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In my book, CHAOS; How Business Leaders Can Master The Power Of Focus, I write about defining the Vision for your business in order to connect to the medium term path the business will travel.  I make it easy for the business owner to do this by identifying that the Visiosn Statement is simply; how much, by when, doing what, for whom in what geographical marketplace.  While overall this is a relatively simple process (especially when compared to what busienss owners think a Vision Statement is), I challenge the business owner to define the “for whom”, as their perfect customer, not now, but  3 years from now.  This is not an easy task if it has never been considered.

 

Here is an article (short)  that draws our attention to the value of working with only those customers they WANT to work with…

 IT’S NO SECRET that it costs a lot more to acquire new customers than to retain the ones you’ve got.  Winning new customers is one of  the most challenging aspects of running a business, but there are many ways to go about it.

 

 “Create an environment that shows you are easy to  do business with, that you can handle complaints and that you mean what you say.  When you’ve won a contract it’s important to deliver on all your promises.

 

This is the starting point for building trust which is key to winning new business,” explains  John Leach, of management consultants Strategem.

 

He offers the following pointers to help you make a success of winning new business:

1. Do your research and understand who your customers are.
2. Thorough research will help you prepare best – and it will also help you decide whether a certain customer is worth the attention.
3. Choose your customers carefully.  Learn to walk away and say no – a problem customer could cause hassles such as lengthy payment periods, or worse still, not being paid at all.
4. Find out who makes the buying decisions – don’t tolerate time-wasters; ensure you concentrate on those individuals with influence.
5. Be clear on how you are going to reach your customers.  Decide what your marketing tools will be and more importantly, ensure they suit your budget.
6. Be clear on what makes you different – this is a question you will be asked all the time.
7. You can never prepare enough.  Before going to sales meetings, ensure that you are 100% prepared.
8. Anticipate any problems that may arise and questions that will be thrown at you so you can handle any objections – prevention can work better than cure.

SOURCENOTE: BusinessGO

 

To REGISTER for a FREE copy of my book, CHAOS; How Business Leaders Can Master The Poeer Of Focus, go to www.chaosthepoweroffocus.com

 

 

I don’t normally use this blog site for day to day marketing messages.  But every once in awhile an opportunity comes along that has such value that you just have to share it.  Such is the case today.

 

I have just been asked to speak on Conquering CHAOS; A 5-Step Planning and Performance System by Gerry Robert, international best selling author of the Millionaire Mindset at his up-coming Rapid Results Marketing Workshop this weekend January 27 – 29.

 

Gerry has just returned from a global tour delivering 15 seminars in 20 days in Europe, Asia and the U.S.  Next stop…Vaughan, Ontario.  If you will be in the Greater Toronto Area this weekend then register NOW for this 2.5 day workshop.  Gerry will share:

• How to build marketing strategies that dominate your competition
• How to become the DOMINATOR in your area of business
• How to use MAGNETS to attract hundreds upon hundreds of future clients
• How to use ZERO COST marketing to catapult your business
• How to become a LOCAL CELEBRITY using articles, a book or speaking engagements
• How to use FACEBOOOK, TWITTER, GOOGLE and other social media the RIGHT WAY
• And so much more.

Now tickets are normally $299 for any Rapid Results Marketing Workshop.  But Gerry has given me a number of tickets to give away for FREE to my business friends as I will be sharing the stage with him.

 

 

So here is what I need you to do to take advantage of this huge opportunity; send me an email with FREE tickets in the Subject line, include your name, company name, phone number, email and address and I’ll personally register you to make sure you get in.

 

 

But do it now to take advantage of this huge opportynity to learn for FREE directly from Gerry Robert himself the  international best selling author of the Millionaire Mindset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let me open this article by saying I hold the Canadian Banking system in the highest regard.  Yes, I worked for one of the top 5 banks in Canada for 22 years but I don’t believe that is the source of my respect.  I think one only need look at how the Canadian banks came through the 2008 – 2011 period virtually unscathed to realize that in partnership with the Bank of Canada we have a pretty good thing going.  That includes but is not limited to coast to coast; consistency of the product/services delivery and access to our funds.  We may complain ad nauseam about their failure to deliver true customer service or any unique value proposition but they have protected stakeholder value and delivered reasonably consistent financial results.

