Do I really need a business plan?

By Mike Switzer

Published April 26, 2024 at 6:30 AM EDT

Jerry Smith, a third generation business owner and mentor & coach with SCORE in Greenville, S.C.

By most all measures, a business plan is considered an important tool and a necessary early step for a company to be successful. But our next guest says he still quite often hears an entrepreneur say "Do I really need a business plan?” Mike Switzer interviews Jerry Smith, a third-generation business owner and since 2017, has been a mentor and coach for over 200 start-up and growing companies through his volunteer work with SCORE in Greenville, SC.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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