Planning; don’t make it an excuse for inaction

We know the old clique about how failing to plan is planning to fail. And it’s true, we can’t move forward confidently without a plan. Every business book emphasises the need for a plan to enhance our chances of succeeding in our venture. What I don’t like is the insistence of some of these books that a plan has to be detailed and run into tens of pages. Containing detailed financial calculations.

This didn’t work for me. I just don’t see the point of spending days and possibly months writing a minutely detailed plan with forecasted financial data laid out on a spreadsheet. The figures can only be guesses. Some of the plans I’ve seen in books are like something you would do to impress a tutor on a PHD course. . Personally, I don’t see the need for such in-depth planning.

In fact, I believe it can be counterproductive and sap the energy out of you. After reading, as much as I could about business planning I decided to discard most of it and improvise with my own plan. The first question I asked myself is “what am I aiming to achieve?” I stated this clearly. My main goal.

Once I’d stated my goal, I needed to break it down into smaller goals that could be measured. I needed to know that I was on the right track to achieve my main long-term goal. By setting smaller goals, each with a target I can see my progress visually. This is important for moral. We grow in confidence when we are succeeding.

Having laid out my long-term goal and broken it down into smaller measurable, goals, I then broke the smaller goals down into targets. This is my plan. Once I had it written down on two sheets of A4, I launched. Once I launched my business, I was immediately getting feedback from the market I was in about my business strategy. My plan allows for flexibility. I have nothing set in stone apart from my long-term goal of creating wealth.

Certain strategies I deployed didn’t work, but I expected this and just changed them. I also saw opportunities that had never occurred to me during the planning process. The feedback I was getting from the market was real, not forecasted, so my decisions were based on concrete facts.

I recognise the importance of a plan but we can get caught up in planning to the point where we become paralysed, afraid to move until certain conditions are just right. It can become an excuse for inaction. If we wait for everything to be just right, until all the heavens have aligned for us, and our own position is perfect we will never launch.

I believe that taking strong positive action with a bad plan is better than sitting on the perfect plan. At least your bad plan will soon become apparent and you can make the necessary changes that will propel you towards your goal. The perfect plan will never happen because there’s too many variables coming into and out of play all the time. Don’t let planning become an excuse for inaction.