Unplanning The Moo.com Community

Ever since I discovered Moo.com a couple of years ago, I've been a huge fan and have bunches of their business cards, stickers and postcards to prove it. Before Moo came along I’d spend up to £250 getting business cards designed and printed. Now you can get cards done for under £25 and even choose different backs for each of your cards. What a game-changer!

And that’s been their success, such a cost effective solution that customers can change business cards whenever they fancy refreshing their marketing. As well as traditional business cards, I’ve used cards to promote my books, created personalised postcards for clients and have had stickers made to promote my books, plug my session at South By South West and even had stickers featuring my kids to put on thank you cards.
Moo have assembled a great community of like minded folk: the ‘I have an idea’ generation, start-ups, freelancers, small businesses, those with hobby businesses - so it’s a great fit with the spirit of Unplan Your Business. I’ve just written a short column on business unplanning for Moo's 'Expert Tips' pages: CHECK IT OUT HERE

Unplan Your Business in Management Today

I've just written a column for Management Today's Expert section on 'unplanning your business' - introducing innovation into your business thinking.

You can read it HERE.

Peter Bregman On Unplanning

I just discovered a couple of posts from Peter Bregman. Peter is  CEO of Bregman Partners  and writes a weekly column, How We Work, for HarvardBusiness.org.

It's worth checking out his column “Don’t Get Distracted By your Plan” where he talks about his business journey:

“I started my company over 12 years ago with a 50-page business plan. It was a very useful tool — it kept me focused, helped me avoid mistakes, enabled me to settle on a growth strategy. But if you look at my company today, it looks nothing like that plan. Because the economy changed, I changed, my clients changed, and the opportunities changed. If I had stuck to my plan, I would have failed. It was by keeping my eye on the changing environment, and being willing to toss the plan and create a new one in sync with new realities that enabled me to grow my business”

There’s a follow up column “Why Not Having A Plan Can Be The Best Plan Of All” where Peter advocates the need to stay flexible in career development and the qualities entrepreneurs need to experiment in business:

“The entire path need not be clear. Most successful people and businesses have meandered their way to success by being willing to exercise their talents in ways they never would have imagined at the onset.”

Rajeeb Dey: Learn By Doing

Rajeeb Dey is passionate about start-ups and taking new ideas to market. He launched his first business when he was just 17 and although he only graduated from Oxford University in 2008 he’s already carved out an impressive portfolio of business interests. He’s Founder and CEO of Enternships -a service connecting talented students and graduates to start-ups/SMEs, and now lectures students on enterprise and business. He advocates that if people want to launch a business – especially if it is web based where the barriers to entry are so low – that they should just do it. “Learn by doing, iterate and get feedback from the market, learn as you go along” is his advice.


Here’s his take on planning and his story of how he launched Enternships

If the video above does not display properly, watch it on YouTube here.

Guest Post On Smarta.com

I've just written a guest post for Smarta.com about rethinking business planning with advice for anyone seeking to launch their business idea. Read it here.

Learn Under Fire

Scott D. Gerber is Entrepreneur.com's Young Entrepreneur columnist and he wrote a column recently with 10 pieces of advice he wished someone had given him before he launched his first venture. His tip to ‘Learn under fire’ really resonated with me and the notion of #Unplan. There’s been such emphasis on the importance of business schools, management courses and long-term planning that aspiring entrepreneurs end up with their heads in spreadsheets and presentations and nowhere near the trenches. I worked on many new ventures throughout my career and the culture in most organisations was about producing a bunch of revenue projections rather than testing an idea in the market first. Here’s Scott’s take on it:


“No business book or business plan can predict the future or fully prepare you to become a successful entrepreneur. There is no such thing as the perfect plan. There is no perfect road or one less traveled. Never jump right into a new business without any thought or planning, but don’t spend months or years waiting to execute. You will become a well-rounded entrepreneur when tested under fire. The most important thing you can do is learn from your mistakes--and never make the same mistake twice.” *

Scott D.Gerber, CEO of Gerber Entertainment, a brand development and venture management company.

* This extract is copyright Entrepreneur.com