Given we are in November, I thought it a great time to look at what planning we, as business people, will be undertaking over the next month or so to get ready for 2010.
Are you going to do any planning? Do you take time out from your ‘day to day’ tasks to review your business at all? If not, WHY NOT?
Planning is key to business success! The one phenomenon I have observed in my business (and techie) career is that when we don’t take time out to look ahead and actually see where we’ve pointed our ship, we will often find a iceberg to hit.
I know that the term Strategic Planning can seem scary – but really, all it means is to develop a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal.
Long term goal setting can be challenging to most because the ‘big’ goals are overwhelming and it’s hard to ‘see’ and many people set ‘long term’ goals and leave it at that…. and then wonder how they are going to make that $1million in 5 years!
The thing is that long term goals are GREAT! They keep us thinking of the ‘bigger picture’ but we really need to be setting shorter term goals based on these bigger goals. Break our goals down into smaller, more achievable ones – Yearly, Quarterly and Monthly and then use the monthly goals to create daily and weekly work plans.
I have no end of trouble trying to forecast where I want to be in 2 years – I’m so used to how quickly the world changes that I know that what I choose today will, most likely, be out of date. Instead, I choose to have an intention – based on my spiritual and emotional needs – and then look at what I need to do in my business and personal life to support that intention.
So, let’s say I want to earn $600k in the next 2 years to become debt free. I could say that I need to earn $300k in clear profit each year – but I find that utterly overwhelming. Instead, I choose to say that I want to earn $5,000 a month and based on what I am doing, develop ‘something’ that will generate me ongoing, residual income.
I know that focussing on the overall goal of becoming debt free, a ‘minimum’ earn each month and a focus on creating something that will keep on earning for me will keep me heading in the right direction.
I KNOW the numbers don’t stack up! I KNOW that all of my goals aren’t specific! What it does do though, is allow me to set my work plan each day and each week to move closer to my goals.
At the end of each month, I sit down (with my wonderful Husband) and review my activities in my business and ask myself how these are helping me achieve my larger goal.
I have to say that some months I may pull in more than $5000 a month but on reflection, the work isn’t helping me reach my bigger goal – it’s short term and instant gratification stuff. I then need to consider, in the cold light of day, how each opportunity fits in to my ‘master plan’ and, sometimes I do ‘turn away’ opportunity – because it doesn’t fit with my longer term game plan.
Now, I know this sounds wishy washy and not inline with many of the Guru recommendations, but for me, it works.
I urge you, give it a go – what do you need to be doing today in your business to meet your own emotional and spiritual needs and wants for the next 2 to 5 years? Share your thoughts below….
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