When you hear the phrase “business plan,” the first thing you think of is:

A. Those insufferable, preppy, entrepreneurial MBA types in $200 T-shirts that keep showing up at your tasting room (or that you wish would show up because, though insufferable, they do buy a lot of wine) with their talk of value propositions, exit strategies and Series A financing.

B. Hosts on the TV show “Shark Tank,” with their incessant references to “I really like/dislike this business plan.” (Some of them wear $200 T-shirts as well.)

C. Your old job at a large corporation that could have been the set for the 1999 movie “Office Space,” which is why you now work in the wine industry.

D. That thing your CPA does once a year to make your banker happy but, to tell the truth, you’ve never looked at once.

E. An essential tool for understanding how your wine business works, how you manage financial and human resources, how to monitor results versus plans and hold everyone in the organization accountable.

(Note: Your lenders, investors, vendors, employees and heirs hope you picked “E.”)