Planning
If you are in the process of making the decision to grow your business, you are probably comfortable with being an entrepreneur. Before you can plan your business, you must plan your personal life. Until you know yourself and what is important to you, you cannot address the issues of growing a business.
When you feel comfortable with your personal goals, you can plan the direction and goals of your business.
This unit describes how to plan your life and how to plan your business.
Knowing Yourself
Who are you? What roles do you play? Answer the following questions. If you answer them in the affirmative, you increase your chances of success.
- Are you healthy?
- Are you honest?
- Are you a strategic thinker?
- Do you enjoy managing people and watching them grow?
- Are you personable?
- Are you fiscally responsible?
- Do you give people the benefit of the doubt?
- Are you goal-oriented?
Setting Your Personal Goals
Let us address the last question here. Learning to know yourself is a process that evolves over your lifetime. Get in the habit of going through this process twice a year.
- Develop a mission statement.
- Your mission statement is your foundation. It is who you are. You will find it does not change very often. In 1995, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. When I reviewed my mission statement, I discovered that I did not need to change it. If you do not know how to write a mission statement, read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey.
- Set your goals for each role you play. WRITE THEM DOWN!
- What do you want to accomplish in your lifetime? What do you want to have in your lifetime? Are you willing to put in the effort to meet these goals? What do you have to do in 10 years to meet your lifetime goals? What do you have to do in five years to meet your 10 year goals? What do you have to do in three years? What do you have to do in one year? What do you have to do in 6 months? What do you have to do this month? What do you have to do this week? What do you have to do — you guessed it—today?
- Review your mission and your goals in detail every 6 months.
- Remember, you did not chisel them in stone. Some goals drop off the list; new goals appear.
- Each month, review the goals for this six-month period.
- Each week, review the goals for the month.
- Each day, review the goals for the week and create your daily “to-do” list.
Going through this exercise helps you focus. You may discover that you really want free time to spend with your family, that you want to be home in the evenings, that you do not want to travel for business. This is valuable information when you start planning your business growth.
This exercise also helps you identify your exit strategy, which is something many entrepreneurs don't think about until it is too late.
We’ve all heard the saying, “Be careful what you ask for.” The Law of Attraction says that we attract what we have put our attention on. There are only three steps to getting what you want:
- Ask (Your job: These are the goals you have written. Be specific; believe you already have what you asked for while being thankful for what you already have.)
- What you ask for comes to you (Not your work)
- Receive (Your job)
Good things are coming to you every second of every day. Start paying attention to these things and be grateful when you notice them. For more information, watch the movie, “The Secret.”
Knowing Your Business
Just as you need to know yourself, you need to know your business. Answer the following questions. These are not easy questions. Take some time to think about them; then record your answers. Start a file so that you can track this information. Review it every quarter.
- How do you want to be perceived in the market place?
- What is your niche?
- How can you enhance your value in the marketplace?
- Who is your competition?
- Why do your customers choose your competition over you?
- Who are your customers?
- Why do your customers buy your services?
- Where is the market going?
- Where do you want your business to be in 5 – 10 years?
Setting Your Business Goals
Setting business goals is very similar to setting personal goals. Use the same process. Treat your business as a separate entity (even if you are a sole proprietor).
- Develop a mission statement for your business.
- Your mission statement is foundation of the business. It is how you want the world to perceive the business.
- Set your goals for each aspect of your business: marketing, projects, administration, finances, recruiting, product development.
- It is difficult to predict how you will operate your business even 3 years from now. However, it is important that you learn to envision how you want your business to be. WRITE YOUR BUSINESS GOALS DOWN!
- What do you want the business to accomplish while it is in existence? What do you have to do in 10 years to have these accomplishments? What do you have to do in five years to meet your company’s 10–year goals? What do you have to do in three years? What do you have to do in one year? What do you have to do in six months? What do you have to do this month? What do you have to do this week? What do you have to do today?
- Review the company mission and goals in detail every quarter.
Reengineering Your Business
Technology is changing at an increasing rate of speed. Set aside time to read everything you can about business, your industry, and the technology and methodologies you use. Set aside time to read everything you can about business in general, your industry, your clients’ industries, and the technology and methodologies you use. You will actually get to the point where you can see opportunity before your customers realize they need help. When you create markets, you become the leader in that area.