Is it in your HEAD?

It’s comprehensive, has depth, challenging and is going to get me to where I want to be in business, isn’t that good news? NO, because for the vast majority of business owners who have a plan it resides in their head, which isn’t so great when you dig a little deeper. You’re the only one who understands it, comprehends it, believes it can work and worst of all it only ever has the desired impact if you can remember it. Coming from a military background I truly understand the critical importance of planning and having a plan of action. Now, although the two are different they are extremely complementary of each other.

Planning is critical to success

Planning isn’t just about going from A to B, it’s more about the journey between the two points and what’s going to need to happen to get there. We had a saying in the Army ‘No plan survives contact with the enemy’. Now that’s very true and probably translates into the business context today that no plan survives contact with the customer (Not referring to the customer being the enemy by the way). What it essentially means is that whilst the plan may not offer a seamless journey to the destination, it’s the planning that has the impact. Going through the process of planning will force you (or should) to review the ‘what ifs’.

What if?

‘What if’ is a very powerful question in planning because it forces you to take a look at alternate outcomes, situations and scenarios. To assist in planning there are 3 elements to the ‘what if’ question.

  1. What if the worst-case situation/outcome arises from the …..
  2. What if the best-case situation/outcome arises from the …..
  3. What if the most likely situation/outcome arises from the …..

The mere fact you pose these questions means you’ll almost certainly have to establish the various outcomes. The point here is to then ask the question ‘what I can live with?’ In other words, the worst outcome may be an option you can handle within the business or it may not be in which case you would plan accordingly. Now the reality of then confronting the situation or outcome means you’ll be prepared for the best and worst case. Through planning, you’ll have prepared yourself both in the plan of action and through the planning process be tuned in and aware of ‘what if’.

The Plan

Through the process of planning, there is a natural route to establishing a plan. Now there will be many variants when it comes to putting the plan in place, from a simple flow chart of activity to having planning software aligned with actionable outputs. The point here is the plan doesn’t reside in your head it absolutely needs to be written and published.  Having a written plan offers many benefits most significantly there is a high level of ownership for you the business owner. Ownership of what you aim to achieve, ownership of what needs to be actioned, ownership of ensuring the team are equipped and briefed on the part they play and ownership in regards to getting there.

Putting a business plan together doesn’t need to be hard, it doesn’t need to be seen as complex and it certainly shouldn’t be a short cut. Setting your business plan out whether it’s a comprehensive 5-year plan, 12 month focus or your 90-day quarterly plan you’ll benefit in a multitude of areas throughout the business:

  1. You set the course and are able to stay on it. Having a clear focus on the short, medium and long term destination is a clear way to encourage growth and maintain resilience in getting there.
  2. The business objectives and goals are clear to all.
  3. Even when things don’t go to plan, through the planning process you will have likely encountered the scenario so it will be an educated and informed decision in regards to the next course of action.
  4.  Having clear timelines, priorities and predetermined decision points.
  5. Clearly set out milestones along the way.
  6. Your plan will also ensure you have far greater financial control measures in place and budgeted forecasts.
  7. Management and delegation within the team will vastly improve and along with it employee engagement.

So if you are currently reading this article and your plan resides in your head ask yourself just how achievable it is, how much detail does it have, how transparent is it to the team and how likely are you to achieve it? A great way to get started with business planning would be to start with a 90-day plan. Just take some time out to determine what you aim to achieve in the next quarter, write it down and go for that. Or maybe you’d like to go for the full business plan, in which case the following business planning template might be of value and you’re most welcome to download it here.

So if you like the vast majority of business owners have a plan in your head it’s time to get it out.

Now there’s a challenging thought!