I feel privileged that I’m in a position to learn a lot from successful business owners who work with us.
One of our clients who I won’t name because his astonishing business acumen is only exceeded by his genuine modesty told me a story last week of how he became so successful.
We had a great chat about all manner of things when I asked him what was the one thing he felt he did that his rivals didn’t?
“Planning properly .” He replied.
“There must be more to it than that, surely?” I responded.
“Nope, not really.” He said, but then he explained in more detail.
“Last week my team and I locked ourselves away for two days in a hotel meeting room. No mobile phones or gadgets were allowed in.
“We’d cleared our work schedule and got a temp in to handle any calls into our office.
“First we established the goals we wanted the business to achieve in 2016. Then we spent hours formulating a plan to help us achieve them.
“We went into detail and even broke tasks down into the number of hours they’d take to complete and the dates we’d begin them on and the people who needed to be involved.
“We looked at every aspect of the business. We now have a clear plan for everything. We have clear targets to aim for. We know what our budgets are across the business.
“We know when we will be running different marketing campaigns.
“Due to the seasonal nature of our business we also know when we will take on temporary staff and when the adverts will start going out to attract top quality new team members.
“We also have back up plans already in place if something goes wrong. It takes a lot of stress out of the future.
“It’s two days which set us up for the entire following 12 months.”
He went on to show me his plan which had been printed off and put in a very posh looking, leather folder. It was detailed and very impressive.
“We know that if we follow this plan with discipline we will achieve our goals as a company and as individuals.”
“Yeah but how do you know it’ll work?” I enquired a little sceptically.
With a smile on his face he replied. “Because we have done this ever since I set the business up 15 years ago.
“I always had a plan for each year even when it was just me working from a second hand van which doubled up as my ‘office’.”
He now employs more than 50 people, has a 7 figure turnover and has bought his new offices outright.
It obviously pays to plan.
Thanks for reading,
Nik
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