There’s a High Cost to Winging Your Small Business Planning

Small Business Owners Fail to Do Any Small Business Planning

Smal Business Planning Made Simple

As a small business and marketing consultant one of the biggest mistakes I see is business owners failing to do any meaningful business planning.

Over the last several years I have personally consulted with and coached hundreds of small business owners located worldwide. I love working with our clients. They are for the most part very successful, dynamic, motivated, willing to invest and be coached, and last but least, most are completely stressed out by their businesses when we first meet them.

Why the stress? Most of the time it’s simply a matter of being overwhelmed by the current circumstances of the business. Sometimes it’s a people issue. Other times it’s technology. Or sales people not performing as planned. Worse yet, taking the owner hostage of the business! (Yes, this happens. And it’s not pretty.)

When I start getting to know new clients we ask lots of nosy questions. We want to know what your goals are. We want to review your biggest concerns, obstacles and challenges. We want to understand what’s working well with business. We want to co-develop a plan for you that makes sense. And we will definitely hold you accountable.

What I learn most of the time, very early in the relationship, is that the underlying source of most stress related to starting, funding, marketing and growing a successful small business is NOT HAVING A PLAN in place.

Small Business Planning Made Simple

We have recently enhanced the WealthNet Partners planning tools and resources for small business owners. In my soon to be released book with Deepak Chopra and Ken Blanchard, Roadmap to Success, I address a very simple and dynamic way to integrate small business planning.

The ultimate outcome for this level of planning is you transform your business and your life. Look, we all work our butts off doing what we do in business. Most of us have everything we can afford to invest invested in the business. We work long days. We deal with lots of stuff. And for all the blood and sweat we expend, doesn’t it make sense to have a business plan that will actually work for you?

Small business planning, the real deal as we see it, has nothing to do with a traditional business plan that a business owner might need to raise bank or investor money. Those things can be expensive, boilerplate, and too long let alone meaningless for the average investor or banker to read.

The Purposeful Business Plan and Mastermind Program

Small business planning should have a specific purpose. Ultimately, to grow your business and eventually your financial and life goals.

That’s why I named our new program, supported by a new workshop series so to be announced (oops, just announced an announcement.) The design of our new planning and mastermind program integrates in a single document, one that is reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis, a living, breathing document or roadmap to grow your business.

The purpose of the program, both the planning and the Mastermind work you do with other business owners, is to get you completely focused to improve and grow your business in line with clearly defined intentions, goals, action steps and accountability for the team of people helping you to succeed.

We focus a lot of our time on you as the owner. We want you to understand that your attitude, your thinking, your actions, how you show up when "on the job" has a huge impact on your company’s success. But have you ever seen a business plan that addresses the fundamental aspects of succeeding in life and business? I haven’t. Which is why we’ve decided to take a bold step with small business planning and teach you how to be a better you!

Better You. Better Team. Better Business.

No, I’m not talking about the Better Business Bureau here. I am talking about doing the essential work to improve your business and life in the following areas.

• Your energy.
• Your ability to lead and manage people on your team, clients, etc.
• Your ability to attract what you want in business and life.

Work on yourself and watch the results happen in your business. But in order to do this you need a system. You need tools. You need education. You need support from other people just like you who put it all on the line to be in business.

The Seven Pillars of Profit

There is never a time in business where your issues are related to only one aspect of your business. Your business has what we call The Seven Pillars of Profit. Either you or someone on your team, through your small business planning work, must ensure that whomever is responsible for their work as part of the plan better be able to execute in each of the following disciplines.

1. Small business planning. Somebody’s got to lead this initiative if not you.Marketing, online and off. If you’re not successful online you are missing the boat.
2. Sales. You must constantly coach and develop your sales team. And recruit so you’re never caught off guard.
3. Technology. Systems must support your business. They must be affordable for you. And they must be integrated through proper planning.
4. Finance. Yes, keeping score matters. If profits are trending, planning should be a number one priority.
5. Human capital. People, contract of employees, customers, vendors, suppliers. No planning here is disastrous.
6. Leadership development. The only way to scale a business is with proper systems and people. This requires GREAT leadership. Lousy leadership leads to lousy results.

So the bottom line here ladies and gentlemen is that there is a very high cost to winging it with small business planning.

What is your experience with small business planning? We always appreciate your comments here on the WealthNet Partners blog.