What Does Business Planning and the Family Vacation Have in Common?
The Family Vacation
What do business planning and family vacation have in common? Remember those family summer vacations from childhood? If yours were anything like mine, the one thing that you remember most was the obsessive planning that took place before we stepped foot out of the door and got strapped into the station wagon. We would get maps from the AAA with the route clearly marked, potential hazards along the way, road construction, alternate routes, and weather forecasts.
We’d have blankets in the car in case we had a breakdown on the highway (even in the middle of summer wouldn’t want to get cold!). We would pack food for the journey (if we broke down in an area where there wasn’t a Mcdonald’s or an equivalent, we wouldn’t want to go hungry!). We would map out our itinerary to the minute. Wed know where we were supposed to be at every step of the journey, milestones we were supposed to hit, just if we were going to be running late and needed to phone ahead to the relatives to let them know (wouldn’t want them to worry!). I cant say that this was a gratifying aspect of summer vacation, but I do have to say that thanks to this meticulous planning, we never broke down in an area where there wasn’t a food joint and froze to death.
And How It Relates To Business Planning
Now, what does this have to do with business planning, you might ask? Well, the business plan should serve a similar function to running your business as it did in planning those childhood vacations. The business plan should have the journey mapped out with a clear path to your destination, the milestones you will be hitting at every leg of the journey, potential risks and hazards you might encounter, and ways of dealing with those hazards.
From Idea to Growth
When writing the business plan for business planning purposes, did you write to raise funding and then stuck in a file folder to gather dust? Or, is it a living document that guides the way that you run your business. Just make sure that it doesn’t have all of that useless fluff when you develop your business plan to make it look like an important document. Keep it direct, relevant, to the point, and most importantly, use it as a roadmap for your business. The business plan is an essential part of the business planning process. It can be a much more enjoyable experience when done properly than being stuck in a station wagon listening to AM radio as a child. The Small Business Administration is a good place to start in business planning for your small business. Un_Standard is another resource to help in the planning process.
Conclusion
Un_Standard has a full range of solutions for businesses of all sizes to improve sales, increase customer satisfaction and get ahead of the competition. If you’d like to find out more, schedule a no-obligation 15-minute chat, click the following link and we’ll gladly show how we can make your business un-standard.About the author
David Garrard
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David Garrard
Agent Provocateur and Chief Creative Officer at Hone Ventures and Un_Standard. We create strategies for businesses of all sizes that improve customer relationships and help businesses grow. In his spare time, he loves experimenting in the kitchen and chasing after his three cats, Hallie Tosis, Lester Een, and Jim G. Vitis.
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