{"id":1015,"date":"2018-10-17T10:00:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T10:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/?p=1015"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:20:22","slug":"the-nicest-thing-about-not-planning-is-that-failure-always-comes-as-a-complete-surprise-and-is-not-preceded-by-a-period-of-worry-and-desperation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/the-nicest-thing-about-not-planning-is-that-failure-always-comes-as-a-complete-surprise-and-is-not-preceded-by-a-period-of-worry-and-desperation-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe nicest thing about not planning is that failure always comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by a period of worry and desperation.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The blog below is a repeat.\u00a0 It was first published a year ago, along with two companion pieces that will also be re-published in the two postings following this one.\u00a0 Combined, the three postings offer a template for developing a 2019\u00a0 Plan.\u00a0 We are re-publishing these now because developing an Annual Plan is a critically important activity for any small business to undertake, and now is the right time to do it.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t remember seeing these before, perhaps they will encourage you to get serious about creating an Annual Plan.\u00a0 If you do remember them, then maybe they serve as a good refresher.\u00a0 Either way, plan well.<\/span><\/p>\n

About this time every year . . . somewhere around the beginning of the 4th<\/sup> quarter . . . is a good time to begin planning for next year.\u00a0 Unfortunately, planning is not an activity that most small businesses engage in . . . at least, not in any meaningful way.\u00a0 The owner may have in mind some sales and profit targets, but no real plan for how to achieve them.\u00a0 The prevailing attitude seems to be, \u201cWe\u2019ll just work real hard and hope we get there.\u201d\u00a0 But as they say, hope is a poor strategy.\u00a0 Or, as author and explorer Jeff Rich tells us, \u201cA goal without a plan is just a wish.\u201d\u00a0 Yet planning does have its detractors.\u00a0 Mike Tyson has famously said, \u201cEverybody\u2019s got a plan\u00a0\u00a0 . . . until they get punched in the mouth.\u201d\u00a0 And Woody Allen weighs in with, \u201cIf you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.\u201d\u00a0 So if you\u2019re in the same camp as Mike and Woody, and believe that planning is a waste of time, you should stop reading here.\u00a0 But if you\u2019re willing to be convinced that putting together an annual plan just might have some merit, please continue reading below.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe nicest thing about not planning is that failure always comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by a period of worry and desperation.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~ Richard Palmer<\/em><\/p>\n

If you truly have no expectations or goals for next year and are content to take whatever results fate chooses to give you, then fine, don\u2019t plan.\u00a0 Under those circumstances, what would be the point?\u00a0 But if you do have aspirations and goals for next year (and of course, you do), then to claim that you can achieve those without at least a rudimentary plan is indefensible.<\/p>\n

To be honest, it\u2019s amazing that there\u2019s any resistance at all to planning in a small business.\u00a0 After all, we do plan for all sorts of other stuff.\u00a0 We plan for vacations.\u00a0 We plan for weddings (ugh, down to the last napkin).\u00a0 We use financial planners to help us plan our future.\u00a0 Yet, even though a business is usually the owner\u2019s largest asset, many still resist the idea of an annual plan.\u00a0 Yeah, it takes time and it takes effort, but done correctly, the result is a roadmap for where you\u2019re going and how you\u2019re going to get there.<\/p>\n

The first step is to identify the major strategic goals you want to achieve next year.\u00a0 Set SMART goals . . . goals that are\u00a0S<\/u><\/strong>pecific,\u00a0M<\/u><\/strong>easurable,\u00a0A<\/u><\/strong>chievable,\u00a0R<\/u><\/strong>esults-oriented, and\u00a0T<\/u><\/strong>ime-based. Vague goals that don\u2019t include measurements or deadlines are doomed from the start.\u00a0 Consider limiting yourself to three.\u00a0 If you undertake more than three, you risk stretching yourself too thin.\u00a0 It\u2019s better to achieve the results you want with three goals than to achieve only so-so results with five.\u00a0 And don\u2019t set these goals all by yourself, locked away in your office.\u00a0 Involve the managers on whom you will depend to implement these goals.\u00a0 They probably have their own ideas about what the company should be undertaking next year, and you should hear those ideas.\u00a0 Besides, they will be more supportive of goals they helped to set than they would be of goals in which they had no input.<\/p>\n

Make sure your goals are focused on the outcomes or results that you expect.\u00a0 For instance, \u201cBuy and install a new computer system\u201d is not a goal.\u00a0 \u201cDeveloping more detailed, timely business intelligence,\u201d is a goal . . . it may be necessary to buy a new computer system to achieve this goal, but buying a new computer system is only the means to an end, not a goal.<\/p>\n

Commit the goals to writing, taking care to word them clearly and concisely.\u00a0 Confirm everyone has the same understanding of what we\u2019re trying to achieve with each goal.<\/p>\n

Next we have to do a little number crunching to make sure there\u2019s an acceptable ROI for each goal.\u00a0 That is, we need to identify a benefit to the company in terms of improved productivity, reduced cost, or higher profit.\u00a0 If we can\u2019t prove such a benefit (or if the benefit is significantly less than we hoped it would be), we either re-work the goal in a way that will achieve a better result, or we toss it out and substitute a different goal.<\/p>\n

Now comes the hard part.<\/p>\n

Each manager who has helped craft your goals must now present them to his or her direct reports and solicit their reactions\/feedback.\u00a0 Just as you needed your managers participation in the goal-setting process to secure their support, now you need the support of everyone else.\u00a0 You can\u2019t fake this.\u00a0 You can\u2019t go through the motions of being \u201cinclusive\u201d in this goal-setting process if you have no intention of listening to what anyone may have to say.\u00a0 So you need to make an honest effort to get people to voice their questions, concerns, opinions, and suggestions.\u00a0 We\u2019re not running a democracy here, so you\u2019re not obligated to act on what they say, but you are obligated to listen, to hear, and appreciate what they are telling you.\u00a0 Besides, these are the folks who are immersed in the nitty-gritty details of your business every day, so it\u2019s just possible they will spot something in your proposed goals that you and your managers overlooked.<\/p>\n

Finally, we need to put metrics on each goal so they can be tracked and measured (remember the M in SMART goals?).\u00a0 No question, some goals are easier to measure than others, but if a particular goal defies measurement of any kind, then it doesn\u2019t really qualify as a goal.\u00a0 After all, if we can\u2019t measure it, we won\u2019t know if or when we\u2019ve achieved it.<\/p>\n

If you think all this planning stuff is a waste of time and would prefer to \u201cjust work real hard and hope for the best,\u201d that\u2019s your choice.\u00a0 However, if building an annual plan makes sense to you but you haven\u2019t done one before and don\u2019t quite know where to start, email or call me.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be happy to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The blog below is a repeat.\u00a0 It was first published a year ago, along with two companion pieces that will also be re-published in the two postings following this one.\u00a0 Combined, the three postings offer a template for developing a 2019\u00a0 Plan.\u00a0 We are re-publishing these now because developing an Annual Plan is a critically<\/p>\n

Read More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,127,27,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1018,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions\/1018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}