No matter what you’re planning, be it a business venture, a career plan, or even a vacation, we’re told it’s always best to have a plan B. Plan B is supposedly saving us from failure and cushioning us if our plan A doesn’t work out. The notion that having a plan B is crucial is so widespread that it was rarely ever questioned – that is, until now. Recent evidence suggests that having a contingency plan might do more to hamper your chances of success than to increase them. This rule applies to all businesses, whether you’re an established company or a new startup. Keep reading below to learn why you must get rid of plan B.
Top 12 reasons why you must get rid of Plan B
There are many factors in which a plan B can affect your goal attaining ability.
Restrictive mindset
It may sound scary, but sometimes, you need to have no safety net to get the best results. Having a safety net in place can lead you to develop a restrictive mindset, where you don’t push yourself as hard as you should. With nothing on the line, you won’t be as driven to achieve real results as you would’ve been if you were risking everything. If you want your brand to push for innovation and creativity, you need to throw away your plan B. Do everything you need to ensure that you can create creative and out-of-the-box solutions in your niche. It is the only way you can distinguish yourself from the competition. With the business world globally growing increasingly saturated, innovative solutions are the only way to make your company stand out. You can’t do so if you play it safe.
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Affects motivation
When you have a backup plan in place, you’re less likely to strive towards your main goal. It is because you already know that you’ve reduced your chances of failure as much as possible. Focusing on the second option can lower your motivation levels to attain the primary objective. Simply put, if you know you don’t have a backup plan, you’re likelier to have greater motivation to achieve your primary goal. However, some can find it hard to stay motivated in such uncertainty. If you feel that’s the case, you can delay making your plan B until you’ve done everything to work on plan A.
Reduces skill
There are numerous ways in which having a plan B can reduce your team’s skills. With a plan B in the works, your team might suffer from burnout and be unable to be as skillful as they would normally. Burnout can also reduce your employee’s motivation, further impacting their skills. If you want your employees to perform at the best of their capabilities, let them work well on just one plan.
Time-consuming
Coming up with a viable alternative plan isn’t easy, and it can be pretty time-consuming. Even if your plan B isn’t as ambitious as your plan A, there are still an infinite number of details to work through. It can take your team immense effort, therefore, to come up with a good backup plan. However, once you get rid of plan B, your team can focus their best on attaining the primary objective. Plan B requires more significant manipulation than plan A if you want to achieve your goals well. So, instead of wasting your team’s time making up two intricate plans, let them focus their energy on creating one which brings immense benefits.
Research proves drawbacks
The drawbacks of having a plan B aren’t just some conjecture. Rather, it’s a fact proven by research. Researchers divided participants into two groups – one who had to think of a contingency plan and didn’t. When asked to perform a series of tasks, the group who didn’t think of a plan B was more successful each time.
Impacts focus
Coming up with a plan B is no simple job. Your team needs to devote immense resources, in the form of time, money, and mental skill. With two different plans to work on, your team’s focus is impacted immensely. In such a situation, both plans A and plan B won’t turn out the way you want them. So, suppose you want to keep your first plan as cohesive and viable as possible. In that case, you need to get rid of your plan B’s and let your team focus entirely on creating and reaching one plan.
Outsource your backup plan
Of course, when we say you need to get rid of your plan B, we don’t mean you should get rid of it entirely. Even with all your attention focused on reaching your primary goal, there’s a chance that you might fail. It may be due to external circumstances you can’t counter or a sudden situation. Either way, a backup plan can help you get out of a tough spot. However, instead of making your backup plan yourself, it might be a better idea to outsource it. As discussed earlier, research shows that merely knowing the plan B’s details can cause teams to lose focus and motivation. So, instead of having your team make your backup plan, you can do outsourcing. Outsourcing allows your team to focus appropriately on plan A, with the highest motivation levels. It also ensures that you don’t spend any unnecessary time creating a plan B. Furthermore, outsourcing your strategy can lead to you getting a much better contingency plan, as it’s done by skilled professionals who can offer an objective stance.
Can trigger dropout
With an easier plan B ready, your company might lack the motivation to see through plan A even if it’s viable. Following a more manageable plan might seem like the better option, but it can come with substantial long-term drawbacks. Over time, it might become a norm to abandon viable plans and opt for the more comfortable option. This can severely impact your company’s growth and make it challenging for you to achieve the goals that matter.
Issues with future planning
The plans you make define your company’s financial, business, and growth-related future. Assessment of these plans’ success or failures allows you to gather rich data to use down the line. The data can tell you the strengths and weaknesses of your business plans and let you use these insights for future planning. However, if you consistently rely on plan B’s, you won’t gather enough data to improve your mistakes. Creating a well-defined plan A and sticking to it is the best way to garner in-depth business insights to improve your future.
Not cost-effective
While earlier on, we discussed the issues that come with thinking of a plan B, implementing a plan B comes with various problems. One of the most significant is that it can drain your budget. Usually, when companies switch over to plan B, they have already begun work on the first plan. Implementing a contingency plan at a later stage can cost you a lot of money when you are already short on funds. It can mean starting all over again, which can waste your time and rack up costs. Any business’s main aim is cost-effectiveness. If the contingency plan fails to achieve that, there’s no point in going through the effort. Instead, focus on ensuring that you can carry out your first plan to the end to make tremendous profits.
Reflects negatively on stakeholders
You might think that having a contingency plan might show your various stakeholders that you’re a reliable brand. However, it usually does the exact opposite. When your stakeholders realize you’re investing in a contingency plan, they’re much less likely to stress your business prospects, and understandably so. Having a plan B shows your stakeholders that you don’t trust your abilities to attain your goals. Most also assume that a plan B can easily lead to a plan C, too, since you undermine your goal-attaining ability yourself. If you want your clients and investors to respect your brand and work with you, show them that you can attain even the most challenging goals without falling back on any backup plan.
Halts business activity
Implementing a plan B while you’re halfway through your first plan can impact your business activity immensely. Suppliers can find it hard to meet your initial demands if you change your mind halfway through. Until you secure new suppliers, or your suppliers secure new stock, you can’t get back on schedule. It means that you end up wasting precious time and lose credibility with your suppliers too. Over time, you can find it hard to secure long-term professional relationships if you keep switching to and fro with your plans.
Takeaways
Whether it’s a small, short-term goal, or a long-term objective, you need proper planning if you want your business to grow. If you can’t create a cohesive, well-thought-out plan, even the best business ideas can fail. It might seem like a smart idea to develop a contingency plan. Still, as discussed earlier, it may hamper your chances rather than boost them. The points mentioned above will tell you just why you must get rid of plan B’s and run your business the smart way.
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