excerpt from Strategic Planning For The Small Business by Craig S. Rice

Books jump into my hands at the right time.  While cruising the books for sale shelf at the local library, the above book jumped into my hands.  Best value for 25cents.  I also bought a book of poetry to send to two songwriters who are getting married tomorrow.  But back to business. 

Life is a business you know.  Each of us is our product that we sell.  We sell our time we sell our skills.  Some of you are songwriters and sell your songs, your performances, your art.  So it is good to have a plan of what you want to get in return, when you’d like to get it and how you will get it.  Here’s the excerpt:

“You may be wondering, “What does a business plan do for me?”  You are asking a sensible question that deserves an answer.  You get six strong benefits.

First - A plan favorable impresses your key people.  Your investors, owners, bankers, and employees often will say, “I like a person who has a good plan worked out!”  Investors are more willing to put in funds - and employees will invest more of their time, effort, and enthusiasm.  Programs motivate, and a person with a careful plan often has a certain attraction and influence.

Second - A plan increases your income.  Famous consultant Peter Drucker says, “What gets planned, gets done.”  So if you build a good, sensible program for increasing your sales and profits, you have a much better chance that those profits will come to you than you would if you had no such plan.

Third - A plan saves you time, work, and stress - and that’s not all bad.  You avoid wasted action, mistakes, and lost money.  The plan spreads and delegates the load.  (Why should you do it all?)  Plus, a plan anticipates problems and turns them into advantages before they hit you.  So it cuts your stress.  Good planners get more fun out of life.

Fourth - A plan applies your strengths, skills, abilities, interests.  Everyone and every company has talents.  Yet these are sometimes unrecognized, unappreciated, and under-employed, even though these very things are the activities that people most enjoy doing, and often will generate the most results per day or week.  A good plan helps find those valuable resources and applies them in contructive ways - like making money.

Fifth - A plan gives you a track to run on.  A railroad train, racing car, or running athlete moves better, more efficiently, more effectively, when on a track.  All can see where they are, where they are going, and the direction they want to take.  And a track is usually smoother than fields, streams, and woods.  Your route is well laid out.  Now you can concentrate on your own progress, speed, excelling over competitors and winning, rather than getting past every aggravating puddle, rock, and rut in the road.

Sixth - A plan sets priorities.  This can be very important and mighty handy in these days of limited resources and modest budgets.  We simply can’t afford to do everything.  Some things must be postponed.

But other projects are essential.  And even among these preferred projects, not everything can be done at once.  With a plan, you know what to do first and what’s coming next.  It not only saves you from unpleasant surprises, but lets you focus all your skill on each step, so you are more likely to succeed.  And by taking things one at a time, not in one horrendous load, your stress factor is much lower.  Life is hard, by the yard - but life’s a cinch, by the inch.”

He goes on to give “… one of the best and easiest kinds of plans …” which has only four steps.  I’ll post that next week.  Here’s to good planning!!!  Cheers+