 

But and it is a BIG but they have participated in the BROKEN system that is business planning for business owners.

 

Here is an excerpt from my soon to be released book, CHAOS; How Business Leaders Can Master The Power of Focus to explain.

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Business planning, when done well and consistently, will not set you up for failure but establish the measurable outcomes of success and have you celebrating.

 

And it can be EASY and FAST to do it and it can be SUSTAINED with as little as 15 minutes weekly.

 

Having said that it isn’t entirely your fault that you don’t have a business plan.  Business planning has been broken!

 

It must be broken because so few of us do it despite agreeing with me that it is important and because we have all the previously identified ill-conceived reasons why we don’t business plan.

 

How has business planning been broken specifically?

 

It’s been broken by those who position it as having to be anything from 25 – 50 pages in length.  Who are they?  They are; government agencies that purport to support small business, commercial bankers (small business bankers rarely ask for a business plan anymore) who need a business plan to assess your company’s financial request, consultants who want to write the plan for you and Accountants who want to generate cash flows for you.

 

None of these business plan sources or the business plan formats they recommend helps you be a better, smarter more focused business owner….

 

 

Now as to the bankers breaking business planning I have to say I was part of the problem.  All too often and in one role or another with a Canadian bank, I met with business owners to listen to their great and not so great ideas.  Whether it was a new client or an existing client our response was consistently the same, “Joe that sounds like a really interesting idea and I can see how you believe that might be important for the company, we’ll be pleased to consider any financing requirements you need but we’ll need to have a business plan first”.

 

I feel you nodding your head in agreement.  You’ve all heard it.

 

Here is what was wrong.  First, your banker is a relationship manager not an approver so we tell you anything is possible just in case it has a hope of getting approved so we can meet our monthly target.  Secondly, historically we didn’t give you any guidance on what resource to use for that business plan.  We didn’t have any (they now offer a do-it-yourself business plan on their web sites and I’ll speak about that in a moment) nor knew where you should find them.  It was just a, hey you go figure it out and bring it back to us when it is done.  Thirdly, we don’t use it.  Okay that’s a bit harsh but of the 25 – 50 pages you created we used maybe 15% of it.

 

A banker’s decision on whether or not to extend you credit has and continues to be based on the 3 “C”s; collateral, cash flow and character.  I guess if you wrote me a 50 page story about your business or paid someone else to do it I was supposed to be impressed with your Character, via your perseverance (place chuckle here as I was being sarcastic).

 

Remember, rarely did your business plan really have any impact on our decision.  It just gave us the opportunity to ask 18 follow-up questions to delay the decisioning on your loan request.

 

Further proof we didn’t use it?  Have you ever noticed how, when you were approved for the loan, no one from the bank ever held you accountable for doing what you said you were going to do in the plan?  As long as your payments were current or your operating loan was fluctuating and our collateral was intact, your business plan became as irrelevant to us as it was for you.  We knew you didn’t write it!

 

I’ve learned over my career as a management consultant that the real measure of a business leader’s Character is their ability to be focused on the success factors for their business, measuring the business against those success factors and having some form of consistent and sustainable business plan that aligns and holds accountable their team to the delivery of the success factors….

Now the good thing about banks is they now at least offer a do-it-yourself business plan on their web sites.  Or is it a good thing?

 

A do-it-yourself business plan is better than nothing (we offer our own at http://www.focus31.com called FOCUS Yourself; A 10-Step Business Plan program but it isn’t purely do-it-yourself as we inject our advice into your business plan process twice in the program for FREE) but the problem with do-it-yourself business plans is it is like looking in the mirror.

