Planning is The Life Blood of Your Business

Business Lesson #3:

You Can’t Score Without a Goal!

I know I have been talking about this in a previous post, but it is so very important for business success, that I have to talk about it again.

Have you ever witnessed a chicken getting it’s head cut off? Well, it is not a pretty sight I tell ya!

A headless chicken will run around for several minuets (if you don’t grab it and hold it) before surrendering to the eternal peace. But running around without your head might look funny or at least weird, but it makes no sense. The chicken runs without a plan, without intention. This is exactly what you are doing if you don’t sit down at make a plan of what you want to do!

You might even know this already… if you know this and have never done it, I suggest you read my blog post about procrastination before continuing here.

OK, so now you have probably decided that it is time to make some plans, so you dont run around looking like a headless chicken. Great! but what to plan and how to do it?

How To Make A Great Plan

Life (and business) is funny… you live your life forward, but in order to get where you want to be, you have to plan backwards, you have to start with the end in mind. Here is what i mean. If you would like go on a trip around the world, you start by figuring out a time frame and a budget for your trip. Then you start brainstorming where you would like to go. .. then you map out a good route between your destinations in a logical order and make sure it fits in your budget and time frame…. etc.

See, you dont start by jumping on the next train or plane and just go with the flow… Well, some actually do, but they usually look like headless chickens

What you start with is a framework (the money and time you will spend). Then you make a map, find the ending and starting zone and start mapping the best route. Then you will go into details about accommodation, transport, things to see etc. The trick is not to get overwhelmed by the level of details. You don’t have to plan every step you will make on the trip. Stop at a detail level that makes you have a clear path, but room for unexpected things to happen.

So how to make plans for your business?

1) Start by defining a goal for your business. It can be a financial goal, a performance goal or maybe a branding goal. Remember your goal has to be SMART (See procrastination post) – Specific, measurable, attractive, realistic and time bound.

2) Define the framework – Time, money and other resources. Break the “trip” down to small steps, they have to be small enough for you to be able to do them, but not so small that you get annoyed by their insignificance.

3) When executing your plan, keep refining the way you perform. Find a way to constantly get feedback so you can improve the quality of your work. This concept is known as LEAN and has been made very famous by the Toyota Factory. Breaking the tasks down into small steps, get continues feedback and always finding ways to improve is what LEAN is all about. 

What To Plan?

You probably already know you want to make plans for your business, right? But being an entrepreneur it is very important that you don’t stop your planning here. Make plans for your life as well. Your work and life is interdependent and will grow from mutual success!

Many people tend to overestimate what can be done in a month and under estimate what can be done in a year. I really recommend creating a set of plans, for your business and life, that has both long term goals (5-10 years) and short term objectives (every day, 1 week plans).

Make a piece of paper or open up your favorite textpad on your computer…

State your 10 year goal for business:__________________________  and for your life:____________________________

Your 5 year goal for your business:___________________________ and your life:_______________________________

Make 1 year plans, break them into 1/4 plans, monthly plans, weekly plans and even daily plans. Put it where you see it, don’t lock your plans away in a dusty drawer. You have to look at your plans every day (at least your monthly, weekly and daily plans)

Plan your tomorrow today!

There is nothing more satisfying then a to-do list, when you wing each task of… and looking at the completed list when going to bed

If some of your plans don’t work out, remember to review why they went bad…. what can you do to prevent it in the future. Also look for ways to automate some of your repeatedly tasks and always make a task prioritization so you do the most important tasks first (they have to fit the time schedule of cause).

Wow, you really have your work cut out for you here… But once you get started, you wont ever go back I promise!

Love Marlene

PS… I have more gold business nuggets coming soon.