Right-Brain Business Plan Book Excerpt

Excerpt from The Right-Brain Business Plan: A Creative, Visual Map for Success

By Jennifer Lee

www.rightbrainbusinessplan.com

Does This Sound Like You?

You know you’re a right-brain entrepreneur if you respond with a resounding “yes!” to the following questions:

• Do you hate the idea of writing a business plan but know you need one?
• Do numbers numb you out?
• Do words like business plan, cash flow, and balance sheet make your skin crawl?
• Would you rather have an MFA than an MBA?
• Do you have a big vision for your business but struggle with seeing it through?
• Do you prefer colors, images, and feelings to spreadsheets, tables, and templates?
• Do you want to make a positive impact with your business but avoid the business aspects of your job?
• Do you feel that planning is boring or daunting, or that it gets in the way of the “real work”?
• Are you turned off by the formality and nitty-gritty detail of traditional business plans?
• Do you believe there’s got to be a better way to run your business?

You are not alone! I hear clients, workshop participants, and blog readers answer yes to questions like these all the time. Sure, your feathers may get ruffled when you hear the letters ROI, but that doesn’t mean you can’t artfully run a business.

Why a Right-Brain Approach to Business Planning?

Typically, we think of business planning as very much a left-brain activity, and yes, the left brain certainly does play a key role in the planning process, since it is geared for logical, analytical, critical thinking. The left brain is a rock star at solving problems, sequencing steps, and hashing out the details, all great attributes when it comes to testing a plan and carrying out the steps to make that plan happen.

The challenge is when left-brain thinking comes too early in the visioning and planning process and kills the party with its questioning, judgment, and need for every single piece of the puzzle to make absolute sense before taking that first step. This limits your thinking; good ideas are quashed before they’ve even had a chance to form. You get analysis paralysis. Unfortunately, this can leave you feeling frustrated, stuck, and without a plan to speak of. Sound familiar?

Fortunately, as a creative person, you’re naturally gifted with right-brain intuition, imagination, and innovation. But this isn’t about left-brain bashing. In fact, the left brain plays an important role in different parts of your planning process. What we want to avoid is letting your left brain hijack the situation.

When you approach business planning with your right brain first, you free your mind to see creative options, explore, and find patterns and purpose. You allow yourself to dream big and to connect emotionally with your vision. When you begin with your authentic vision, you’re so much better equipped to deal with all the other “stuff.”

Yes, it’s important to know the details and understand the numbers, but if you start from that point, you force yourself into a box and may not even get your plan finished because you become frustrated or blocked. You can always ask an expert about how to read a profit and loss statement, but you can only ask yourself about what matters most to you and your business. If you start with your vision and values, the details will follow.