Case Study: Overly Complex Business Plans

Our company started with a simple idea: sell artisanal, small-batch, gluten-free, vegan, organic, locally-sourced, hand-kneaded, artisanal bread to the hipsters of the world. Sounds good, right?

But, as we soon realized, the devil is in the details. Our first 5-page business plan was 50 pages long. Then it was 500. Then 5,000. We were going to change the world, one bread at a time.

Our team of highly-paid consultants were on board, but they kept asking for more and more information. "What's the market size for artisanal, small-batch, gluten-free, vegan, organic, locally-sourced, hand-kneaded, artisanal bread?" "Uh, let's see... 10,000 units per month?" "No, no, no, that's not enough. We need 50,000." "But... that's just not possible."

And then there was the branding. Our logo was a hand-drawn, 5-layer, 10-color, vector-based masterpiece. Took up 3 whole prophets of space on the report.

We were going to revolutionize the bread-baking industry. Or, at least, we were going to try.

• Read Subpage 1: The Consultants' Billable Hours
• Read Subpage 2: The Branding Debacle
• Read Subpage 3: The Market Size Mishap