The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide, Third Edition

Chapter Eighteen. Conclusion

The only constant in the world today is change. Nothing stays the same for very long. People alive today have seen things their grandparents may not have even dreamed of, from live images of Mars to the ability to store 30,000 popular songs on an electronic device the size of a wallet. At a little cottage in the mountains, we recently saw a 20-year-old not know how to dial an old-fashioned telephone.

Who knows from where the next set of changes will come. We assure you that while we do not know exactly what the new ideas will be, we do know the source of those ideas. They will come from the global village of entrepreneurs. They will come from the people and companies who see a need, a better way of accomplishing an old task, or a way to better use resources.

The new ideas, products, and processes will come from the entrepreneurs and not from their business plans. That being said, it has been proven time after time, decade after decade, that the structured methodology and discipline employed in a business plan will assist that creativity.

A properly written business plan can help you as an entrepreneur move on from bad ideas and accelerate good ones. If there is one message we hope to leave you with, it is that good ideas make good businesses, and good businesses make good business plans.

The best business plan can’t turn a bad idea into a good business. A good business plan, however, can help make a good business concept credible, understandable, and attractive ...