The ADHD-friendly Business Plan You'll Actually Use

All right, let's talk about the B word that most of us think we can do without. You know what I'm talking about. The business plan. Now, I know, I know you didn't start your business to write reports that are going to be outdated as soon as you write them and honestly, you're not wrong. The ADHD brain sees an opportunity, gets excited and wants to act immediately. It's actually one of our biggest strengths. And in this episode, I'm going to share what an ADHD friendly business plan looks like and why you might want to consider one instead of just winging it.

Well, somewhere along the way, maybe some well-meaning person, like a business coach, maybe your accountant, maybe even your mom told you that you need a business plan. So your brain probably immediately went, oh, hell no, that sounds like homework. That sounds like just sitting still for hours writing about some hypothetical bullshit. That's probably going to change anyway. So of course you rejected the whole idea, you decided, I'm just going to figure it out as I go along and maybe that's been working, sort of.

Or maybe you're here because you're starting to realize that winging it actually has some hidden costs and consequences that you hadn't anticipated. Now here's the plot twist, planning is actually your ADHD brain's best friend, but only when it's done right. You might think you're anti planning, but the problem is that traditional business planning is designed by and for neurotypical brains. So it isn't that helpful for brains like ours. And today, I'm going to show you how to create a business plan that actually works for the ADHD brain.

Instead of frustrating us into throwing the business plan away. It's one that gives direction without killing creativity and structure, without making us feel like we're trapped in a cage. So let's open this up by first talking about why your ADHD brain is lying to you about planning. To start with, your brain feels resistant to planning because well, it's not because you're lazy or rebellious. I mean, no matter what the voice in your head is telling you. It's because it craves novelty and stimulation. And planning feels boring because most business plan templates are boring, they're boring AF.

They're designed like legal documents. Dry, methodical, about as inspiring as watching paint dry so of course your brain rejects that shit. Plus, we tend to be big picture thinkers. We get excited about possibilities. Traditional planning asks us to nail down specifics before we've even had time to create and explore and experiment. I mean, that's like asking you to choose your outfit for next Tuesday when you don't even know what the weather's going to be like or what your mood or energy will be. And here's the kicker, we are often right that things do change.

Entrepreneurs and creatives with ADHD traits are incredibly adaptable. We pivot, we adjust, we see new opportunities and chase them. So when someone hands us a 40-page business plan template and tells us to fill it out, of course our brain goes this is going to be wrong in three months anyway, so why bother? But here's what your ADHD brain doesn't want to hear either. Winging it isn't actually faster, it just feels faster in the moment. It's like taking the scenic route when you're already late for a meeting. Sure, it's more interesting and nicer to look at, but you're still going to be late and probably stressed as hell when you get there. Think of traditional business planning like trying to follow IKEA instructions when you have ADHD.

There's like 47 steps, pictures that don't make any sense. Half the pieces look exactly the same and by step 12 you're ready to burn the whole thing down or shove it back in the box. If you could even get it back in there and just nail some boards together. No wonder we want to avoid it. I purchased an entire condo full of IKEA furniture after going through a divorce. And after the first attempt at a bookshelf, I threw the distractions out and just figured it out on my own. But you know what ADHD friendly planning can be like having a really good GPS. Not one that dictates every single turn, but one that knows where you're headed and can reroute you around traffic jams without making you start over completely.

And the hard to hear truth is that the hidden costs of winging it are real and they're expensive. Without some kind of plan, you end up starting projects that you never finish because you didn't think through the steps. Saying yes to opportunities that take you further from your goals because you're not actually clear on what those goals are. Burning out because you're constantly making decisions from scratch instead of having frameworks to guide you and missing obvious opportunities because you're so focused on putting out fires you can't see a potential windfall right in front of you. Your ADHD brain needs external structure to function at its best. That's not a bug, it's a feature. It is really just how we're wired.

So planning that isn't constraining your creativity, but about creating a container that allows your creativity to flourish without burning out serves you. I'd like to introduce you to my concept of the Minimal ADHD Business Plan Framework. You know, the one I promised you would actually want to use. But let's talk about what the components are because I care fucking to you, it's not 40 pages of financial projections and market analysis that you're never going to look at again. The Minimal ADHD Business Plan has four parts. Just four, I'm currently calling them the four pillars. Not because I'm trying to impress you or sound fancy, but because pillars hold shit up. That's exactly what they're going to do for your business.

Pillar one we're going to call your North Star. I know that kind of sounds like some flowery mission statement written by a group of motivational speakers, but this is your why, distilled down to something that you can remember when you're having a shit day and questioning why you ever went into business for yourself to begin with. Your North Star should be specific enough to guide decisions, but flexible enough that it doesn't box you in. So it's not, I want to help people like you're some Miss America contestant, that's too vague.

