Great Planning = Great Success

As I sit in my office this Tuesday morning I was having a look around and just seeing how well planned I was, I mean if I was to fall of the face of the earth tomorrow, could someone walk in and pick it straight up and continue running the show.

The sad things is for 85%+ of businesses that would certainly not be the case, the knowledge, the systems, the plans, the outcomes, the goals are all done, but they are usually stored in the business owners head and not shared with the staff.

It was about 4 months ago after re-reading the Michael Gerber "E-Myth Revisited" did things finally started to sink in. Do I really want to be the person that runs the show 24hrs / 7 days a week or would I like some time for other things.

If you asked yourself this question right know what sort of response do you get. If I was to take 2 weeks off would everything run exactly the same as if I was there? Asking that can be quite confronting and scary when you really find out the answer.

Organisation and planning are not just two boring words that business owners hate to hear, they are in fact what ensures your business continues to grow, move forward and your profits increased. Do you systemise every task that gets done? That means that there is a checklist, a training video or step by step guide to how to complete it. Imagine if everytime you did something you actually turned it into a system for someone else to do, just in case you happened to want a day off. Imagine then that you had all of those systems in one convenient location for all to use.

You see being organised doesn't restrict your creativity and freedom it actually allows more time to focus on other activities. It prevents you forgetting things and it keeps your focus on your quarterly, monthly and weekly goals.

At the very least I believe all businesses should have the following:

A year plan
A 90 day plan
A monthly plan and overview
A weekly plan
A monthly chart of incoming profits vs the targets

The other key important aspect of the business is to train your contractors, staff, in fact anyone that has anything to do with the running of your business. Quite often I hear business owners say "It takes to long" or "I do not have the time" and I quite often smile. If you could spend 60 minutes teaching someone how to complete a task from start to finish, that would then save you thousands of minutes down the track, would it be worth it?

Training and teaching others what to do and how to do it is an aspect most small business owners do not put enough importance on. They believe it is just easier for them to do it and hence they do it for the rest of their business life.

Being organised, setting goals, teaching and training others doe's start with the right mind set. You have to see value in doing such things, you have to see it reducing your workload, increasing your productivity or increasing your profits. Quite often when doing this right from the start it in fact does all three.


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Michael Griffiths is the CEO and Founder of My Small Business Marketing Guru, providing small business with marketing strategies to increase their leads, clients and profits. For your free Black Mask Marketing resources visit http://www.mysmallbusinessmarketingguru.com.au