Anyone graduating from business school has learned how to write one, what components are required, and why they are important to have.  But the business plan is something that has come under fire recently, as more and more business experts seem to be arguing that you don’t even need one, and that they are outdated. With business changing so rapidly every day, they are also irrelevant, or so the argument goes.

But many would come down on the side that a smart business plan is still key to succeeding long term, even if it means that the plan you started with doesn’t look like the one you finish with.

Yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, Colleen Debaise argued that you do need a business plan, and outlines the key reasons why.  They include, among others: it gives you a clear direction and helps you eliminate stress,  and it makes you evaluate the market and size up the competition for your product or service.  You can read the full article here for more details.

Vistaprint’s CEO Robert Keane has argued the merits of a business plan on a number of occasions, and in fact still has the original one he wrote up as a student in business school, which he often refers back to when talking about the company.  It’s striking how closely the original business plan maps to what Vistaprint is doing now as a company. At one point it was just an idea, now that idea is a publicly traded online leader in the print and promotions marketplace.

Do you have a business plan, and if you’re thinking about starting a business, have you written one out yet? Have you started up a business without one and wish you hadn’t? Tell us your own experiences.