 

What did you see this morning when you looked in the mirror?  Right, yourself and as long as it is only you that you see you will fail to (as I said earlier) seriously challenge yourself to do something you know you need to do but don’t know how to do and that terrifies you when you think about having to do it?  You are going to stay comfy cozy even if it means you remain unhappy, unhealthy and broke.

 

Here in Canada the top 5 banks offer their small business clients a do-it-yourself business plan in a variety of ways via their web sites.  Let’s have a quick look at them and as you do consider do their ideas sound easy and fast:

 

1.      Royal Bank of Canada

Start-up Plan includes; Introduction, The Team, Business Environment, Marketing Plan, Operations, Finance, Risks and Conclusions and each header has links to more detail and each of those links leads to further links of detail.

Growth Plan includes; Business description, Industry analysis, Your team, Marketing plan, Operations, Key risks and each provides some descriptive detail but no deeper links.

Plan for Growth is somehow different then Growth Plan and includes, Mission Statement, Objectives and Action Plans and explanatory notes for each.

2.      TD/Canada Trust

Provides only an On-line business planner for planning your finances, cash flow and a charting of the historical Company Balance Sheet and Income Statements.

3.      CIBC

Provides a pdf fill-in-the-blanks guide that includes; company profile, management team, advisor team, financial history and business plan which is further broken down to; Market Analysis, Business Assessment, Objectives, Strategies and Action Plans each with explanatory notes.  The total pdf is…29 pages.

4.      Bank of Montreal

Provides a business planner worksheet that is effectively a charting of the company’s historical financial performance and a cash flow worksheet and an on-line pamphlet called Developing your business plan which provides guidance on; setting business goals, statement of goals, planning to reach those goals one year and five years, annual income statement projection and action planning.

5.      Scotiabank

Provides an interactive planning tool that includes; Business Description, Marketplace, Sales and Marketing, Operations, Financial Information with explanatory notes for each and input fields that generate a template business plan.  It can be exported to Word.  It reassembles the blank documents you can access using Word’s document search mechanism.

 

Thus confirming that there are many differing perspectives on what a business plan is.

 

The Scotiabank system seems the best of the 5 but when you download the business plan to Word the document  opens with a letter to a 3^rd party?  This confirms they are assuming you are only doing the business plan not for your own purposes but for communicating to an interested 3^rd party like them for a loan.  They lost me with that.

 

The CIBC business plan pdf at 29 pages confirms they are thinking bigger is better and RBC seems to think you only need objectives and action plans later in your business’ life cycle.  Huh?

 

I was frankly disappointed with the limited TD/Canada Trust and Bank of Montreal offers/effort.

 

Now here is the tell-tale sign that the banks have participated in the broken business planning process.  If any of their planning processes were any good, any good at all, who would be using them?  Their own branch managers would that’s who.

 

A branch is a business entity with client portfolios, staff and staffing issues, customer service issues with some unique marketing opportunities.  They are a business unto themselves just like your business.  If any executive of any of the banks thought the planning process they recommend you use was any good any good at all, their Branch Managers would be and should be using it.  Their not so don’t!

 

Here is what I want you to do.  I want you to create a single page business plan (see template on page 117) based on my instructions that follow and then follow my prescription for a establishing a management system for sustainable business planning.  You will find the experience liberating.

 

Don’t stop there let’s have some fun.  I’d like you to then take that business plan, gather up your last year-end Balance Sheet and Income Statement, your in-house year-to-date Balance Sheet and Income Statement and write a 2-page Executive Summary (I’ll help you).  Then go to your bank (even if you don’t need a loan) and when they ask for your business plan say “sure I have it right here.  In fact, I have a management system that sustains business planning in my company month over month, would you like to review it with me now?”

 

Your banker will weep with joy!

