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Believing The Plan
Written by: Alvah ParkerArticle Overview: Mary had a delivery service business. Her idea was to market to senior citizens who couldn’t get out every day. She came to me as a SCORE counselor because her business was struggling and she thought she needed marketing help. She had been marketing to seniors for more than a year and was frustrated by her results. She hoped I would have the silver bullet that would change everything
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Believing The Plan
Mary had a delivery service business. Her idea was to market to senior citizens who couldn’t get out every day. She came to me as a SCORE counselor because her business was struggling and she thought she needed marketing help. She had been marketing to seniors for more than a year and was frustrated by her results. She hoped I would have the silver bullet that would change everything.
My first question to Mary was had she written a business plan. I wanted to see her marketing plan and forecast of sales. Mary told me she had written one before she started but she said she “just didn’t believe it.” A business counselor had worked on the cash flow section with her but the forecast was much more optimistic than she really believed possible.
It always astonishes me that people go into business with a business plan that seems impossible to them. If the business owner doesn’t believe it then who will? Not believing your own plan should be a red flag to the entrepreneur to go back to the drawing board.
The owner may need to redefine their market or update their idea to something that will generate the business the owner needs. It may take more market research (What does the market want? How much is the target market willing to pay?) It may take a more robust marketing plan in order to reach the numbers the entrepreneur needs to get the sales flowing. It may also take more money to fund the necessary marketing or support equipment or services.
Sometimes the entrepreneur just needs more confidence in his/her own ability to get the work. In that case it may be that the entrepreneur needs to work in someone else’s business first to see how it is done and gain that confidence.
Another tact that an owner might take would be to make a minimal investment in the business to get it going and find other work for self-support while he/she experimented with the business-a pilot or beta of sorts. This in effect would be real time market research.
As much as Mary didn’t want to hear it she really needed to rethink her business plan. She had already decided her target market wouldn’t pay for her services in enough quantity to support her. Now the task was to decide what her new target market would be and what her offering looked like.
Mary needed a new vision for her business and she needed it to be clear and compelling. It is the vision of the business that motivates the owner to do some things that perhaps the owner would ordinarily find tedious or even a bit scary. The very first part of a business plan is called the Business Description and it is here that the vision belongs.
Recently a participant in my teleclass “Taking the Mystery Out of Business Plan Writing” talked about a creative way she had for writing her business plan. She was taking magazine pictures and drawings to illustrate her plan. Her plan became more alive and exciting to her. A vision needs to draw you to it. One possible way to make it that way is with pictures and illustrations.
Writing a business plan calls on the logical, analytical, and rational part of people. Scientists tell us this is an activity done by left side of the brain (logical, analytical, rational). It doesn’t have much appeal to people who prefer to use the right side of their brain (intuitive, creative, holistic). The entrepreneur needs to have the ability to access both parts of the brain for different tasks. A client who is very creative and loves being in that mode told me recently, “ Sometimes it is necessary for me to get very left brained so I can get some work done.” If you resist the idea of business plan writing but know you want to write one, try finding your own special way of getting it done-but do get it done!
Take Action
Learn more about left-right brain at this website: http://www.funderstanding.com/right_left_brain.cfm
Not sure which side of your brain dominates your behavior? Try this assessment:
http://www.mtsu.edu/~devstud/advisor/hemispheric_dominance.html
What is your vision of your own business or your ideal job? Spend an hour writing down what it looks like and feels like. Get creative. Make is feel real! See it in your mind's eye.
Join my Taking the Mystery Out of Business Plan Writing on August 26th at 7PM ET. Send me an email to register (
Check my website and/or read some more articles by me and then guess whether I am “left brain” or “right brain” dominated. Two free coaching sessions for anyone who guesses correctly. (I took the assessment mentioned above too.)
Need help writing a business plan? I offer coaching support to entrepreneurs who want to write a compelling and exciting business plan for themselves or to get funding.
Article Tags: delivery service, marketing help, marketing to seniors, score counselor, senior citizens, service business, silver bullet
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About the Author: Alvah Parker RSS for Alvah's articles - Visit Alvah's website Alvah Parker is a Practice Advisor (The Attorneys’ Coach) and a Career Changers’ Coach as well as publisher of "Parker’s Points", an email tip list and "Road to Success", an ezine. Subscribe now to these free monthly publications at her website http://www.asparker.com/samples.html and receive a free values assessment. Work becomes more meaningful and enjoyable when you work from your values. Alvah Parker began her career as a high school chemistry teacher. She later transitioned to a sales career at AT&T. As a Sales Professional at AT&T for 15 years she was elected to the prestigious Counsel of Leaders for the top 3% of the sales force. After leaving AT&T she transitioned into a coaching career. Alvah is a senior coach for Boxwood Technology where she coaches association members on career issues and also a SCORE Business Counselor where she advises and counsels small business owners. Parker’s Value Program© enables her clients to find their own way to work that is more fulfilling and profitable. Her clients are attorneys, entrepreneurs, managers and people in transition who want to find work that is in line with their own values. Alvah is found on the web at http://www.asparker.com. She may also be reached at 781-598-0388. Click here to visit Alvah's website Ten Tips For Starting A New Job The Three Things A Job Seeker Must Know to Use Social Networking as a Job Search Tool Career Changes Take Courage Ten Ways for Small Businesses to Cut Costs Ten Tips for Staying Connected |
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