Do you have a plan for your business?

Business planning seems to be one of the biggest challenges for business owners. According to latest research from Vista Print over half of business owners have a ‘rough’ business plan, but with little detail and a further 13% have no plan at all. And 40% are unsure if they are going to hit their financial targets. This is where having a plan helps. But people seemed to be frightened of the process, or are perhaps unclear as to what they need to do.

Below I give some suggestions for simpler approaches and activities that may help focus you on what you want to achieve without having to write a full business plan that you are unlikely to use.

Write a calendar entry for 12 months from now.

Yes, you read that right, not today, but 12 months in the future. This is where you write about the year as if it has already happened. Talk about all the things you achieved, both professionally and personally. They can be big or small. Mine includes both professional and personal achievements. They need to be specific, so rather than using general statements like 'make more money, make it clear what the figure is, so you can see if you reached that goal.

The important thing is that when you read it back to yourself, it excites you. Imagine if you just had the year you’ve written about. If you think ‘wowzers’, you’ve got it right. If you think ‘meh’, go back and try again.

Then look at it several times during the year and highlight your achievements as they’ve happened. It’s amazing how many of them come to fruition.

And one final top tip is to handwrite it. Research has shown that the physical act of writing (as opposed to typing it into your laptop or tablet) anchors the thoughts and intentions much more concretely.

Name the year

I came across an article by Lauren Brazzle who talks about creating a tagline for what you want to achieve over the next year. It's typically three words. I can't find her questions any more, but I found Scott Dinsmore (Live your Legend) who poses 27 questions to ask yourself to dig deep into who you are and what you could achieve if you had no limits. Here are three that may help spark the three words:

• What do you want to be remembered for - what dent do you want to have put in the world?

• When was the last time you couldn't sleep because you were so excited about what you had to work on? What was it?

• If you could have or do anything, what would it be?
  

For the purpose of the next year, think about what it is you want to achieve - which ideally should be aspirational and inspirational. It helps you focus on the important things.

Now I'm in my 60s I'm working on what the next stage of my life looks like, but decided life was too short not to be doing things that filled me up, so I ended up with ‘Embrace life, fitness and fun’. Stage 1 has been to move to the seaside, something, I've wanted to do for many years. And I've started yoga classes in the village I've moved to. I'm still working on the 'fun' part!

Start, stop, continue

Write down three lists of things you want to stop doing, continue doing and start doing.

It is a good way to force you to reflect on last year and to bring only the good stuff into the next. Here are some examples:

• Stop doing all the work yourself or beating yourself up if you didn’t quite hit your targets.

• Continue delighting your customers or writing a blog each month.

• Start looking to outsource some admin tasks freeing you up to do more sales and marketing or reviewing your finances monthly rather than waiting until your accountant does your tax return six months after the end of the year.

Don’t hold back and be honest with yourself, particularly on the things you should try to stop doing.

And of course, the actual business plan…

I’m sorry to say there’s really no getting away with not doing this one. Without a documented and objective plan to include your sales and profit targets and exactly how you are going to achieve them, you are simply throwing your business to fate and hoping that things will be ok. Please don’t do this. And please don’t be overwhelmed with fear at the thought of doing it.

In my blog -'Can't business plan, won't business plan', I outline my easy six-step planning process