Adopt business planning as management, with lean business planning. Repeat this step monthly for the rest of your business life. A going business is always revising its plan. Change is constant. Follow your review schedule monthly. A real business plan is never done. If your plan is done, your business is done. 

The workable lean business plan is the first step in a planning process that will help you steer your business and optimize your management to get what you want your business to do for you. Follow up with the review schedule, review plan vs. actual results every month, and keep your plan alive and growing. Keep it lean, keep it live.

Experts know that planning manages change. Change is constant. Change does not void planning.

Tweet

As your business evolves, so will your business plan. Add pieces to fit the needs.

Tweet

You’ll need to add product and marketing information to coordinate development, deployment, messaging and timing. Add to your financials to account for loans and capital equipment, which become part of a balance sheet.

The normal lean planning process is what I call the PRRR cycle, for “plan, run, review, and revise.” This is my lean-planning version of the traditional lean business technique that started with lean manufacturing and also includes the lean startup.