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Business planning is IMPORTANT, it’s been BROKEN, it’s EASY, FAST and SUSTAINABLE. To conquer the CHAOS in your business, business planning is a foundation activity that is only purposeful if; the plan is for your purposes not a 3rd party, you get it down (started) then get it right (sustained) and you measure your progress against your success factors asking “why” when you outperform or under-perform against them and “how” you can leverage greater success or correct the under-performances.

 

When you are ready to hold yourself accountable for success and align yourself to the activities needed to deliver that success don’t go to your bank for a business plan!  Instead, get the definitive business plan solution by visiting us at http://www.focus31.com and register for our FREE FOCUS Yourself; A 10-Step Business Plan Program receiving FREE advice along the way and a FREE copy my book CHAOS; How Business Leaders Can Master The Power Of Focus.

 

 

I recently had the pleasure of presenting our Conqurering CHAOS; A 5-Step Planning and Performance System to a group of Association Exec Directors in September and to a group of Charity Exec Directors in November.

 

Today I sent out the 1st of the 6-Step reminders of the components of a quality NFP business plan to the attendees of each presentaton.

You too can learn from this as I will post all 6 Steps right here.  Here is Step #1; The Vision Statement.

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I recently had a very interesting conversation with an Executive Director of a Canadian international charity.  I was interviewing him about his planning process.   It wasn’t perfect but I discovered an interesting approach.  He had been ED for only 3 years and had to undertake a major overhaul of operations.  He also had a relatively under-performing Board.  When I asked about his planning process he said he came from a business background, knew he needed a business plan and so created one for his operational purposes and presented his plan to Board.  They were prepared to rubber stamp the business plan.  He had to reveal that many of his ideas might be contrary to their thinking and that a rubber stamp was inadvisable.

In the end the plan was approved and he opened the door for changes including… Board Governance.

With that, I now realize there are 5 business models for Executive Directors of Charities, Associations, and other Not-For-Profits relative to the adoption of a business plan system:

1. Board and ED jointly have no business plan
2. Board and ED jointly have no business plan
3. Board has a “5-Year Strategic Plan” that offers no guidance to the Executive Director
4. Executive Director has an Operational Business Plan in the absence of a Board “5-Year Strategic” Plan
5. The Board and the Executive Director are aligned around a best practice business plan methodology.
6. The Board, the Director and department heads (and even Committees) are all aligned and participating in best practice business planning.

 

I think, you’ll agree 1) is worse case, 2) is pointless 3) is workable and your Association will survive and even thrive but you’ll always feel uncomfortable and 4) is best case and 5) is absolute utopia.

So with your permission over the coming weeks I will reconnect you with the learning from our session because Business Planning is IMPORTANT, it’s been BROKEN, it’s EASY, FAST and SUSTAINABLE.

 

Today I’ll review Step 1 of 6  enhancing your understanding of …the Vision statement!

 

The Vision statement answers the question, What Are We Building?

 

It can be simply generated by asking; How Much, By When, Doing What, For Whom, in What Geographical Location (Where)?

Where:

 

• How Much = A measurable outcome preferably Revenue/Contribution/Donation/Funding to be earned in the 3^rd year of 0perations.  As a minimum it should reflect the size of the membership or clients served by the end of the 3^rd year.  While you may wish to define your Vision in altruistic terms, altruism doesn’t pay for the programs you will deliver…cash does. Without cash, without contribution or revenue nothing in your Association/NFP/Charity  can happen.   As such, I strongly prefer the “How Much” be defined in dollar terns.   My local Chamber of Commerce for example while presently defining its Vision in terms of # of members, is readying to move to an understanding of how Revenue is a better measure.   It is a learning process that begins with “get it down, then get it right!

• By When = 3 years not 5.

• Doing What = The Products and Services you will offer not now, but 3 years from now.  This gives you time to consider how you might change/shift your portfolio of services/products evaluating what would interest your membership prompting them to engage more or buy more often.

