Fall Planning

Author Gustav Metzman, once noted, “Most business men generally are so busy coping with immediate and piecemeal matters that there is a lamentable tendency to let the long run or future take care of itself.  We often are so busy putting out fires, so to speak, that we find it difficult to do the planning that would prevent those fires from occurring in the first place.  As a prominent educator has expressed it, Americans generally spend so much time on things that are urgent that we have none left to spend on those that are important.”   As the New Year approaches, where do you find yourself in your business planning? How well prepared is your sales team to meet the results demands that lie ahead?  Have you found yourself so busy “putting out fires” that you have no time to devote to the importance of building an effective business plan?

Business plans come in all shapes and sizes; but, all plans must address the following five (5) crucial questions to be positioned for impactful effectiveness:

1) What are you building?

2)  Why does your business exist? 

3)  What are the results you expect to measure?

4)  How will you build your business? 

5)  What is the work that must be done in and on the business?

Planning must begin with a comprehensive assessment where you examine what is working and what is not working.  The assessment is basically a “check-up” that allows you to clearly see areas of strength and also areas that need change.  It forces you to stop business operations by simply “walking around” and using your intuition.   This “checkup” demands that you become deeply engaged in examining the “true reality” of what is actually going on.  Only then will you be able to discover the opportunities for growth and the “donut holes” that demand improvement. 

Following your assessment, re-examine your vision statement.  Are you able to define what is being built in three (3) sentences or less?  Does it cover your market, customers revenues, products and services, etc.? Are your key words descriptive and decisive?   As noted business executive and CEO Jim Horan has said, “If you don’t  get the words right…you might build the wrong business!”

With your vision clear, you next assess your mission.  Who are you serving and what must be done for them?  Remember, your business exists for a reason.  Mission statements are short and memorable.  They communicate your focus and what is being provided in ten (10) or fewer words with eight (8) being ideal.  Clarity comes if your mission conveys why customers will buy your product or service.

Your vision and mission are set.  Now tackle objectives.  These are short statements that define the end result of your work efforts.  Objectives reveal what you are striving to accomplish and do so in a measurable format.  Be sure they provide a quantifiable insight to your business; focus on resources that bring results; define success with measurement; set specific targets; establish accountability; lessen subjectivity; and, effectively measure the end result.

So, vision, mission and objectives are examined.  Now you are ready to explore your strategies.  Strategies clearly define what will make your business the success you seek over a period of time.  They must set the direction including business values and thought; describe ideal customers; establish guidelines for evaluating important business decisions; proclaim what you will do and not do; and, give you the blueprint you need to build and operate your business over time.  Remember clear strategies are your recipe for achievement.

Vision, mission, objectives, and strategies are reviewed.  Now you enter the commitment phase where you construct action plans.  Actions plans simply define what work will be done.   Each action statement is often related to an objective or a strategy in some manner.  Action plans also deal with the literal execution of your sales, marketing, technology plans and how you go about your daily actions to build your business results.  You should also break out key action plans that are to be executed per quarter during the year so that you do not have to do everything at one time.  This way, each quarter will build upon the prior one.

After you have your plan assembled, step back and review.  Share it with those you trust and get their input.  The key is to have a effective plan that works.  When you have a plan that is balanced and aligned you will have a plan that should bring the results you seek.  Never fear editing, realigning and updating your plan.  It is your plan and the end result is to have the end result be as you need 

As the old saying conveys, “Plan your work and work your plan.”   That is the key to success and business building.  As Benjamin Franklin, one of the earliest planners conveyed, “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.”  Build your plan wisely and make your New Year the most successful ever. 

Business plan time is now here.  Are you still putting your business plan in a binder? Are you finding that all you do is replace the yearly cover and use the same figures perhaps with a slight increase to reflect new demands?  What would it mean to have a business plan that REALLY gets the results you need?  How would you feel to have a plan that every member of your team could easily understand and know precisely what to do? A plan that would help you to discover whether you have relationships or associations with customers.  With the One Page Plan process, I can help you achieve those goals and do so with less stress so that 2015 might be your most effective goals achievement yet!  For an opportunity to find out what this unique concept is all about, contact me:  herman@thinkbigcoachingandtraining.com  or call me at 304-839-5101 or 843-879-3740.  All it takes is one moment of time!