Successful and healthy businesses have both budgets and business plans. Just like healthy bodies exercise and eat right. In order for either of them to work well, they need each other.

A plan without a budget can create a huge monster of a money burden when there are no monetary constraints. Sure you can plan to double your staff, office space, and equipment but applying a budget will make it clear if your plan is possible this year.
 
A budget without a plan; It's a journey to an unknown destination using exactly the right amount of gas.  But where did you end up?  What is the purpose of budgeting, if you don't know where you are heading, or would like to someday be? Add a plan into the mix, and now you can budget for your trip to California for the $2,000 budget, instead of arbitrarily driving around until you used up the allotted gas.

A budget is an imperative tool. Budgets give you:

• Boundaries: a critical piece for business owners who are idea driven, which is a great majority.
• Predictablilty: adhere to a budget and you will create the cashflow you predicted and anticipated.
   

A business plan is also a critical tool. Plans give you:

• Destination: You will be able to know when you have arrived at your business purpose and goal.
• Structure: It's very helpful tool to use when you encounter decisions that need to be made, like "Do we launch a new website this year?" to "Do we need a Business Manager?"
• Synergy: All team members know where you are heading, why you are heading there, how you will get there, and can all work together to get to the same place.
   

A few examples to show you how it works:

• You budget for marketing expense of $1,000 this year, but later you decide to launch a new website. It's not that you can't decide to change course. It's now a time to stop, consider your cash position and make a plan with what you have. Is it really time for a website? Can you put it off or do something for less so you can meet your goals this year?
   
• You plan to launch a new product this year. You write up the executive summary, put together all the tasks for your team, and start plugging away, but you didn't create your budget? Your team starts to feel the tug on their current client duties toward this new project. You find you need to hire a new product manager to launch this product. It's too late to pull back. What's your next step?

No matter what time of the year it is, you can create a budget. It doesn't need to be January or the end of the year. Spend one more day without either of these, and your enterprise is driving blind without a map, with a questionable amount of gas in the tank.