There are 2 kinds of plans. Actually there are any more than 2, but I am only talking about 2. 1 is a financial plan and the other is an action plan.
I see many people putting together plans that are great to look at but have no reality in them. These tend to be the financial plans. They are put together to accommodate growths in business to appease an accountant or banker that holds their line of credit. The problem is, these plans show how money coming in will be going out, BUT they don’t show the how in all of it being done. I can write a plan that shows growth of my business from 1 to 10 million over 12 months. It’s easy, just spread the proposed sales out over the 12 months. You can do the numbers or you can’t, the plan has nothing to do with reality. Its an abstract thrown together to give a sense of direction.
The crucial plan for every business is the action plan. This is where you break down everything it will take to hit the financial goals over a timeline. This is where you really analyze your business and bring practicality to the conversation.
I like financial plans based in reality. I hate financial plans that are wishes and wants that have no shred of reality in them.
If I set the goal for the day to be 10k, how am I going to achieve it? Do I write 10k on the spreadsheet and wait to see what happens? No, I put together a breakdown of the day and figure out who I have to do what in order to achieve the established goal. This is how a real successful business works. Wishing and waiting is the road to the graveyard for your business.
Every number you put down has to be connected to actions. Your business has been trending up for the past few years, why? Identify all the facts that add up to growth and learn from them to ensure future growth. If you are predicting an upswing but your business has been on a long term downward spiral, why would you predict the upswing? Did you identify th key components that are causing the losses? Did you create a real plan for growth that you invested time, money, and people into?
It is easy to say what we want but it is a little more complicated to actually make these things happen. Don’t just talk big numbers. Be the architect of a plan that will achieve everything you want or get somebody who can do this to do it for you.
Brian Wright