Business plans...traditional or 1 page?

Got to thinking last night. _______ enter punch line here...haha

The traditional way of doing business has always been done a certain way.

Do this and you will achieve that. Do this enough times and this will follow....

But is a traditional approach one that still works in today's world?

Absolutely it does! But here are my thoughts on why a business plan needs to be one page long and not a traditional 10 page with every detail scrutinized to the nth degree.

We have no business plan.
We have no spreadsheet with five years of projected earnings.

There are two reasons in my book on why...

Most plans never come to fruition for varying reasons, and five-year sales projections are about as accurate as a poll for political purposes.

What you need in today's changing landscape is flexibility. You need to be able to adjust and massage your plan on a daily, weekly and yearly basis.

Its like the experts who say rates are going this way...or we've hit rock bottom. There is no true way to know these things until we have gone the other way and there are statistics to show where rock bottom truly is. In other words, an expert is hedging his bets on past experiences and applying it to today's world.

You need to build a plan like the following...

Start with  a forecast of what you believe sales will be over the next 100 days, and the next 12 months.

Beyond that it’s a wild guess at best and like I mentioned earlier...you need to be able to adjust and massage!!!!

The reason I suggest this way is it ensures that the short-term is intense and focused and your effort has a deadline.

In the meantime I just saved you 100 hours of work

Not to mention probably a huge consulting fee (charged by people who use a cookie-cutter to write these things up anyways), and the agony or defeatism caused by not being able to hit the plan anyways.

If your Manager or Boss insists on a business plan try something like this…

Go onto Google...
Download a generic plan...
fill in the details...
Place your name at the top and submit....

In my opinion and experience it won't get read through anyways...

What you are truly selling is yourself and your approach!

To sum up what Jeffrey Gitomer has suggested in the past...

Fill up a van with your Banker, your boss and anyone else who would be involved in the decision.
Take them on a trip to visit your 5 best customers.
Film the entire trip.
When you visit each customer, ask them questions...
Find out why they love you, talk to their CEO, tell them what your game plan is for the next 12 months – maybe have it prearranged so that they give you an order right on the spot – thank them for their business, their support, and their loyalty, and then go to the next customer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIRmFr_ctEA&feature=player_embedded

There is a link to one of Jeffrey's videos on writing a business plan that will echo my thoughts as well.
This guy is a genius !!!

To sum it all up....

Keep it simple stupid like my dad used to say all the time.
Keep it up to date and massage it every couple weeks.
Track the important statistics so you can make the adjustments.
Have an accountability partner to help with hitting the goals ( A topic for another blog ).
And be true to yourself and honest with the results and predictions.

The bottom line is this....

there is a saying and I am not sure who came up with it...but it goes like this:

"Those who do not have written goals and targets aim for nothing....and they hit is with amazing accuracy."

Lets not be that person.

Hope you enjoyed today's article....

Until next time, check out my website at www.kevynoyhenart.ca for continuing updates and information on anything to do with your home and mortgage.

Kevyn