Back in December I came across a blog for a young entrepreneur who had decided to start her first business… and it wasn't an ordinary start-up story. As part of an entrepreneurship business class, Carolynn Duncan opened a cart in her local mall with a budget of just $100 (for a 30-day trial period).

I was impressed by her tenacity to start a business on such a shoestring budget, and with her ability to actually convince her local mall to work with her (she had a bit of luck as well… it turns out a retail merchant needed to vacate the space during the holiday season, so the mall decided it was better to fill the opening than to have it sit unoccupied for the remaining time). We were so intrigued by her story, we covered it in an article in the spring 2007 issue of Specialty Retail Report and invited her to speak at SPREE West.

I managed to snag some time to sit down and chat with her there and one of the questions I asked is what she might do differently the next time she starts a business. She told me that she plans on doing a lot more research and creating a (mini) business plan (that would include a budget to make sure the numbers work). It turns out that she had just "jumped in" and had completely skipped the planning phase of the business altogether!

I know as a business owner (and as a person who loves to execute things and leave the planning to others) it's easy to skip the planning and just get going. I have also seen the reverse in business, people who spend five years writing a business plan only to find out they really can't sell anything when they get around to trying. It is truly a delicate balance of the two: planning and execution.

What do you like to do better—plan or execute? Has it helped or hurt your business?

Rachelle Anderson, Carolynn Duncan and me at SPREE West in San Jose