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How Do I Find Time To Plan?

Guest post by: Adam Sonnhalter

Article Overview: This is a question we hear from many small business owners. Usually this comes up when they are so busy doing the work of their business that they can't fathom being able to find more time to engage in something like planning. We contend that much of the reason behind owners not doing proper planning is that they are not really sure how to do it. While most business owners understand and agree that it's important to plan their business, it's often difficult for them to figure out how to plan on a regular basis. We contend that if you as the owner of your business are not taking time to plan, then you are neglecting one of your three key roles as the owner.

How Do I Find Time To Plan?

This is a question we hear from many small business owners. Usually this comes up when they are so busy doing the work of their business that they can't fathom being able to find more time to engage in something like planning. We contend that much of the reason behind owners not doing proper planning is that they are not really sure how to do it. Perhaps they had some bad experiences with "planning" in a non-profit they're involved with or maybe they used to work for someone else who spent a lot of time planning and not enough time executing that plan.

While most business owners understand and agree that it's important to plan their business, it's often difficult for them to figure out how to plan on a regular basis. We contend that if you as the owner of your business are not taking time to plan, then you are neglecting one of your three key roles as the owner.

Something we reinforce with all of our business coaching clients is that the job of the owner can be summed up in three words:

• Plan
• Direct
• Control
  
  

Think about how simple it would make your life if you kept these three words in mind throughout the day. It would make it easier to figure out what you are supposed to be doing on a day-to-day basis and relieve some of the stress and confusion you may currently be feeling. Hear is a little insight into what we mean with each of these three words:

1. Plan: this is the first role of the owner for a reason. If you don't have a plan for your business, how can you tell how you are doing? If I asked you how your year was last year, how would you respond? Would you say it was good or not good simply based on growth or loss in revenue or profit? Putting together a plan helps to set the goals and the direction for the organization. That's true whether we're talking about a 10-year plan, a 1-year plan, or a weekly plan. Planning is where you set the goals for your organization. These goals should then be broken down into tiny steps to help you reach your goals. This becomes the execution of the plan to achieve those goals.
2. Direct: this covers how you direct your resources to achieve your plan. For most companies, the #1 resource is people. We often hear complaints from owners about difficult or poor performing people. What we often find is that the people are pretty good, they just lack good direction from above. Picture yourself as the conductor of an orchestra with all of the musicians representing your employees. Whether you like it or not, they are all looking to you for direction.
3. Control: this is how you track all the activity in your company. It is typically done through some systematic reporting. It will include such things as your financial statements and other key measurables. For instance, if you are a retail location, you might track the amount of foot traffic by hour. If you are overseeing your sales people, you might track the number of appointments they have on a daily or weekly basis. Basically, anything and everything you can gather to give you a sense for how your business is doing.

These three simple duties should then roll down to other key people in your organization and then eventually to everyone in your organization.

Why shouldn't everyone in your organization have a plan for what they are going to do? In the short-term, it starts with "What's your plan today?" That daily plan should fit into a bigger picture and longer-term plan for them and the overall organization.

You as the owner should get fond of asking the following question of any of your people, "What's your plan?" If they can confidently discuss their plan, their strategy to execute that plan, and plug it back into how it helps the overall organization, your confidence and ability to Direct and Control becomes much greater.

It all starts with the Plan. Chances are if you don't have a Plan that you're executing, then you'll be very busy, but not very effective.

So while many small business owners will ask us, "How do I find time to plan?", we'll respond with, "How can you not find time to plan?" What could be more important to both the near-term and long-term success of your business?

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Article Tags: ceo job description, creating a plan for your business, getting control of your business, leading your company



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