Comparation of business plan and business reality: Design Towels entering Czech market

The targets of this Master thesis were to analyse the mistakes that an entrepreneur tends to make when creating a business plan, and make recommendations on how to avoid these mistakes. The method used was empirical learning, i.e. the author has created a business plan, started the new venture, and six months later analysed the deviations of business plans from the business reality. As the main reasons for deviations were named poor market research, no contractual agreements on minimum performance of a business partner, mistakes in an internet research of competition and of legal requirements, and over-optimistic expectations. The recommendations to new entrepreneurs also included creation of an assumption tree, a detailed sales plan, scenarios for normally unexpected situations and finding ways to avoid high fixed costs in the beginning. The overall finding was that business planning is a wortwhile activity.