As all successful businessmen know, plans don’t always go well. Your heart could be in the right place, you could have the best business model and the most fool-proof strategies planned down to a Tee, yet things could still fall apart.
When things don’t happen according to plan, and you find yourself at a dead-end, there could only be one thing the Universe is telling you: You should have a backup plan.
Your Plan B is central to your business success:
Building a business from scratch and hoping to make it to the top without any contingency plan is like going to war without any ammunition. In the hyper-competitive business world where drained funds and failed strategies could deal a severe blow to your business, not having a backup plan is business suicide.
Entrepreneurs who make the mistake of not having a contingency plan may argue that it’s expensive and time wasting. They may even think that having a Plan B means they’re not quite loyal and committed to their original plan. If you’re focusing on the right goal and doing the right steps, how can you even entertain thoughts of failing? Makes sense? Not quite.
You see, let’s be realistic here. Having a Plan B or even Plan C (down to all the letters of the alphabet, if you may), gives you something to fall back on when the going gets tough, says RishabhChokhani, CEO, and founder of Naturevibe Botanicals.
Chokhani says it’s not being pessimistic or being disloyal to your original goal; rather, it means you care enough about your business that you don’t want to leave anything to chance. Having a Plan B is a good business strategy and it shows that you are relentless in pursuing your goals.
Examples of businesses with a solid Plan B:
How you prepare for unforeseen events could spell the difference between a slight bump in your business or total bankruptcy. The founders of search behemoth Google had to revolutionize their strategies to survive in the cutthroat business. Had they not done that, it’s unlikely we would have heard of Google.
And would you like to know how Google prepares for fiascos? It has a team of people whose main function is to stage fake cyberattacks against Google. The team then monitors the incident managers’ response time and efficiency to the threat.
Houston-based salad chain Salata is also an expert at making contingency plans. In 2014, Salata had to switch to round tomatoes because the Roma tomato which it normally uses suffered a wipeout. Salata has also learned to be creative and flexible with its menu by taking consideration of seasonality and supply fluctuations.
Zeroing in on an alternative plan:
While you can’t totally avoid business disasters and emergencies, you can mitigate the impact it has on your business by having several backup plans. Chokhanioffers the following tips when settling on a Plan B.
When you choose a Plan B for your business, it should be as good and well thought out as your original plan. Even if you don’t expect to fail with Plan A, having a solid backup plan is important for when the day comes that you will finally have to resort to it. This means any backup plan that is inferior to your original plan should be discarded.
You must analyze its effectiveness in real-life scenarios and plug potential loopholes, says Chokhani. If you have several backup plans in mind, choose the one most likely to weather the challenges and elect it as your Plan B.
So, consider your alternatives and take the time to craft a solid backup plan. It can serve as a lifeline for your business down the road.