Failing to plan is planning to fail. We’ve heard this time and time again. Yet I see so many entrepreneurs continuing to make the mistake of failing to plan where they want their business to go. 

I’m not a big believer in big, thick, formal business plans unless you’re trying to raise some capital, or get a bank loan, or something to that effect. Most of those just collect dust on the shelf.

You need a nimble and easily accessible plan. 

And the plans that I help our clients design are those similar to say google maps where you plug your destination in, and then it will tell you the fastest way to get there. And then with constant checking in, you may need to reroute, and as you reroute, you still land at your destination and that’s what’s critically important. 

See, a plan will help you get super, super clear on where you want to go. It will help you get super clear on the milestones you need to hit along the way, and help you to unpack key projects that are going to help you execute and achieve those goals. 

But here’s the thing, most business owners will claim they don’t have the time to do this. 

Well, if you don’t have the time to plan out what’s going on in your business, what are you spending your time doing? 

You’re probably spending your time doing all the little things that don’t make the boat go faster. 

I remember this story that was told to me about the British rowing team back in the mid 2000s. And they’d set a target to win the gold medal at the London Olympics. And they were brainstorming all the different things that they could do and implement to win the gold, and the head coach put a filter over everything that they came up with and he asked one critical question. 

Does it make the boat go faster? 

And when you plan through that lens, when you plan your year, your quarter, your month, your week, your day, and you ask yourself, does it make the boat go faster? You’ll find that two thirds of what you’re doing right now, you won’t do any more, you’ll either eliminate, automate or delegate it. And then you will be focusing on the key things on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis to help you achieve and exceed your goals. 

Sounds really simple, right? it just takes a little time and a little bit of structure and it is simple. All you need is a simple plan that can be accessed by everybody in your team. That makes it very clear what everyone (including yourself) needs to be doing and when everyone needs to be doing it so that goals can be achieved. 

Now is it a guarantee that you’re going to achieve your goals? No. But it is going to help you clear all of the crap off the table that you’re currently doing and your team’s doing so that you can get into the key actions that are going to make the boat go faster? Absolutely. 

Without a clear target, a clear goal, you don’t know what actions to take. And if you don’t know what actions to take, then what you’re going to do is be busy being busy. 

If you’d like a bit of help with this, please feel free to reach out because we’re happy to help. We just spent four hours with all of our clients online, doing this exact process and we’ve got a recording. 

Just get in touch and say “Plan” and we will get it over to you.