• For Whom = Your Best/Perfect Customer.  Here is a link FOCUS Perfect Customer Worksheet to an exercise for you to consider using. Does it fit best with business owners…yes it does. But that does not limit its relevance to you as an ED of an Association/NFP/Charity. Your marketing dollars are limited. To apply them to where they will “have the biggest bang” requires that you understand who your best customer is.  For example, if your Association is an industry association are all industry participants your “best customer”?  No of course not because some will never join or when they join will quit shortly thereafter or will join and never participate.  How much time and energy do you waste nurturing this member?  Are you not better off to direct your energy to understanding who will participate, get value, learn and grow and encourage others to participate?  I’m not suggesting you won’t serve all your clients but your Vision Statement is intended to direct your marketing activity towards your best customer to again get the “biggest bang” for your organization.  Finally the For Whom is your best client 3 years from now.

• Geographical Location = The marketplace you will serve again not now but 3 years from now. The options are; local, regional, provincial, national, North American, global or international.

 

Here are a few real life examples of Association/NFP/Charity Vision Statements:

 

“By year end 2008 the Burlingame Library Foundation will provide the Burlingame Library with a reliable income stream of $250k per year through fund raising activities, events and endowment programs. These funds will be dedicated to the Burlingame Library for the purpose of supporting programs, infrastructure, and other activities that would not otherwise be funded or supported via the annual library budget.”

“Within the next three years, grow the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame into an international art institution with annual funding of $1.3 million, providing preservation, education and performance of jazz to music lovers.”

“Within 5 years we see ourselves as the premier Family Service Agency and the charity of choice among local, regional, state and national stakeholders. They have a clear understanding of who we are and what we do. We see a growing funding base to include a $500,000 endowment and an operating reserve of 3-6 months supported by entrepreneurial revenue generating programs to yield a more diversified and flexible funding base. We will be recognized as the “The Can Do Will Do” organization.”

Note, being real, none of these Vision Statements comply exactly with the direction I have provided above.  In the end, it is better to generate a Vision Statement that resonates with your Association/Charity/NFP than to try for perfect compliance with my thinking.   “Get it down, then get it right!”

If you are ready to progress your Organization’s business plan with or without Board involvement or simply want to practice generating a business plan in accordance with our program readying yourself to bring the Board in to the process, go to www.focus31.com and register for our FREE multi-media FOCUS Yourself; A 10-Step Business Plan program.

Otherwise watch for our next segment on the Mission Statement.

 

 

What a day!  My 8-year old daughter gets 15/15 on a spelling test and 34/35 on her first science test and FOCUS³¹ launches our FREE Home Study Course, FOCUS Yourself; A 10-Step Business Plan Program to rave reviews based on registrations so far today.

If you aren’t on our direct mailing list you will have missed the announcement.  So for our blog viewers here it is….

Having followed FOCUS³¹ for some time now and maybe attended our workshops or watched our video you know we believe that Business Planning is IMPORTANT, it’s been BROKEN, it’s EASY, FAST and SUSTAINABLE.  We have proven it time and time again.  Well today we are pleased to announce that it is also FREE!

We are pleased to announce today the launch of our

FREE FOCUS Yourself; A 10-Step Business Plan Program!

As a business owner you told us that you wanted to be more financially successful and you knew that business planning was a core activity to achieve that success and focus on the right activities to achieve new milestones. You agreed with FOCUS³¹ that; business planning was BROKEN, it shouldn’t take pages upon pages to write, that surely it can be EASY and FAST and that it should have flexibility to remain relevant and be SUSTAINABLE with a modicum of time.

As a business owner you also told us that while business planning was critical you were concerned for the expense of working with FOCUS³¹ to generate your business plan despite our Positive Experience Promise, our guarantee.

So we did it just for you! We created THE Home Study Course for Business Planning, FOCUS Yourself; A 10-Step Business Plan Program! AND we made it FREE!

Go NOW to register at www.focus31.com and we will begin sending you FOCUS Yourself; A 10-Step Business Plan Program automatically.

