When YOU think of business planning, what comes to mind? Scary? Boring? Valuable? Too much trouble? Worthless? Priceless?
There are literally hundreds of business plan guides, software programs, and websites, and thousands of business planning consultants. Many business planning approaches have one similar flaw – they’re far too complicated – even for business leaders.
Many of them would take us days, weeks, months, even years to complete. And then they’d sit on a remote shelf in a corner office somewhere collecting dust never again to see the light of day.
That’s NOT the kind of business plan I’m talking about. The best ideas – the best businesses – begin as SIMPLE ideas that are pursued with fanatic clarity.
Clarity
People may not agree with your perspective, with your decisions, with the direction, but they desperately want you to be clear.
When we’re not clear about purpose, about vision, or about goals, we frustrate people. When we’re fuzzy about outcomes and how we are going to evaluate them, we frustrate people.
Fuzzy leader, fuzzier followers.
When you’re not clear, your team becomes frustrated. Your customers become frustrated. Your family gets frustrated. And the collective frustration of all of these people who are most important to you creates drag on momentum. And destroys creativity and productivity. If there is one thing leaders owe their team members, their organization, their future, their family, themselves, it’s clarity.
People are trading the most valuable days of their lives to invest in you, in the vision, in the team, and in the organization. Are they trading their time for something worthwhile? If so, then we must make sure the business vision and business plans are clear.
It’s scary
For many people, just the mention of creating a business plan causes anxiety. They’ve seen one-too-many two-inch binders with page after page of extensive plans for every minute aspect of the business.
Over the past twenty years of coaching and consulting with business and non-profit professionals, I’ve discovered that, because of the anxiety and fear associated with business planning, most people never create a plan for their business or their work and those who do rarely review it or use it.
As a result, many leaders and many organizations, including large corporations, aimlessly chase any opportunity that comes along. Then they drop it when it doesn’t bring immediate results.
As you might imagine – or maybe you’ve experienced like I have – this is not the most successful way to run a business.
So let’s get really, really clear. And simple.
A better way
Most organizations and leaders need to create a ridiculously simple, clear business plan that outlines:
- What you will do and what you will become.
- How you will reach your goals.
- Where you need to make improvements.
I’m so committed to helping you succeed in your work that we developed the NEW Simple, One-Page Business Plan Guide and Template just for you! I want you to enjoy the freedom and clarity that comes from mapping out the specific actions you will do on a regular basis, and I want you to avoid the struggles that so many face.
Click here to download the NEW, Simple One-Page Business Plan Guide and Template.
Once you download it and try it out, shoot me an email. You can even send me your draft to review for you. I’m looking forward to hearing about the dramatic improvements to your life and work.
I use the One Page Business Plan(R) by Jim Horan, myself… and with clients. It’s an amazing process but not as great as watching clients monitor their plans online, taking action, tweaking where necessary and reaching their goals.
A one page business plan will keep things simple and focused. I have done the over the top plans that was just too much and I did not follow it. But, when I simplified it down into a 2 page outline it made it more achievable.
My experience has been similar to yours – the more lengthy the plan, the more difficult it was to review and follow.