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“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson
Conventional wisdom says that business plans are worthless.
I rarely agree with conventional wisdom, but this one is 100% true.
And yet, planning is key to your success as an entrepreneur.
Plans are static things, a snapshot in time, quickly outdated and fading in relevance as soon as they are “done.”
Planning is an ongoing process, a mindset, and a habit that can transform you into a successful leader.
A plan is an outfit you wear once to look fantastic in the pictures. Planning is hitting the gym to build the muscles and confidence to look and feel fantastic, no matter what you wear.
A plan gives the illusion of perfection. Planning recognizes that we all live in the real world, not a fantasy.
Plans might be sexier in the moment, but planning puts you on track for greater success – in 10 weeks, 10 months, and 10 years.
And that’s what entrepreneurs need most.
Because while all the data shows that businesses with a documented plan grow faster and live longer, only about a third of businesses have something written down.
So while it’s highly likely that you know you should be planning, chances are good that you haven’t done it.
Having reviewed hundreds of business plans and built plenty for myself and my clients, I’ve heard lots of excuses for not planning. They range from not knowing what form the plan should take, to confusion over what to put in the plan, to faulty assumptions.
But here’s the reality:
Most entrepreneurs are not born planners.
They are talented, committed visionaries. They see a future that needs to exist, and they want to make it happen – today.
So giving them templates, tutorials and directives to “have a plan!” isn’t helpful. In fact, that just adds to their tendency to stall out.
Early-stage entrepreneurs in particular need programs that help them infuse planning into their growing entrepreneurial DNA: regularly setting goals, exploring different paths to those goals, and tracking their progress. They also need time and support to discover and nurture their own unique planning process.
They need to see how a dynamic, ongoing process of analysis, insight and reflection – planning – is essential to bringing their big vision to life.
Every entrepreneur deserves to control their own destiny. The best way to do that is to get in touch with reality, accept it, and then map a path toward the world they are working to create.
This is planning – in action.
And I want to make planning work for entrepreneurs like you, so that you can turn your vision for a better future into reality.
I’ve developed a framework that clients tell me makes it easier to build integrated strategic, operational and financial plans that they believe in and can take action on.
Here are a few ideas to work with during your regularly scheduled business planning time, which will put you far ahead of a one-time effort to create a “business plan.”
(Or, if you would prefer to use a tool to make ongoing planning significantly easier, I recommend you check out fricinplan.com, an online platform that helps you own your numbers and decisions so you can grow – and fund – your business the way you want to.
Fric’s step-by-step operational approach makes it easy to explore various paths to profitability and success so you can pick the one that fits you best. Unlike other solutions, Fric connects the dots between assumptions, actions, and results.)
Whether you use an online service, excel spreadsheet, or paper and pen:
1. Shift your thinking from “making a plan” to “planning as a practice.” A great plan is one that helps you know what to do next, so you need to develop a practice that fits you and your business.
2. Shorten your time horizon by focusing on a specific milestone you want to achieve by this time next year. This helps you gain clarity about what truly needs to be done, rather than adhering to conventional wisdom about all the things you “should” do.
3. Reject the idea that planning is about finding more things to be done. Knowing what you should STOP doing is more valuable than one more item on a never-ending to-do list.
4. See your plan as a working document instead of a finished product. You don’t need to have all the answers, you just need a place to start and a way to measure what worked and what didn’t.
5. Trust your gut and don’t lie to yourself. You won’t do something unless it reflects your own instincts about your industry, your customers and your impact.
6. Planning is a verb, so be sure your assumptions are actionable. Doubling revenues looks great on a graph, but if you don’t have a clue how to do it, it’s a dream not a goal. Use your planning to identify concrete steps you can take now and what needs more data before you can take action.
I believe every entrepreneur deserves access to skills and tools that make it easy to share your vision, identify what’s working and what isn’t and continually build your conviction that you’re on the right path.
Planning is the foundational skill that makes this possible, and when paired with the right tools, dramatically increases your chances for success.
Don’t let the pressure to produce a fully formed, perfect plan stall you.
Just get started on the -ing.
Your turn…
❓Do you create space for regular planning as a non-judgmental practice or do you tend to put pressure on yourself to always “have a plan?”
❓What one thing that stops you from planning?
❓When you are in planning mode, are there feelings, ideas, or thoughts that come up that slow you down?
❓If you could get an expert’s help to improve your planning, what would you most want to know?
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