It's more like I want to help neurodivergent solopreneurs balance their passion and purpose with profit and without burnout. By the way, that's my North Star, in case you were wondering. Your North Star is your comeback when Shiny Object Syndrome threatens to derail your focus. When a new opportunity presents itself, and it will, pretty constantly you ask, does this get me closer to my North Star or further from it? If it's further, you've got permission to say no without feeling guilty, confused, or conflicted about it.

Ready for your second pillar? This is the one called your Revenue Reality Check. I know, I know, I know. Talking about money makes your ADHD brain want to run screaming from the room but stick with me here. This is not about creating elaborate financial forecasts. It's about getting honest with just three numbers, you can handle three numbers. They are how much money do you need to make and not be stressed about money.

How much can you realistically charge for what you do? And how many clients, customers, sales do you need to hit that first number? That's it. Simple math that our ADHD brains can handle. Now, the magic happens when you realize that if you need 5,000amonth and you can charge $500 a client, you only need 10 clients. Not 50, not 100, just 10. Suddenly your marketing doesn't feel so overwhelming because you're not trying to reach everyone. You're trying to reach 10 people who need what you offer.

Pillar three is your zone of genius, and I'm not talking about the superhero kind. This is where you get clear on what you're really good at and what drains your energy. We tend to be multi passionate people who can do a lot of different things and often want to, but that doesn't mean we should. So for this pillar, you're going to make two lists. Things that energize you and things that make you want to hide under the blanket. Then look at your business and figure out how to do more of the first list and less of the second.

This isn't exactly about finding your superpower. You've probably heard me say, I'm not a big fan of that word. It's about finding the sweet spot where your skills, your interests and market demand overlap. If you hate doing something and you're not particularly good at it, that's a prime candidate for outsourcing, automation or elimination. Your ADHD brain has limited executive functioning and you need to spend it wisely.

Last, pillar 4 your next three moves notice how I've only given you things that are like two, three or four? That's very intentional. Traditional business plans want you to map out like the next five years. That's fucking ridiculous for anybody, but especially for ADHD brains. I mean, we can barely anticipate next week most of the time. So instead, you're going to identify your next three moves. Not three goals, not three dreams. Three concrete actions that will move you closer to both your North Star and your revenue target. See how these pillars work together.

Now these next three moves should be specific enough that you'll know when they're done, obviously, but not so detailed that you get lost in the weeds. So think launch, email, newsletter not create comprehensive content marketing strategy with demographic analysis and engagement metrics. Yuck. Here's the key, these three moves should build on each other. Move one sets you up for move two, which obviously sets you up for move three. This gives your ADHD brain the satisfaction of, AKA dopamine of seeing progress while keeping you focused on what actually moves the needle in your business.

You know what else makes this an ADHD friendly business plan? Making it visual. Now here's where we actually make this plan really juicy for the ADHD brain, because you can just probably forget about creating a Google Doc that you're never going to save or if you save it, you'll never open it again. By making it visual, you make it engaging. For your ADHD brain, I strongly suggest a simple one-page format. I like the dashboard style where everything is visible at a glance, using colors, images, whatever makes your brain happy to look at. Some people love mind maps, other prefer simple bullet points.

The format doesn't matter, as long as your brain likes it, you will use it. One of my clients created his on a Trello board and it was absolutely perfect. And here's another crucial part, built in flexibility. This is not a contract written in stone. It's a living document that you're going to update as things change because things will change. Remember, that's one of the reasons why you didn't want to do it to begin with. But that's not failure, that's adaptation. And remember, we're creating an ADHD friendly business plan that makes it super easy to update. It's one of the reasons why I love recommending using platforms like Trello instead of a document.

Because changes are easy peasy on something like Trello and you don't have to rewrite the whole thing from scratch. Now what's really important is be able to create this plan, even though it's super simple, without killing your vibe. Because if you don't finish it, you're not going to use it and it can't help you. So you already know what's going into your plan. That's your four pillars. But how you actually create the plan itself without falling into perfectionism or hyperfocus or just getting so overwhelmed that you abandon ship halfway through.

Well, I'm going to recommend that you use the Sprint method because here's what you're not going to do. You are not going to block out an entire weekend to work on your business plan, that is a recipe for disaster. You will procrastinate for three quarters of the time, then you will try to cram it at the last minute. Your brain will get overwhelmed, distracted, bored, or you'll just end up reorganizing your sock drawer or starting a new side quest instead.

So the sprint method is simple. You set a timer for 25 minutes and work on one pillar. One pillar. When the timer goes off, you stop. Even if you're in the middle of a sentence. Actually, especially if you're in the middle of a sentence. You know why this does two things. It prevents overwhelm and it tricks your brain into thinking that, hey, this is manageable. Because it is, four 25 minute sprints over four different days and you, my friend, have got a business plan. You're not going to try to do it all in one day, even if you want to, don't do it. Let your subconscious work on it between sessions.

