Planning & Execution
Have you ever heard the quote, “Failing to plan is planning to fail?” I’m sure you have and thought, that’s fine, but I don’t need to plan for my business because I’m not that big of a company. But, are you really willing to take a huge risk and gamble on your dreams, not to mention livelihood?
Here are a couple of statistics from the Small Business Association. Eighty-five percent of small businesses close their doors after just one year. Let’s personalize that number – that’s almost 9 out of 10 owners who had big dreams, probably leveraged their life savings, and maybe even put their family’s future at risk. They all had to walk away. That’s retail based, manufacturing, service companies – the industry doesn’t matter – the bottom line is that it’s a huge gamble to start a business.
You may be thinking, ‘Wahoo! I’ve made it longer than that and I’m still here,’ and for that, we definitely applaud you. You have defied the odds. But unfortunately, if you happen to make it to year five and think you’re totally safe, the truth is that only half who celebrate their five year anniversary will make it. And, by year ten, almost 40% will close their doors – not sell the business, not sail away into retirement, but close the doors, even after all that time and hard work.
I think we can probably all agree – those are gut-wrenching statistics.
So, if that’s the case, how do companies defy the odds and not only keep their doors open, but thrive and prosper? How do they make more money, have less employee turnover, and enjoy life more?
It’s simple: they know how to strategize a plan and put it into action.
Even over the past several years with the economy struggling, some companies have continued to flourish because they’ve been able to reap major benefits from planning. Here’s what the most successful companies know…
- Good, solid planning practices, allow everyone on the team the opportunity to work together toward a common goal, creating incredibly engaged teams.
- When you have written plans, you have clear expectations that make accountability far easier. So more gets done in a timely manner.
- Planning gives companies the opportunity to review what works and what doesn’t allowing them to take advantage of wins and recover faster from challenges.
So in the end these efforts, allow companies to enjoy significantly higher revenues and profits, more engaged teams, and owners who enjoy their role as leader far more than their counter parts.
But, if planning returns those kinds of results, why don’t more owners do it. Here’s what we found.
Many haven’t uncovered an easy to use format for planning, so it just seems too complicated and cumbersome. In other words, they don’t have the experience needed or the time to figure it out.
Some are nervous to set goals because they’re afraid of how they’ll look if they don’t achieve them. They’re unsure about how to create a plan that’s motivational, yet realistic, and mistakenly think it has to be perfect in order to work.
But the number one reason owners don’t consistently plan is that they never figure out how to keep the momentum going. They are initially enthusiastic and see potential, but then get busy and it fizzles out. They abandon the idea, not knowing how to simply keep the plan in motion.
So, if it makes such a difference in other companies, you might be asking, how can I make it work in my company? What would I need to do to put a plan together? Does my management team have the skills it would take to both create and execute a plan? What would my involvement need to be?
If you want to know where your strengths and challenges are with regards to planning, we invite you to take advantage of our simple and free diagnostic tool that addresses just this subject.
To get access, simply fill out the form on this page and we’ll send it right to you. When you’re finished, we’ll share your scores along with helpful tips on how you can apply what you’ve learned right away to create a plan and reap the many benefits we’ve talked about.
Of course if you have any questions or would like to dive deeper into a conversation about planning and execution, I encourage you to reach out to us today with a call or email because this is the stuff that we help our clients with all the time.
I also want to point out that we have two other educational videos in areas we are particularly good at that include:
So, be sure to check out those videos as well.