When it comes to starting and running a micro-business, action beats planning every time.

Far too many would-be entrepreneurs spend their time making complicated plans that never materialize.

Therefore, when you do plan, keep it simple: your business plan should fit on one page and merely outline – not explain exhaustively – what you’re going to do.

Jot down what you’ll sell, whom you’ll sell it to, why they would buy it and how you’ll actually get paid. For example, your plan could simply be “to sell customized exercise plans to health-savvy professionals who need help with varying their routines, costing a monthly $20 subscription fee over PayPal.”

You should also include any planned marketing tactics such as guest blogging, and key business metrics such as daily visitors to your site.

Finally, set yourself a deadline:

“I will launch this project no later than XX.” This vital addition helps ensure your plan turns into action.

On a similar note, your mission statement should also be short and simple – ideally, no longer than a Twitter message: 140 characters.

Go ahead; try formulating one.

This exercise will help you narrow down the purpose of your business without the corporate-lingo that plagues many mission statements.

Your Twitter-length mission could be: “I help busy, health-savvy people plan their workouts so they can feel good and keep fit.”

When leaving the workforce and starting your own business, you’ll typically find a lot of people giving you unsolicited advice.

While usually well-meaning, most of these people do not own their own businesses, so their advice is often unhelpful and even distracting.

Remember, you do not need anyone else’s permission to succeed.

Learn to trust your own judgment and take the leap.

You won’t believe how good making that first sale will feel.

Keep plans simple so you can focus on the action.