Launching a startup begins with a business plan. However, entrepreneurs need to remember that any plan is only a framework for development, and in a turbulent market, the ability to adapt and improvise is more vital than to pursue strict instructions.

Having a business plan makes a startup more likely to succeed, found out Francis J. Greene and Christian Hopp. According to their research, more than 30% of the small businesses do not survive the first 3 years of operations if they do not have a business plan.

Business plan is essential at the very start of the project, as it answers basic questions like “Who are we?”, “Where do we want to get to?”, and “How are we going to do that?”. Business plan traces a road of the project evolvement with short-term and long-term goals. It helps keep your mind on what you are doing and manage all the business processes in accordance with these goals. Well, these are common truths known to any entrepreneur, even a novice. But what entrepreneurs learn from experience is that any business plan has to be adapted to the ever-changing world and revised.

Entrepreneurs need to understand that one important aspect of a strong leadership is to strike a balance between planning and adapting. Here is what entrepreneurs who have already achieved success in the crypto market recommend to keep in mind when drawing up a business plan.

Life is unpredictable, and the market is part of this unpredictable life. You can calculate to the smallest detail all possible scenarios, but life can surprise us. And alas, it is rare when surprise can be called pleasant. In recent years, the global market underwent many shocks: the Covid-19 pandemic, global economic recession, geopolitical conflicts, etc.

“If you don’t keep tabs on your business plan, you may find yourself in a situation where you are out of touch with the reality of your business and the vision you set out to achieve,” CEO MNNT Michael Christine warns.

Michael Christine, Chief Executive Officer at MNNT 

In such a vulnerable environment, business plans are considered more like a roadmap than a strict instruction.

“In this kind of context, entrepreneurs need to be strong on adaptability and improvisation on the premise of sticking to the big overall plan. A leader can become an agent of change by actively seeking change, which in turn will make sure they’ll be the leading players in their field,” Jenny Yang, Founder and CEO of Star Consulting, recommends.

It is important to be flexible and mobile, sometimes you need to immediately change course and be ready to make significant adjustments to the original business plan.

“Sometimes it’s worth moving away from a business plan, not when something is already going not according to your strategy, but rather to make changes in advance, by playing ahead of the curve,” Roman Pishchulov, Co-founder of TTM Group, adds.

Roman Pishchulov, Co-founder of TTM Group

The world is bracing for economic storm, regulators of different countries give different signals, a sky-high inflation is battering consumers, the future is poorly predicted… Now multiply all this by ten and you get a typical day in the crypto market. Entrepreneurs who decided to connect their lives with cryptocurrencies should stand the thought that yesterday’s business plan may have to be redone today.

However, this does not mean that no one needs business plans in the crypto world. It would be more correct to say that a business plan should become a framework, give a general idea of the mission and goals and approximate planning horizons, while leaving a wriggle room for maneuver.

“Considering the rapidly-changing international economic situation and various external challenges at the moment, I think companies need to review their business plans more frequently than before. This it to ensure the company’s business plan is up to date with market conditions and trends, technological evolution, user habits, regulatory policies, etc.  Otherwise, our hard work would be senseless,” Yang advises.

Jenny Yang, Founder and CEO of Star Consulting

The ability to adapt is vital for all living beings. The same statement could be applied to all global market participants.

“In the alternative a lot of companies get bogged down by the stubborn belief that they have to rigidly stick to their plan despite what arises. Those who stubbornly fight against change, unable or unwilling to adapt tend to lose out in the long run,” CEO MNNT Michael Christine believes.

Some researchers claim that the adaptivity should not be opposed to planning. The improvisation is “rather a variation in the nature and working mechanism of planning”, two researches from Oregon State University argue.

“Advocates of planning argue that planning behavior is not just valuable but crucial in new ventures… In contrast, critics of planning claim that planning behavior offers no advantage and may even harm new venture development… We argue that improvisation will facilitate entrepreneurial processes and increase the chances of new venture success,” Jiyao Chen and Jing Ma from Stevens Institute of Technology at Oregon State University wrote back in 2005.

According to them, improvisation helps develop new products under conditions of high uncertainty. Thus, the higher the environmental uncertainty, the more needed is the ability to improvise.

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