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Top 10 Tips to Create A Business Plan! (For People Who Hate Business Plans)
One of the key challenges for any
business is to remain focused and invest resources for maximum pay-off. It's
said that 80% of a business's activity accounts for only 20% of total profits.
In plain language, most of the work we do is unfocused, poorly designed and
ineffective. In today's competitive world, no business, whether it's an
individual professional or a large manufacturing operation, can survive with
that much lost time and wasted effort. A business plan can help, but most small
business owners (and some managers/supervisors) hate doing them! In the spirit
that any map is better than no map, here are my top ten keys to creating your
own map to success:
1. Have a dream. This sounds simple and obvious, but answering the questions:
"Why am I doing this? What's the big picture?" can lead to profound changes in
many organizations. Too often in the daily grind, we forget to think about where
we want to go, or why we started the business or took the job in the first
place.
2. Make the dream bigger. What if the whole world bought your products or loved
your service? What would it mean if your profits, or your personal income were
10 times greater? How about 100, or 1000 times greater? What shifts in focus
would that require? Would your daily routine change? Would you spend your time
and energy on different problems, attend to different priorities? Why wait?
3. Make the dream clearer. Have a precise description of exactly what you want
and hang it in your office, in the employee lunch room, in the restrooms, and on
the dash of your car. Use key words, phrases, a photograph of your future office
building or whatever symbol will crystallize the dream and make it real for you
and for every member of your team
4. List 100 obstacles that will get in your way. Enlist staff, friends,
competitors to help. Ask your customers to join with you in looking for the
roadblocks, blind spots and bottlenecks that prevent you from growing. Make it a
matter of personal pride to never have a problem pop up that you haven't already
considered.
5. List 1000 solutions, 10 for each potential problem. The key here is
creativity, flexibility, and responding instantly when the unexpected happens.
Expect the unexpected, and have a file of alternative solutions at your finger
tips. It's called contingency planning. Do it!
6. Get tons of advice. Have your accountant, your attorney, your insurance
agent, your spouse and your cousin take a look at this. If you can't explain it
to them, will you be able to explain it to your staff? If these people don't
understand and support your plan, will you be able to maintain your own
enthusiasm over the long haul?
7. Get GOOD advice. After explaining your dream and your plan to lots of people,
sit down with a handful of those you trust the most, and pay them to give you
their best feedback. Lots of people can give you technical advice, expert
advice, and even friendly advice. Wisdom is more important, and harder to find.
8. Create the path of least resistance. Using the dream as your goal, and
knowing the obstacles that could get in your way, begin mapping your way through
the wilderness to your destination. What's the easiest, most direct, route?
What's the safest route? Which combination of activities and priorities makes
the most sense?
9. Take action. Once you know where you want to go and have a path to get there,
start walking! Too many managers put their business plan into a nice file folder
that is never looked at because they are too busy working "hard." Instead, use
your efforts and your plan together so that your effort is focused, productive
and smart!
10. Re-assess often. Just as someone hiking across barren territory needs to
periodically stop and check their map and compass to avoid walking in circles,
business owners and managers need to check their direction and their priorities.
Conditions change. Opportunities pop up or disappear, new problems arrive or the
nature of the dream changes. All of these things will happen. Plan for it!
Regularly step outside your
business to re-assess and redefine your most important tasks. You can't afford
to spend 80% of your effort in busywork and unprofitable distractions. Re-assess
and stay on course.
"Written by Dr
Philip E. Humbert, writer, speaker and success coach. Dr.
Humbert has over 300 free articles, tools and
resources for your success, including a great newsletter.
It's all on his website at: http://www.philiphumbert.com"
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