Success Tip: Planning for Success

Every homepreneur’s business needs a game plan, a map, Success Chart for long term success. I map out a general idea of what I want to do 3-5 years ahead of time, which is usually pretty difficult for the standard entrepreneur to do. When it comes to planning, 6 months to a year out is where I really get into the details and scheduling launches, speaking engagements, etc.

Creating this kind of business plan is so important for one main reason, it immediately eliminates a lot of the frustration that you can begin to feel when your business takes off and it will help you:

1. Have a Vision for Success to assist you during challenging times
2. Your visual map shows you where you are at, where you are going
3. You have your action steps all laid out for you, no second guessing

Have you ever had a ton of ideas swimming around in your head but didn’t know what to do with them? Or, perhaps you had too many programs, none that linked to the other, no strategy? Or, have you ever just randomly put together a bunch of products and just threw them up against the wall like spaghetti to see if they would stick with your customers?

Today I’d like to share with you some very simple steps to business planning success so that you can start planning 6 months to a year in advance:

1. Create a clear Vision Statement on where you want to be at in 6 months
2. Brainstorm your top 3 ideas for products and ask your clients which they would like
3. Take your Vision Statement and chunk it down into mini action steps and put them on your calendar
4. Each product should flow into the next, meaning when you create one product launch, roll right into the next one.
5. Always be planting the seed for what is to come.
6. Always have a marketing funnel, or what we call the reverse marketing pyramid. We do it backwards . . . your top ROI product/service goes on top!

Tagged As: Business, Business plan, Consulting, Customer, Marketing and Advertising, Small Business, Strategic Management, Strategic planning