“If you don’t design your own plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” ~ Jim Rohn
In business, whether you’re creating a bricks and mortar products and services company or you’re building your empire online, its vital you have a plan. Without a plan you can’t focus on the actions you need to take to produce the results you’re after. No plan – no clarity – no results. Sound like a winning business formula?
Now you may have a business plan that states everything you want the business to do and looks at some of the different ways you’ll achieve it but is that the only plan you have? Do you have one for how you’ll attract clients for example? Do you have a plan for your website? For your online brand development? Do you have any plans?
When you’re an entrepreneur, planing is your best friend. It gives you structure which in turn give you a laser sharp focus to move forward with.
To show you a little easier how having a plan can give you structure, I’ve borrow David Allen’s GTD theory for finding your life’s purpose but I’ve tweaked it a little here. Allen calls it the Horizon of Focus model and it works by outlining the need at each level starting from way up in the sky (the overall purpose) to the runway (where the action takes place). For this example let’s call it the “make it f*****g happen” plan.
The Make It F*****g Happen Plan
50,000ft – Purpose
Your purpose for whatever plan you’re creating is the reason you’re embarking on the plan in the first place. For example if you’re wanting to have a powerful online brand that has 1,000,000 twitter followers than that is your purpose. Its doesn’t need to be a lengthy statement, it just need to detail your purpose.
40,000ft – Vision
The next level down is the vision you have for how that purpose above will look and feel. What will it look like when it’s finished and achieved? The more detail you can make the vision, the more you’ll want to achieve it.
30,000ft – Goals and objectives
What are the goals and objectives needed to make the vision a reality? What do you need to accomplish in the next month, year and 2 years to make it happen? To start with, if you’re unsure, go for a short, medium and long term goal with some objectives of what needs to happen.
20,000ft – Strategies
At this level we’re getting to the nuts and bolts of the plan where lots of the work will be done. Having all of the above levels in place is great but you need to have the tools and strategies to make it happen. What do you need to do to make your short term goal happen? Do you need to change that website? Meet 5 clients a week? Sell x number of product A? How will you make it happen?
10,000ft – Projects
This is a bit of an interim level where you can create little projects that help you complete your strategies that allow you to achieve your goals.
Runway – Next actions
Right here we go. What’s the next step? Is there an action that you can take next to get the ball rolling? It doesn’t need to be a massive action. It could be as simple as doing this thing or calling that person who could help. Whatever you can do to start is the right action here.
“If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.” ~ Jim Rohn
Use the “Make it F*****g Happen” plan to set out the structure in your business that will let you achieve great things. Tinker with it and make it fit you and your business but whatever you do, make sure you have plans in place for how you’re going to grow your business and develop it.
Hey Ben, I love this. It’s brilliant how it takes stuff from the ideas level and brings it right into action. I also really like how it starts with purpose. That, for me, is what gives everything meaning.
Interestingly, I’m just back from an extended coffee shop review of my business goals and have pretty much run through this process. What I’ve missed out on is a review of purpose. I need to double-back on myself and cement my planning in that. Thanks for the reminder!
If there’s one thing I’d add to the process here, it’s creating a list of critical milestones. These are the indicators that you’ll see being achieved that let you know your plan is heading in the right direction. It’s such fun ticking them off when you’ve reached them. Then you need to set some new ones for the next horizon again.
Thanks for another kick-ass post!
Thanks Christine. I’m glad you liked it.
Milestones or stepping stones, as I call them, are really important. I suppose they’d go in the runway level or maybe at the strategy level. What do you think?
Glad to hear you’re keeping up with the coffee morning routine.
Yeah, probably at strategy level, Ben.
And I can’t tell you how valuable the coffee morning routine is for keeping in the flow of what’s going on and how it’s happening!
Thanks for the conversation
Ben, I think this is very solid advice for most people, but I think it’s a tad dangerous to say “No plan – no clarity – no results”
I’ve never had a ‘real’ plan for my business, in fact I’ve never had a plan for any of my 3 previous businesses and 2 were successful and i just about broke even. Actually, that’s not technically true I did dream up a plan for the bank once, but it immediately got binned when we got the money.
I also have no ‘real’ goals other than the 1,000,000 giveaway and I’ve never written a to-do list in my life.
What I’m saying is I find structure like this suffocating, even though I know and appreciate it’s value for *most* people.
I feel sure I could grow my business quicker with a strict plan, but I’d also enjoy my days a lot less.
In other words, I’m skinning my cat in a slightly different way mate
I’ve never been associated with anything dangerous before Tim
I think for most entrepreneurs starting out and in the early days, a plan is important. It won’t work for everyone I know that but for the majority it’s useful.
We’re so conditioned in to a life of structure that when we step in to something new we need a plan to help us move forward.
There’s plenty of ways to skin a cat that’s very true – but what I want to know is what the cat did to you to deserve skinning
Great to see you here Tim
Touche on my crap use of language mate!
I have two dogs and I’d feel like I was being a traitor if I didn’t skin the occasional cat.
Great stuff here,
Far too many people don’t have a plan in place for anything they do, including their own life. I’m admittedly at fault for that one also.
Ok. Today I will create my plan for my life and my blog. There, now that I have said it on here (though not on paper yet) it’s in front of the whole world (kinda) and my name is on it. Now I HAVE to do it.
Awesome advice.
Take care.
Hey thanks for dropping by Eric
Give me a shout if you want any help with your plan buddy
This works on so many levels not only for business but personal issues and developement, I truly believe if you don’t set goals which in fact are the same as a plan you will not succeed. thanks for sharing.
Thanks B. Planning makes a big difference to a lot of people. Hope this helped you
Hey Ben.
Yet another good read from you today. And a kick in the virtual arse…Once I get the first set of plug-ins going on my new site, I shall have to sit down and plan it out to see if that does make it easier for me. I’ve always been a seater as Dave Doolin calls it, but I am interested to see if going more structured will help my focus
Great step by step, Now to just sit down and follow it
Thanks Jen
Hope I didnt kick too hard.
Trying new things to see if they’re helpful is always helpful