Plan For Success!

Planning

Do you want to succeed? Then PLAN for success. I said in my previous post that this is a business right? Well, every successful business has a business plan. Why? Well for a number of reasons. But perhaps the most important, as it applies to your online efforts, is to provide you a roadmap from where you are to where you want to be.

Now am I suggesting that you go and create a formal business plan, worthy of presenting to a bank or investors? No, not necessarily. On the other hand, there is one school of thought that says if you want to achieve big, you have to think big. So what form your plan takes is entirely up to you. It can be a highly-polished, presentation-ready, formal business plan, or it can be just an outline on a legal pad. The important thing is that you give some careful thought to your overall "plan of attack".

If you would like to take a look at some good business plan software programs, I have some links below. If you're new to this sort of thing or have a hard time "staying on track", this may be the route you want to go.

Planning gives you the opportunity to think about your goals and what you want to achieve, and to ask yourself the critical questions about how you're going to make it happen. What will it take? How much will it cost? What are the obstacles? Where are the opportunities?

A crucial part of the planning process is setting milestones, which can take a very daunting prospect, like "how do I retire in 2 years?", and break it up into less overwhelming and manageable parts. Determining your milestones also forces you to think about the individual steps to get from point A to point B, and provides a tangible measurement of your success.

Something very important that I want to mention here... NOTHING IS WRITTEN IN STONE. A good plan has to be a flexible plan, that allows you to adjust as your situation changes. There's a balancing act here: You can't be wishy-washy about following your business plan, because you'll find yourself following tangents and chasing dead ends. On the other hand, you can't be so rigid in adhering to your original plan that you end up "going down with the ship" when circumstances aren't conducive to your approach. Your plan, in whatever format it takes, has to be a living, breathing document; which changes and grows as your business does.

Here are some of the questions you want to ask yourself to start the planning process:

1. What are my goals? (What do you want to achieve? Retire early, put the kids through college, build your dream home, etc. Make sure you know WHY you want to do this. Think this through carefully. Defining and believing in your goals are the true keys to your success. If you have a rock-solid "Why", the "How" will make itself very clear. Never lose sight of these goals.)

2. What form do I want my business to take? (I'm not talking about a corp, LLC, or sole proprietorship here, although that is something you should consider as well. I am referring to what do you want your business to do? Are you going to sell products? Services? What type? Your's or someone else's? etc., etc. For those of you who are new to this & want to keep it simple, I'd suggest the affiliate route. This will allow you to offer products and/or services, but usually doesn't require any up-front costs or the need to carry inventory.)

3. How am I going to find potential customers? (It goes without saying that the life-blood of any business is customers. So how are you going to find them? Or maybe a better question for an online business: How are they going to find you? Also just as important: What is going to make them choose you over the other guy? What sets you apart from the competition?)

4. What is my timeline? (This goes back to my comments about milestones. You need to determine when every step of the process is going to be completed, or put into place. Set deadlines for yourself, realistic ones. Then make sure you meet them.)

Again, these are just some of the questions to ask yourself to get the planning ball rolling. The great thing that you'll find about this process is that it will help you determine what is and is not important, and what the potential obstacles and opportunities are for your business. Planning will keep things in focus and keep you on track, so that you can achieve your business and personal goals.

You can be very successful! And you will be, if you think things through.

As promised, below are some links for business planning software.


This is one I am personally fond of. From a company called Jian. Very easy to use, intergrated with Word & Excel, and affordable:



Click here to learn more about using this proven system to write a business plan with sample templates in Word and financial projection models in Excel.



Here's a site called StartupPlanet. They specialize in training and products for entrepreneurs and startups. Their Business Plan software isn't as easy to use or complete as Biz Plan Builder (it also hasn't been updated for a while), but not bad for the price. After clicking on the link, scroll down the page a little. The Business Plan software should be in the center of the page:

Finally, here's a very inexpensive option... It's not business planning software per se, it's simply a very good & complete guide to creating a business plan. You can purchase & download the eBook here: