This article says business plans place unnessary rigidity on your startup and can keep you from being flexible with product offering, pricing, hiring, location, market, etc.

One thing I remember from business classes is that you should have a business plan first. The business plan will help you know what your offering is, who your market is, how you’ll try to make money, etc.

But in the beginning, especially in a software company, these details are likely just too hard to know. You’d be guessing and making things up.

Instead of lying to yourself about things you couldn’t possibly know, just start with your idea and give it a go! Once you’ve begun and have some experience, look at the results and see if they’re working. Does your product solve a real problem? Does the market want/need it? How do they feel about the pricing? If things aren’t going like you’d hope, change something up. Experiment. Very little is set in stone at this stage.

If you can make your business more successful by quickly changing course, do it! You shouldn’t have to spend days updating your business plan and sending it to the printers. If you have co-founders, certainly talk to them, but it doesn’t have to be a drawn-out, formalized process.

This advice could encourage people to start the business they’re dreaming of, because it lowers the barrier to entry even further. I know it set my mind in motion.

It doesn’t say “Don’t think about your business”, it says “Don’t fix your sights too early”.

And that’s something we could apply to our daily lives, as well.