Business Plans are a little more than just words.

When you understand the purpose of your plan it makes far more sense of why having a written one is so important. What’s more how to utilise the context of planning and the impact it has on you.

“I have a detailed business plan.”

“I have clarity and am clear on what I aim to achieve in the business.”

“Oh, and it’s all safely memorised in my head!”

I can’t tell you just how many business owners have told me that they have a business plan and it’s in their head. Well frankly I have to say that’s………, well you know what I have to say. You can’t successfully run a business with a business plan in your head. It’s make-believe, there is no real way to measure your progress, you have no benchmarks set, nothing which is tangible and accountable for. Yes, there will be those who will fervently state that they are really clear as to what is to be achieved, that’s ok if you believe it to be true.

What’s really interesting is that for the majority when they decided they were going to start their business it was then important and critical to have a written plan then. To get down on paper just what their intention was going to be, a written version of their business vision. Then no sooner than getting underway the plan is often filed away never to be seen again or at best dusted off once a year to see if we are on track. Only then to establish they’re not and plans don’t work. Which misses the point. Today I aim to offer you a slightly different context to why you need to have a ‘working’ plan.

All Business Should have a Plan

Every business should have a business plan and critically it should be the overarching document that sets the direction and drives it forward. It is the guideline which determines focus and commitment to achieve the business goals, it sets out the focus for the business. Financial institutions such as your bank or investors see it as a business with a clear business agenda, offering solutions to potential problems and having clear set goals and metrics in place.

Now whilst all of that is vital, hugely important it doesn’t inspire a business owner to keep their plan to hand, to review it regularly, to modify it with the actual results being achieved within the business. It’s not used to engage the team, keep them on track, to grow the team. Probably most interestingly it’s not used to maintain a strategic focus on the business and drive the tactics of delivery day to day.

So, do I need a business plan?

Now it’s at this point I could tell you it’s needed:

• To offer a detailed map of the future.
• To support growth and support funding.
• To develop and communicate the direction and activity of the business.
• To assist with cash flow management.
• Allows priorities to be set within the business.
• Determines the business milestones.
• Or maybe even determine what the exit strategy is going to be.

Well, they are all critical elements and focus and need to be understood when writing your plan.

In my opinion, one critical element of writing your plan is in direct relation to how our brains work, your psychology. In 1979 a cohort of Harvard Business School students were studied in relation to setting goals. This well-known fable highlights that 3% of the students had clearly written goals, 13% had goals although not written down and 84% had no goals set. The story goes on to highlight the fact that 10 years later the 3% who had written their goals had accumulated 97% of the wealth of the entire cohort. On average, these students were worth 10 times as much as the remaining students.

As a business and executive coach, I find this story fascinating along with my experience and the 1000s of conversations I have had with business owners of businesses of all types and size. For many when they hear this story there is an understanding of the power of writing your goals out, although not truly understanding why. What’s important here is what happens when we write things down and it’s all about ‘words’. A key fact here is that we think in words. Essentially everything we do revolves around words, our language. Every image relates to a word or words, it’s what makes us conscious sentient beings. Our ability to think and visualise our future and articulate it with words.

Now the interesting focus here is the impact writing has on programming our brains. Being very conscious that the brain isn’t my area of speciality I’m going to explain this in simple terms. Ever wondered how you’re able to hear your name being mentioned in a crowded room when you’re’ deep in conversation with some else? It’s down to your subconscious. On average we only use about 5% of our brain day to day, our consciousness. 95% of your activity is subconscious, working away in the background.

Take reading this article, you’re not consciously moving your eyes to read, you’re not changing the focusing of your eyes consciously, in fact as you read you’re not consciously tapping into your thoughts, memories and learning to analyse and reference what is being said. In other words (excuse the pun) 95% of your functional activity is being controlled subconsciously. What’s that got to do with a business plan!?

Program Your Brain

Writing a business plan makes you assess, where you are and where you want to be, it makes you determine what needs to happen and when. As you write your plan it programs your brain. Maybe, like me, you may recall at school not understanding a particular subject and then when you focused on writing it down it all made sense. It engages your subconscious and starts to re-program it in tune with your vision, your plan. Here’s a really interesting part, tapping into your subconscious allows you to tune into opportunities, situations and moments which will directly influence your business and its direction each and every day. Be in no doubt the power of programming your subconscious through writing your plan can have a dramatic effect.

Essentially your plan will offer all the key elements a written plan should, just search the top 10 tips for a business plan and see how many versions there are of the importance of a written plan (feel free to check out my template). My focus today is to impact on all the fundamental reasons for writing a plan; programming your brain, tune into success, engage your subconsciousness to be working on the business plan in the background.

If I were to offer further emphasis on planning it’s then once you have your business plan written it’s the process of chunking down and focusing on additional and specific programming.

• Have a written goal sheet for the next 12 months, what specifically are you aiming to achieve in the next 12 months.
• Then focus on the next quarter, write down what needs to happen in the next 13 weeks, the next quarter, what are the weekly achievements?
• Then what are my goals this week and write them down.
• Finally seek always to plan tomorrow today, write your daily list of what you will achieve tomorrow at the end of today.

Now if this collection of words has resonated with you then it’s time to get into action, write your business plan, determine where you want to go and how you’re going to get there, what are your goals? Go beyond merely liking this article do something and start to program your brain and set yourself up for a successful future. You can learn from yesterday, you can influence tomorrow with a written plan. What does your future look like?

Now that’s worth thinking about.

Join us for the next Quarterly Business Planning and make a start.