Planning For Success – Part 1 – Purpose

I recently heard a comedian say that this year was so bad…”I ordered a burger at a fast food place and the kid behind the counter asked, “Can you afford fries with that?”

How was this year for you and your business? That’s the questions that every business owner is or should be asking themselves at this time of year. Unfortunately a very high percentage of business owners are afraid of the answer, many times because they don’t know the answer, so the questions are easier avoided.

Now is the time that you must face the facts. Did you have a good year? Did you have a bad year? What did you do right? What did you do wrong? What can you do better?

Now is the time to ask the questions, face the answers and begin planning. The time to begin planning is not mid January, it is now. This will be the first in a series of articles on planning for growth and additional success in business and your personal life.

One of my favorite quotes comes from John Richardson, American author and academic. Mr. Richardson said in 1938, “When it comes to the future there are three kinds of people: Those who let it happen; those who make it happen; and those who wonder what happened.”

Which one are you?

There are an estimated two million business start-ups annually, 80% will fail in two years or less. 86% of all businesses are operating below their potential of sales and profitability. The fact is that most entrepreneurs have not really started a business, but created a job for themselves. A job where they are working harder, for longer hours and for less pay!

According to “autopsies” conducted on failed businesses by accounting and consulting firms the top seven reasons companies fail are:

1. Lack of direction and goals
2. Impatience (They want too much too soon)
3. Greed
4. Poor cost control
5. Poor quality of product
6. Insufficient capitol
7. Insufficient sales

Almost all of these points come back to a significant lack of planning. So it’s time to plan beginning now…beginning today. Over the next four weeks I will provide some key ideas and strategies to help you move forward in your planning process. Our next conversation will focus on the importance of having absolute and pure CLARITY in every level of your business. Without clarity, you are only working in the shadows and using best guesses and that never works.

Make a commitment to set a new path, a new discipline to raise yourself and your business to a higher plain. Otherwise you may end next year wondering what happened…again!