But wait that’s not all! If you have really listened to us at FOCUS³¹ you know we aren’t big believers of do-it-yourself business planning. How can you challenge your comfort zone when…when you look in the mirror all you see is yourself after all?

So our Home Study Course, FOCUS Yourself; A 10-Step Business Plan Program includes interaction with FOCUS³¹ expertise not once but a minimum of TWICE through the 10-Step program.

Go NOW to register at www.focus31.com and we will begin sending you FOCUS Yourself; A 10-Step Business Plan Program automatically for FREE!

Here is what you will be doing:

1. Watching our 16 minute video “The 5 Secrets To Effective Business Planning” as a quick overview
2. Listening to our 50 minute webinar, “Conquering CHAOS; A 5-Step Planning and Performance System” to go deeper on business plan concepts…take notes!
3. Downloading a Workbook to begin crafting your draft business plan
4. Downloading our FOCUS Discovery Health Check to further analyze your businesses strengths and weaknesses
5. Submitting your FOCUS Discovery Health Check to FOCUS³¹ for our review and comments
6. Downloading The One Page Business Plan template to generate your Business Plan
7. Submitting your Business Plan to FOCUS³¹ for our review and comments
8. Amending your Business Plan in accordance with our review and comments
9. Repeating Steps 7 & 8 until we sign off on the Final Copy of your Business Plan
10. Registering for more information on how to sustain your business plan practices through our FOCUS Accountability System
11. BONUS Step; Receiving a FREE copy of my book CHAOS; How Business Leaders Can Master The Power Of Focus.

 

Go NOW to register at www.focus31.com and we will begin sending you FOCUS Yourself; A 10-Step Business Plan Program automatically for FREE!

Let’s get your business plan aligned with your dreams and start achieving those bigger, much bigger financial milestones.

So to our Blog followers the message is the same.    Go NOW?  Go RIGHT NOW!  Go FAST to register at www.focus31.com to join the gang that have already signed on and we will begin sending you FOCUS Yourself; A 10-Step Business Plan Program automatically for FREE!

 

And hey…its FREE…so share this with other business owners you know and help them get; a fast start, refocused, re-energized for success with  FOCUS Yourself; A 10-Step Business Plan Program.

 

 

I’m unhappy to reopen our social media activities following upon a relatively unhappy week.  I had the pleasure of meeting with two micro small businesses in back to back meetings.  The first, a 4 year old catering business.  The second, a 1 year sport’s nutritionist.

 

In the former, the owner wanted to meet and understand how our business planning services (FOCUS Accountability System) could help them break out of a fairly low level of revenue against the potential. The challenge was it was unclear if they were prepared to invest additional time or resources. I advised them that indeed I could get them refocused. But I told the principal owner quite directly that while her words said she wanted to double, triple or quadruple her Revenue, her emotions said she had already checked out!   I said I couldn’t, or more to the point wouldn’t, help until I was convinced they were re-engaged for success and prepared to commit the necessary resources to fulfill the business plan we would generate.

 

In the latter case, the owner has struggled for a year. Capital is down to the last few dollars, family is positioned to add assistance to a losing cause as I see it and partners are being considered…still to a losing cause.  But while money is needed the bigger challenge is the company owner/operator would only keep doing the same old activities and invariably generate the same old weak results and burn through more money to no avail.   The good news here is the owner has fire in his belly and is open to new ideas and acknowledges marketing isn’t his forte.  If he listened today, then once recapitalized he should begin to completely rethink how he wants to grow his business and he has a number of new ideas to consider for…FREE.

On the heals of these two stories I realize that they are of course 2 of thousand of thousands of business owners lost in the soft economy worldwide and worried not about the longer term future but the immediate future of their businesses.  Moreover, as any business owner can have only 2 – 3 true core capabilities, they are invariably challenged to step outside their comfort zone and consider some different and perhaps gut wrenching ways to generate success for their business in a soft market.

