You have an idea. Awesome!! Congrats!!! Don’t you even think about sitting down to write a business plan. Long, drawn out business plans are a critical error and can prove to be an insurmountable hurdle between your idea and an actual business. Often, we get so obsessed with planning every little detail that we never get around to executing OR we research so extensively and talk ourselves out of our own plan OR we overwhelm ourselves with so many options in our ever grander 20 year business plan and can’t figure out where to begin. Ever been there? Yeah? That’s plan Paralysis. Forget the plan and put your idea in action.

1. Research. Focus your research efforts on competitors in your market. Don’t overthink this – get into your good girlfriend google and keep a spreadsheet with general information about your competitors, especially their strengths and weaknesses. You may find a gap that your competitors are not addressing. Gaps are the sweet spot for a new business. You can also see how others in the industry are approaching things such as marketing and visuals. No sense trying to reinvent the wheel if there is a working formula. I’m not advocating copying, of course, but I think using a noteworthy competitor as a baseline is a smart approach to business.

Asking questions and listening to concerns is also an amazing form of research. It allows you to quickly tap into your market. By engaging with your market so early, you are setting your business up with clients and supporters before you are off and running.

2. Test. Testing early is so important because at this stage your business is flexible. You’re not committed to executing a certain way, you’re just trying things out to see what will stick. Notice we haven’t even gotten to a plan yet. As I’ve shared before, I want brunches to be a part of my business model. So the very first thing I hosted was a brunch with my friends to discuss their respective entrepreneurial ventures. From that first brunch, I discovered my idea was a bit flawed as it didn’t account for tardiness and no shows – something that is inevitable in Miami. I tweaked it – scaled it back from brunch to small group working coffee dates. It worked beautifully. While I plan to revisit the brunch idea soon, I know that my group has to be much larger to account for the Miami quirks and make it valuable.

Like in step one, the bonus of testing well early is you may end up with clients before you even officially launch. At least two of my friends from those early brunches still look to me for business advice.

3. Alternate Business Plan. I will always scream my disdain for formal business plans. It is 1000% important to identify your short and long term goals for your business, I just don’t believe you need a 40 page document to do so. There are so many alternate business plans that can be effective and fun, such as pinterest, powerpoint, business mapping. The key is to set goals and consider strategies to reach them, the medium doesn’t actually matter.

4. Set a deadline. Setting a realistic, but challenging deadline is so important so you actually execute and not sit on idea until it’s stale. When are you jumping into this business? Set a date and get on with it.

5. Execution plan. What are all the pieces you need to get your business out? Detail these pieces in a list with a time period that you will execute. At minimum you will want to set up your business entity – ie register your business, business checking account, and set up a website.

6. Gather your resources. Taking time to gather everything you need is so critical. If you make all the calls in advance you can get the ball rolling so much quicker than trying to find a new service provider every time you need something. Further, all the pieces of your business are dependent upon each other. You don’t want to end up in a situation where your social presence is lit and website is in shambles. Or your website is lit and you have a selfie instead of a proper headshot. No one is going to take you seriously!  For a decent start, you probably need a web developer on deck for your website, graphic designer and or a photographer to help with your visuals. If you have a day job, you may need a virtual assistant to help manage the day to day of your business.

7. Pull the trigger. At this point you’ll have done a ton of work. You’ve planned wisely. Now all that is left is to put the plan in motion. Start ticking things off your execution list and prosper.

The bottom line – the cure to plan paralysis is action. Don’t waste months and months of planning and never make it into business. Take real steps toward your dream business and watch the universe conspire with you to make it so.