How would creating a business plan help McDonald decide whether to buy the business or run away?

Micky McDonald figured that the little snowboardclothing company he had been running for the previous five years was history. His boss, the owner of Vancouver-based Westbeach Sports, had decided not to invest any more dollars in a business that had lost $1.4 million in 2005 and was looking at additional red ink in 2006. The company filed for bankruptcy in May, and McDonald agreed to stay on, helping the trustee look for buyers for the Westbeach brand.
There were a few nibbles, but all of the buyers were dragging out their due diligence and McDonald just assumed he would soon be out of a job; he already was getting calls from headhunters. If creditors didn’t doom the company, McDonald figured, the marketplace would probably do the job.
If the company canceled its orders for the following season, its jackets and pants would be out of stores for at least a full year. By then, Westbeach would be of little interest to anyone.
But before the trustee found a bidder, McDonald received an intriguing phone call from Frankie Hon, owner of Westbeach’s Hong Kong manufacturer, Charterlink, which was on the hook for the fabric required in filling those orders. What if the production run were made on Charterlink’s dime? And what if the company were reorganized, with McDonald, Charterlink, and a third partner as the new owners? “The clock was ticking, and we had to get a deal done in order to get these goods to market,”
McDonald says.
It would be a big risk. Snowboard apparel, once a cottage industry made up of several hundred tiny companies, is now a $137 million business in the United States alone and includes major players such as Burton, Quiksilver, and Billabong. Their combined marketing and merchandising muscle dwarfs anything coming out of Westbeach, which has 10 employees, $7.3 million in revenue, and little or no presence in the United States (Canada and Europe are its main markets).