussed each step. I suggested that she not think about the whole business plan but to work on it, step by step.  Yet each time we met, she said she had writers block. She couldn't put her thoughts down on paper. So, we reviewed the steps again. Each time we met it was the same story and I ended with, "Remember this is your business plan." 
 
One day, about six weeks into our sessions, she called me to meet before our next scheduled appointment. I just happened to have an opening that day, so I said, "how about this afternoon at 2?" "Perfect," she said, "I'll see you then." I fully expected Coreen to come and say, "I just can't write my business plan." What a pleasant surprise I received. Coreen came bouncing in and presented a fully completed Business Plan. I said, "You got over your writer's block." "Yes!" she said, "When, I realized that I wasn't writing the Business Plan for you, I was writing it for me, I took ownership of the plan. After that full realization, I sat down and within a day I had the plan written."  
 
Coreen's lesson is one for all those preparing a Business Plan. You are writing a Business Plan, not for your banker, accountant or anyone else, although they may want to review it, you are writing it for yourself. It is your business and the Business Plan is your blue print for the building up of your business in the short and long term.