Why Plan Your Business? Look At This Data

While I’m not a big fan of surveys, this one is pretty straight forward, and I like the results. Palo Alto Software asked thousands of Business Plan Pro users a couple of dozen questions about their businesses, goals, type of business, years in existence, and business planning. Almost 3,000 people responded. And here, in the chart below, is one good summary:

Business Chart

Simply put, those who finished their business plans were about twice as likely to successfully grow their business, get investment, or land a loan than those who didn’t. You can see the numbers on the chart.

For the record, we sent the results to the University of Oregon Department of Economics for validation. I posted more details about that study and the statistical validation yesterday on our Business in General blog.

Comments

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    […] Why do you need a business plan? Tim Berry, an expert on business plans through his software business, posted these results to a survey his company completed recently of about 3,000 businesses. It should be noted that the businesses surveyed all use Berry’s particular brand of business planning software so the results aren’t comprehensive covering all businesses everywhere. Still, the numbers pretty much show that most businesses that had done some kind of business planning reported advantages in growth, as well as securing capital and loans. Have business plans been helpful to you? Bplan.com […]

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  • Small Business News: Basically Business | Business Courses and Simulations says:

    […] Why do you need a business plan? Tim Berry, an expert on business plans through his software business, posted these results to a survey his company completed recently of about 3,000 businesses. It should be noted that the businesses surveyed all use Berry’s particular brand of business planning software so the results aren’t comprehensive covering all businesses everywhere. Still, the numbers pretty much show that most businesses that had done some kind of business planning reported advantages in growth, as well as securing capital and loans. Have business plans been helpful to you? Bplan.com […]

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    […] Why do you need a business plan? Tim Berry, an expert on business plans through his software business, posted these results to a survey his company completed recently of about 3,000 businesses. It should be noted that the businesses surveyed all use Berry’s particular brand of business planning software so the results aren’t comprehensive covering all businesses everywhere. Still, the numbers pretty much show that most businesses that had done some kind of business planning reported advantages in growth, as well as securing capital and loans. Have business plans been helpful to you? Bplan.com […]

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  • Stuart Noton says:

    “Perfect Planning Prevents Poor Performance” has now been validated thanks to your efforts!

  • BizSugar.com says:

    Why Plan Your Business? Look At This Data…

    Interesting survey results show more success in raising capital for those who finish their business plan. In addition, the same group who finished their business plan also we more successful at growing their businesses….

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