Bet ya haven’t. I’d put money on it. And I’d win. Sure, some of you will have one. Most of you won’t. So I’d win. Trouble is, you’d lose.
Not just your stake money but, probably, bits or all of your business too.
And that’s fine for as long as there aren’t any mountains in the way.
Clear blue skies make for safe blind flying.
Mountains, clouds, winds, other aircraft - all make for fatal blind flying – eventually, one way or another.
Don’t know why so many businesses, of every shape, size and colour seem happy to play Russian roulette with their businesses.
So for the benefit of all of you who don’t have a Business Plan, here is Meredith’s Step-By-Step guide to the safe navigation of your business. It’s only a start but it is a start. (And for more you’ll have to call me and negotiate fees!)
What Is A Business Plan
At its core it is nothing more than a navigational plan for your business. And you should no more think about being at the helm of a business without one than you would at the helm of an ocean going vessel or on the flightdeck of an aircraft.
How Do I Do It?
There are four key Steps:
Step 1 Where Am I?
Step 2 Where Do I Want To Be?
Step 3 What Do I Have To Do To Get There?
Step 4 How Can I Know If I Am On Course?
See, you’re getting it already aren’t you?
Step 1
This is your radar - Your Situation Analysis. Look carefully and assess where you are – in terms of your company, your finances, your customers, your products, your competitors. What is the current state of play. Think of it as a diagnosis of each of these things if it helps.
Step 2
Working with each of the headings suggested in Step 1, consider and decide where you want to be on each of the dimensions identified – set your Objectives.
The trick here is to make sure that you set SMART Objectives (Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Realistic. Timetabled). This is the difference between useless waffle (“To increase sales”) and meaningful Objectives (“To increase sales from the current $400,000 per year to a targeted $500,000 per year by the end of the next financial year”)
Step 3
Again working with each of the headings suggested in Step 1, decide on Strategies & Tactics to take you to where Step 2 has said you want to be. Do this for each SMART Objective that you have set.
Don’t be intimidated by the words Strategy & Tactics – they’re only words and mean, simply, “Strategy – what you are going to do” and “Tactics – how you are going to do it”
Step 4
In navigational terms, this is the Instrument Panel. Once flying (or implementing your Strategies & Tactics) you will need to know where you are at all times – so that you don’t get lost, hit other aircraft, run out of fuel or crash & burn! So you’ll need to work out how you can measure the effects/results of your Strategies & Tactics and, where necessary, make course corrections before you get out of control.
For each strategy, you’ll simply need to establish how you will measure its’ effect when you implement it and then, regularly and frequently, consider what the measurements are telling you and make decisions where necessary.
And that’s it dear people. That is the core of Strategic Planning and you can get it up and running in your business, however small, from first thing tomorrow morning.
Add a detailed Income & Expenditure forecast (not much harder than the arithmetic we learned at school) and you're done & dusted.
There is one more key element, however, that is critical in these days of chaotic marketplaces. This is not a linear process. (Once upon a time it was, when things were more orderly, more predictable).
But not now.
This is a perpetual process where, in effect, your Business Plan is never finished – it is subjected to constant review with every component of your Situation Analysis being reviewed on an ongoing basis. That will detect changes in that Situation which will mean you will want to review your Objectives and/or your Strategies & Tactics if a changed Situation indicates that.
And you will need to continue to carefully monitor the effects of changing those Strategies & Tactics through your Instrument Panel and feed the outcomes of that back into your Situation Analysis –and so the world goes on – never finished, always in review.
Give it a go – it’s not as hard as you may have thought, at least not to get it going.
And whatever emerges from your first crack at Business Planning (navigating your business) it will be infinitely more desirable than making it up as you go along.
What I will promise you (in a sphere of life where there are no promises) is that you will immediately begin to experience something that you might not have done before – a sense of being in control of your business rather than it being in control of you.
And that’s a great place to be as you move onto the next day of your life in the wonderful world of business!
Brian H Meredith
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