Why ‘Just Start’ Is Dangerous Advice for Entrepreneurs

For the last few years, founders have been told that a business plan is a waste of time. “Just start” is the advice du jour.

The intent is to reduce procrastination, as often, action beats overthinking. After all, done is better than perfect, right?

However, when we take a look at the state of entrepreneurship now, it’s a little messy. Yes, things are moving much faster now, but founders feel more lost and unsure whether their business is working.

They’re more reactive than strategic, and decisions are made based on urgency rather than clear direction. And the marketing? Well, it’s a little random and usually based on what other people are doing.

The problem?

Most founders don’t have a business plan, and so they have no direction or benchmarks for their business.

Why do people no longer respect the business plan?

When I first learned anything about business, I was taught that you cannot start your business without writing a plan first.

It was even suggested that running a business was impossible without one.

Thousands of founders today will say that it’s obviously not impossible, as they’re doing it. But the question is, are they? Are they genuinely running a business properly, or are they guessing every single day and getting lucky?

When I did my MBA, our “final exam” was to present a business plan for our business. We had to write out a full and detailed executive business plan AND a pitch deck-style presentation.

This was worth a huge proportion of our grade and the finale we’d all been working towards.

So why do modern-day founders believe it’s a waste of time?

Well, thinking about the business plans I’ve produced over the years, whether it’s for myself or for my clients, they have been incredibly bloated. They were essentially written to impress investors. Founders rarely looked at them.

But they took ages to put together. So, I totally get why people consider them a waste of time and believe we should “just start.”

The danger of “just starting”

The problem is, “just start” can also be incredibly dangerous advice. While it’s motivational and encouraging that you shouldn’t overthink things, and perhaps you learn more from “doing,” there are some issues with it.

First of all, when you skip planning, every opportunity suddenly feels urgent. It’s incredibly hard to say no because they all seem exciting. So founders chase ideas, platforms, partnership and trends that look and sound like opportunities, but they don’t actually move the business forward.

Secondly, progress becomes impossible to measure. Revenue may be coming in, but there are no clear benchmarks in place to see whether the business is on track, ahead or slowly drifting off course.

Thirdly, founders confuse busyness with productivity. Just because lots of things are happening, it doesn’t mean that you’re making progress towards your goals. Largely because, without the business plan, you don’t really know what those goals are.

This is why so many businesses feel much harder than they should.

A business plan doesn’t have to be traditional

I mentioned goals earlier, and I think entrepreneurs love setting goals. They have plenty of ways of doing this — vision boards, planners, apps, post-its … I’ve seen it all.

So, why do people love goal-setting but think that a business plan is useless?

I think it’s because when you say the phrase “business plan,” many people consider a 40-page corporate document that you will never read.

However, a business plan does not have to be like that at all.

A useful business plan answers a few simple but uncomfortable questions:

• Who exactly is this business for?

• How does it actually make money?

• What does “working” look like in six, 12 and 24 months?

• What are we not doing — on purpose?

Without those answers written down, businesses default to guesswork.

Planning isn’t about prediction — it’s about position

The biggest misconception is that a business plan is about predicting the future. Knowing exactly what should happen and when.

Even after running a business for one day, we know things are extremely unpredictable in entrepreneurship, and you absolutely cannot plan for everything.

A business plan is about knowing where you’re starting from, where you’re aiming and how today’s decisions connect to tomorrow’s outcomes.

Many people think that this is slower. That founders who love to plan end up being behind because they spent time planning instead of doing. However, that’s not the case at all.

Founders who plan are actually calmer. They make fewer reactive decisions. They waste less time and money testing things that never had a chance of working.

And crucially, they know when something isn’t working, because they defined what success looked like upfront.

Which founders most often fall into the planning trap?

This might surprise you, but the founders who often dismiss planning are the most capable ones. After explaining the importance of business plans, you’d think the capable ones all create them.

But that’s not the case. The most experienced ones do, because they have made the mistake of not making a business plan before!

But the capable founders are the ones who are smart, move fast and trust their instincts. They know they can get stuff done and have the ability to achieve great results.

However, even if they have great instincts, without structure, this can lead to blind spots.

So then many founders only realize they need a plan when:

• Their marketing spend keeps increasing, but the results don’t improve

• Hiring feels premature, but also unavoidable

• Revenue looks healthy, yet cash flow is tight

• The business grows, but the founder feels stuck inside it

Only then do founders take a step back and create a business plan. But, by then, fixing the mess is far harder than preventing it.

So, what’s the verdict? Do you need a business plan in 2026?

I think the traditional business plans are no longer necessary in 2026. You do not need to spend weeks creating a document that you won’t read. Even if you have investors, there are simpler documents you can create for them.

However, I think some kind of plan is essential for business. A clear, written point of view on where your business is going and why.

Because without it, you’re not really building a business — you’re reacting to one. And reaction is a very expensive way to grow.

For the last few years, founders have been told that a business plan is a waste of time. “Just start” is the advice du jour.

The intent is to reduce procrastination, as often, action beats overthinking. After all, done is better than perfect, right?

However, when we take a look at the state of entrepreneurship now, it’s a little messy. Yes, things are moving much faster now, but founders feel more lost and unsure whether their business is working.