Success Factory Business Mastermind
Advisory Groups forming in Indianapolis.
Contact us for more information or to schedule yourself into an
Information Session.
Ever find yourself staring at the nest of wires and
cords connecting your laptop to its precious power supply? Bargaining
with God, you decide to forego crawling under your desk "I'm just going
to be out for an hour or two." Several hours later, you're kicking
yourself because you're running out of juice.
Get a second power cord and keep it in your computer
bag. That way, you can easily connect to electricity at client meetings
or at Panera (a great restaurant
with free internet at every location).
Times are uncertain. Gas prices and the weather conditions are vying tosee which can change more dramatically.
Having a strategy for the future is a great idea, but without a clear picture of the present, planning for the future is a bit like throwing darts -- at a moving dartboard.
Let's hold hands and chant it together: "Failing to plan is planning to fail. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Amen."
You with me?
We all know that we're supposed to be best friends with business and strategic planning, but does it really make a difference? And if it does make a difference, who has time for it? After the grueling work of creating a business plan, many business owners just want to coast on the fumes of that work and skip the further planning -- relying, instead, on brains, charisma, energy or flexibility to carry them through.
The idea of
planning is to close the gap between ideas and action, concept and
execution, dreams and results. Done right, strategic planning can
move from a painful annual event to the daily, weekly way you do
business. Your plan is a living blueprint, created in Technicolor,
that answers all of your key questions and leaves you with the
capacity to ask more and better questions for the further
development of your actions and results.
All organizations
(at least the ones that want to be around for the long haul) perform
some degree of strategic planning. Whether the process is informal
or serves as an integral part of an organization's business model,
most organizations will acknowledge the importance of utilizing a
basic planning process. When an organization sets out to “plan”
strategically, there are many common themes that arise. Goals are
set and procedures/strategies are developed to meet those
goals. Objectives such as operational efficiency, business
development, resource management and cost containment tend to become
a part of the planning process. Some organizations also create
sub-plans in the form of separate marketing, business interruption
and information technology, and related plans.
Very rarely,
however, will one see a supplier diversity sub-plan or aspects of
its tenets integrated into the organization's global planning
mechanism. Minorities in the US alone, have an annual spending power
of in excess of $650 billion -- more than the gross national product
of Canada. Harnessing the massive spending power is about more than
corporate citizenship -- its about economic survival.
Some things about planning to ponder while stuck in traffic on the way to that important meeting.
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. Dwight D. Eisenhower - American President
Think ahead. Don't let day-to-day operations drive out planning. Donald Rumsfeld - American Statesman
If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life. Abraham Maslow - Psychologist, reator of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
I was planning on a career as a homeless person. I had a really good spot picked out. Larry David -- humorist and creator of
Seinfeld
If you're on business or personal travel, precious minutes can be saved if police or first responders can get to key information about you quickly, like your emergency contact person, your blood type, brief medical history, medications and allergies. Try this to create an emergency entry that will "speak" for you when you can't.
You simply need to program the letters ICE (In Case of Emergency) in your PDA or cell phone directly before the name of your emergency contact person. In your notes section (in your PDA or Outlook), you can list allergies, blood type, medical conditions, drug sensitivities and other information that will save precious minutes.
Your employees and even your children can use this helpful tip to help keep them safe and speed help to them when something unavoidable happens.
The ICE initiative was the brainchild of a British paramedic and began last spring. It took off after the July 7 bombings and is now being adopted by several US police and rescue offices.
How'd We Do? The Importance of Looking Back Before
Planning Forward
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Times are uncertain. Gas prices and the weather conditions are vying to
see which can change more dramatically.
