Planning years into the future

Originally shared as a reply on X.
Article Idea

I personally think that structured planning years into the future for a small business is generally the wrong use of time and energy.

It can be useful to dream into the future, and then plan out your short and medium term actions to align with that dream. You don't want to simply put one foot in front of the other, because you might end up somewhere you don't want to be. But anything more elaborate than that doesn't feel like the optimal use of the unique situation you're in, in my opinion.

The thing is that when you're small, it's so much easier to turn the whole ship. You have less people, process, tech debt, customers, etc.

The key is to lean into your advantages you have as a small business, and not make the mistake of trying to mature and grow up too fast. Be wary of adding process where flexibility can benefit you.

As a small business you don't need to plan years into the future because you can change your plan more frequently, more easily than a large business. You can course correct your way to long term success.

The other thing to be aware of is that if you're a small and early business, you likely have less traction and are yet to find strong product market fit. Therefore, your plans into the future are built upon something that is not very validated. Your focus should be on testing and validating assumptions, and finding your way to product market fit. Whereas, a larger business can likely make plans on top of layers of validation and understanding, and therefore have generally more accurate predictions for the future. They should still test assumptions as quickly as possible, but they have a stronger foundation to chart a course into the future.