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If you think that you’ve got your business plan sorted, then think again. Entrepreneurs have a habit of believing that they have got all bases covered, only to later realize they haven’t when disaster strikes. 

As in matters of health, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So if you can get the jump on the gaping flaws in your business plan ahead of time, you’re much more likely to succeed in the long-term. 

But what are these flaws that most founders miss? And how can you address them? 

You Don’t Know How You’ll Scale

Sure, you might have a great product and plenty of talented people on your team, but if you don’t have a plan for how you’ll scale your business, you’ll eventually hit a wall. 

Scaling is more complex than many business owners imagine. If your enterprise is small right now, there’s a good chance that you’re not yet profitable. You need to shift a certain number of units to break even and only then will you start gaining the kind of traction you want. 

Finding scalable solutions, though, is hard. You might, for instance, be doing alright with in-house fulfillment at the moment, but ultimately you need to find a partner who can enable you to shift thousands or perhaps millions of units. 

The same applies to your IT provider and your accountant. They might be great for small quantities of work, but as your business becomes larger and more complex, they could start to fail you. 

You Haven’t Got Your Security In Check

When you first start a business, security is not at the forefront of your mind. The main task is to make money – and fast.

But neglecting to think about commercial alarm systems can land you in hot water. The moment that opportunistic criminals get wind of your business, they’ll start looking for weaknesses. And when they strike, they could take everything, including your data. 

Setting up an alarm and other deterrents, though, is easy. You just budget for the work and then contract it out. There’s usually no need to dedicate significant admin time to it. 

You Don’t Have A People Plan

Startup founders tend to believe that everyone has the same attitude towards their businesses as they do. They assume that regular employees have exceedingly high levels of commitment to the cause and that they will give up their personal lives to see that the company succeeds. 

That’s not how it works in practice, though. Most workers don’t share your enthusiasm for the business. And, unlike you, they’re unwilling to give up their evenings and weekends to ensure that it succeeds. 

What are you supposed to do in this situation? The trick is to have a “people plan.” This document accepts that regular rank and file in your organization don’t have the same kind of commitment to the cause as you do, and spells out how you’ll use them wisely. You don’t want them rage-quitting your startup just as you’re getting going because of long hours or poor conditions.