 

With this in mind I turned to Tom Peters for some wisdom to motivate my readers to re-engage, refocus and commit.  Be Energetic!  Be Passionate!  The right; business decisions and business success will follow.

 

 

And hey a FAST, EASY and SUSTAINABLE business plan management system would ensure the new great ideas are committed to paper to set the road map to that future success. AND…it just so happens that our FOCUS Accountability System is the program that businesses, both large or small, need to crush the soft economy and steal market share from  under the  nose of their competitors while they sit frozen with fear like deer caught in the headlights.

 

Concerned you aren’t quite ready to commit resources either?  Then register right NOW at focus31.com for our FREE FOCUS Yourself; 10-Step Business Plan Program and we’ll walk you through your do-it-yourself business plan and offer some FREE advice along the way.

Sorry ladies and gentlemen that started following my posts on business planning and other business management issues earlier this Spring. I’ve been terribly deficient in sustaining my social media activities. A full re branding will do that to you. So here is an update:

• We’re rebranded as FOCUS³¹ with web address FOCUS31.com and email james@focus31.com.
• My book, CHAOS; How Business Leaders Can Master The Power Of Focus will be launched mid-December.  Order a FREE copy now by emailing “Book” in the Subject line to james@focus31.com
• We are launching this weekend our FREE FOCUS Yourself: 10-Step Business Plan Program.Register right now at FOCUS31.com and begin building your do-it-yourself business plan following our 10 proven successful steps.
• Watch for the relaunch of our Twitter page and our YouTube page later this month.
• Finally, continue to watch this blog site because with the administration of our re-branding out of the way we plan to blog 2 – 3 times weekly with relevant business topics to small and medium sized business owners to get you focused for the first time or refocused if you’ve found you have come off the rails during these challenging world economic conditions.

Thanks for your support!  Keep visiting because we’re re-introducijng many of our previous articles and videos but I’ll start with something new this weeekend with thougths from Tom Peters again.

 

 

 

With PowerPoint presentation

Business Planning is IMPORTANT, it’s been BROKEN, It’s EASY and it can be FAST! Focus31 guarantees it!

In this segment FOCUS31 identifies the 5 Reasons Business Owners Fail to engage in Business Planning.

It really is ludicrous when you think about it. We plan for our vacations, our retirements and we plan for our children’s education. But as business owners we FAIL to plan for the very cash flow that fulfills these personal plans these personal DREAMS. We fail to Business Plan!

As business owners we FAIL to Business Plan because:
-We are grossly confused about what a Business Plan even is!
-We’ve been told by others or experienced for ourselves that Business Planning takes too long. Sure it does if you are writing a 25 – 50 page plan!
-We’ve also been told we only need a business plan when we need to borrow from the Bank. Listen, nothing could be further from the truth. The Business Plan is for you not any 3rd party.
-We’ve been told that there is no point in starting a Business Plan because it will be out of date within a month. .. we’ll never sustain it!

And then there is my favorite reason why we don’t plan, because my business plan is in my HEAD!

Consider where would society be if; Leonardo Da Vinci had kept the image of the Mona Lisa in his head, or if Michelangelo had kept all the images now captured on the Cistine Chapel…in his head or if Vic Bloom & Bob Montana had kept the images and stories of Archie, Jughead, Veronica and Betty in their…heads?

Nothing is real until it can be shared so until we understand the source fo telepathy a Business Plan in the head is simply no Business Plan at all.

But it isn’t entirely our fault that we don’t engage in business planning. Business Planning has been BROKEN. Its been broken by anyone who suggests a Business Plan should be 25 – 50 pages long to be effective. That’s nonsense. I’d never start either.

Like with your Mother and any foods you were made to eat as a child, we know she was right and we likely now like the foods we didn’t as a kid. In the same vein, trust me when I tell you that Business Planning is IMPORTANT, its been BROKEN,, it’s EASY and it can be FAST! FOCUS31 guarantees it!

Learn how to engage in effective Business Planning with FOCUS31. Email james@focus31.com.