Business Baby Steps

Before you leave the house and enter the car, you need to know where you're going. Be it the supermarket, the mall or work. Without a destination in mind, you'd end up driving endlessly and only land where luck takes you. If time and money isn't an issue for you, no problem. But what if your time is running out and your wallet's empty? The same case in business. You need a plan.

The plan does not need to be complex or sophisticated. Even if it was, the only person who should be referring to it is you. Don't confuse yourself with business and financial jargon. Just write out what you want to achieve - and by when. It can be scribbled on a piece of paper or typed out.

That piece of paper you wrote should be kept in full view. Don't hide it or throw it away. Why? No matter how good your memory is, chances are you might forget about your vision. If you're running one, everything you do must be consistent with that goal. After all, that's the reason the business was created in the first place.

In his book I am Gifted, So Are You, author Adam Khoo cited an example of a class of Harvard students. The study began 20 years before: at the time the class was graduating. The purpose? To see the power of goals. So the students were asked on their goals. Only 20% had any. After 20 years, the researchers checked back on that class. Funny enough, the 20% who had goals achieved it and went to greater heights compared to their former classmates who had none. Bear in mind: the lab rats in this experiment were Harvard students.

Decide where you're going. Write it down. Keep it in sight. And, in full throttle, go for it.

Now that you know what you want to achieve, you need to determine how you're going to achieve it. Here's where a business plans comes in handy.There are many ways one can go about this.

Like your goals, don't stock your business plan with jargon and technical terms. Keep it simple. Make reasonable forecasts and conduct thorough investigation.