You will be amazed just how much clarity you're going to get when you're not actively trying to figure it out and finish it. By the way, this is a meta skill for living with ADHD and running a business that also develops a new belief that most of us need making use of the nooks and crannies of time in our day instead of thinking we have to wait until we have a big chunk of time available to get anything done. Forget fancy business planning software. This business plan is going to be created with tools that actually work with ADHD brains because you're already using them. You are going to use the tools you already know and already love.

So if you're a visual person, I know you've got Canva, you may have Trello, you've probably got PowerPoint that just needs to be digitally dusted off. If you prefer text, you do you boo. Just get out those Google Docs or Notion. The goal is to reduce friction by using things you're already familiar with. We don't want you adding more steps to your process by trying to learn a new software platform. Now some people swear by voice to text, so you can record yourself talking throughout through each pillar as though you were explaining it to another person. Then just clean up your transcript.

This works especially well for those of us who are verbal processors and figure things out by talking them out instead of writing them out. But whatever tool you choose, just make sure that it's accessible from wherever you do your best thinking. If you get your best ideas in the car, you're going to want to make sure that you can access your plan from your smartphone. If you do your best thinking at a coffee shop, then make sure your plan lives in the cloud and is accessible from your laptop. And let's not forget the good enough principle.

Here is your permission to do an imperfect job. This does not need to be perfect, friend, it doesn't even have to be particularly good. And for you hardcore perfectionists, I know this is going to be challenging, but it really just has to be good enough to guide your decisions and help you stay focused. Your version 1.0 of the plan is probably going to suck, and that's not only okay, it's expected. The point isn't to create the perfect plan, it is to create a starting point that you can improve over time.

Remember, this is a plan that is going to grow with you and with your business. So I want you to think of it like a rough sketch before you paint, or a shitty first draft if you're a writer. You're not trying to create a masterpiece on the first try. You're just trying to get the basic shapes in place so you know where to put the details later. And we want to make it a living document and frankly, this is where a lot of people screw up. They create their plan, they stick it in a folder or digital or analog, and they never look at it again. Six months later, they're wondering why they still feel lost and scattered.

Your plan needs to be reviewed and updated regularly, not daily, that's too much but monthly. Monthly works pretty well for most ADHD brains if you've got a regular monthly routine like I review all of my statistics monthly. My assistant prepares a document for me with multiple tabs. I look at all of my analytics at one time. I also look at my business plan at the same time. It doesn't change every month, but if you don't look at it for six months, I guarantee your business has changed without you documenting it and updating it on the business plan. The easy way to do this is to set a recurring calendar reminder to spend 15 minutes reviewing your plan.

That's it. Are you heading towards your North Star still? Great. Are your next three moves still relevant? Awesome. What needs to be adjusted? This isn't about judging yourself for what you didn't accomplish or how much changed. It's about course correcting if and when you get too far off track. Because remember, the plan is your GPS, not your inner critic. And when things change because they will, you simply update your plan. You don't abandon it simply because it's not 100% accurate anymore. You update it.

This flexibility is what makes it sustainable for ADHD brains. So let's wrap this up with the key takeaways, because I know some of you have already started thinking about what you're having for lunch or dinner, depending on when you're listening. First, planning is not the enemy of spontaneity or creativity. When done right, it's actually what allows your ADHD brain to be creative and spontaneous without getting lost or burning out. Second, your plan doesn't need to be complicated. Four pillars, the North Star, the Revenue Reality Check, the Zone of Genius, and the next three moves. That's it. Everything else is just decoration.

Third, the best plan is the one you'll actually use, so make it visual make it flexible. make it accessible. It's a tool, not a test. Now, here's your homework and yes, I understand you may be cringing right now because I'm calling it homework, but I know that's either going to motivate you or piss you off so that you'll actually do it. Here it is, pick one pillar and spend 25 minutes on it this week. Just one.

Don't try to do all four because you'll get overwhelmed and then do none of them. Start with whichever one feels easiest or most interesting to you. How's that for ADHD friendly? Because guess what? With this business plan, there's no right order. If thinking about money makes you want to run and hide, start with your North Star. If you love talking about money, start with your revenue reality check. Work with your brain instead of fighting or forcing it.

And remember, you're not creating a business plan because some guru told you to. Me either. You're creating it because your ADHD brain deserves the support and structure that will help it do its best work. Your future self, the one who's running a sustainable business that energizes instead of exhausts you will thank you for taking the time to do it now. All right, friend, that's a wrap on this episode. Now go set that timer, get started on your plan, and remember, one pillar this week, you can do another one next week.

If you create something you're proud of because you can't believe you have a business plan, I would so love it if you'd either tag me on LinkedIn, send me an email, or leave a voice message on my website. There will be links to each of those opportunities in the show notes because I would absolutely love to see what you come up with. And until next time, let's keep working on finding the sweet spot between ADHD friendly planning and winging it.