Business Plan Consultant for California

Hello readers and blog-followers. Thank you for reading and tell your friends and business partners about this little gold nugget of information. I’ve received quite a few emails asking about the thinking behind “Vision, Clarity, Focus.” If you’ve been reading along with each quarterly post (I use the term “quarterly” loosely), you’ll see a pattern. That pattern is “Vision…Clarity…Focus” and I will write about this today.

It’s my business mantra. “Vision, Clarity, Focus” forms the framework for my thinking and how I evaluate a potential business (actually, I use this mantra throughout my life. Marcus Aurelius couldn’t have a better phrase to live by!).

The order is important. In a strictly logical sense, it is understandable that focus has no usefulness if I don’t know what to focus on. An analogy would be to deliver a ton of lumber on the street to build a home without any blueprints. Well, what’s wrong with that? Oh, I see, I need to know where the doors go, the windows, the plumbing. How many nails will I need? So, I need to have a clear design—blueprint—of what I am going to build. I need “clarity” to make sense of all the lumber! But wait, I don’t know which way to face the front door. How many bedrooms? Why? Do I want a large yard, a garage, a small kitchen, a large one? How many bathrooms? Is this home for a family, a couple, a single occupant? Do I have pets? Do I have a car, how many? Do they all need to fit in the garage? Is the house being built on flat land, hilly land, rocky soil or hard clay? Can I grow a garden? Where can I grow a garden? I need a vision of the type, size and location of my house, my building. So, you see, the clarity of the blueprint can only be derived from a clear vision of what you are going to build and why.

My VISION must come first. My mission statement must come first. I can refine them later. It’s good to make adjustments as your company develops. Often, as you grow a little and find success (or failure) you must make adjustments. That’s absolutely fine. Perhaps you have encountered new or different conditions as you develop. Changes are necessary to move forward. Go back and readjust or rewrite your mission statement or business plan to reflect the changes or new conditions.

Have a great summer. Go out and make your dreams and vision happen. You know, the dreams you  have can become reality if you plan ☺

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Somewhere between Your Vision and your Presentation you need to ask yourself : “Can I pull this off?” How much of this bright idea of mine can I do by myself? Where will I need help?

This is called: Personal Assessment.

In fact, you know that you’ll need help. The better question is where and when. What is your “history?” Can you stick with the details? Where do you get bogged down?

A business can be rewarding beyond measure, but it also requires a terrific amount of attention and understanding. What skills do you bring to the enterprise? The following list of questions is a starting

Point in determining what you can do and what you will need help doing. Ask yourself: “Am I good at the following?” Circle Yes or No.

• Entrepreneurship?                  Yes    No
• Business Planning?                 Yes    No
• Business Management?          Yes    No
• Business Marketing?               Yes    No
• Cash-Flow Management?       Yes    No
• Legal Issues?                           Yes    No
• Accounting?                            Yes    No
• Directing Employees?              Yes    No

Finally, but perhaps the most important question: how will this affect my life, marriage and family, significant relationships? (These two questions should have been asked before now, but if not, ask: “Who am I? Why am I doing this—why do I NEED to do this? Is that three questions?).

The answer is not as important as the question. If you don’t stop and ask the correct questions, you will face failure quickly. Asking these questions allows you to make a candid appraisal of your circumstances. The answers merely point you in the proper direction.

How much is my enterprise going to cost? One important reason to be painstakingly thorough when writing a business is that it really helps you see the costs involved. Remember, there are always “hidden” or “unanticipated” costs involved in starting a business.

If your business is a product business; what are the costs of designing, developing and installing the product?

Are there middlemen, agents, distributors involved?

What are the shipping costs and insurance?

Is your business built around a service?

Do you have all the training necessary?

How much will it cost you to train others?

Are there costs related to the territory, marketing costs and travel?

How long will it take you to get to the first full day of sales?

In other words; from the day I decide to start my company, how long will it take me to make money?

Accurately counting the cost can be the determining factor in making your business a success.   Arguably, inaccurately counting the cost will always lead to business failure. This booklet contains worksheets and budget sheets. These are the basic tools of working out the cost of your business. But those tools are less effective if you haven’t  spent considerable time “thinking through” your business from every angle.

“Measure twice. Cut once.”

We all want to go into business to make a profit. Some things require a serious amount of effort and planning to generate bottom-line profit. Other enterprises may take very few resources and just a lot of good planning and execution.

The execution of your business plan must generate a reasonable amount of revenue over and above your cost of doing business plus taxes.

How do you find that out? First of all, you need to ask many questions. You need to ask AND ANSWER the same questions over and over. Many many questions need to be asked and answered to discover the full “cost” of  doing business. Then and only then can you discover the potential profitability of your business.

Use  a Cost-Benefit Analysis worksheet to determine which of your ideas or products can yield the most revenue. Look at the  time spent on each product, as well as the cost of manufacturing and operations. The same can be done with a service or an idea.  Which yields the most revenue for the least cost?  Do quality issues outweigh quantity issues?  Sure, product “B” will generate a lot of short-term revenue, but product “A” will keep our customers happier and coming back again and again.

You might look at personnel the same way. Salesman “A” is smart, experienced and EXPENSIVE. Salesman “B” is smart, willing and cheap. You need to ask yourself:  “which kind of manager am I?”  What is my philosophy  regarding quality vs. quantity? An example: I  was living in Washington, D.C. and I visited a particular office several times. I was very impressed with the secretary who worked there. She was not the office manager, but seemed to know more about what was going on than anyone else. Short story: I hired her. I could see that she was more valuable than two or three other people. I offered her a significant increase in salary, benefits and title, to do for me what she was already doing for someone else. I made her feel valuable and significant. She was a splendid addition to my staff and contributed much more to our company than we asked. Why, because we made her feel important and we rewarded her for her efforts. Staff is a very important part of your business planning. Don’t just hire “anybodies.” Hire “somebodies.”

Which direction you go is entirely up to you. The important point is that you need to ask and answer ALL questions for  yourself. Product, warehouse, quality, sales and staff, just to name a few.

Go out and create your dream.

We all want to have a great idea or a better mousetrap. Terrific. It takes careful and often painful evaluation to really take an idea to market.

Thoughtfully and thoroughly consider your business. Be realistic! Get outside opinions. Look at your competition thoroughly. Be candid and factual in your appraisal. You will always benefit from honest, accurate evaluation. At first, you may not like what you hear or see or discover. But you will eventually become more effective, more competitive and more precise in your business practice. Often, people who ask for “opinions” really want to hear the words “Fantastic” or “Great idea.” Don’t settle for praise (haha). Your goal isn’t to get your ego stroked, it’s to make your plan and idea BETTER! Why? So that you can be successful and PROFITABLE. That’s the goal, right (?): to succeed and profit in your success.

Go to your banker, accountant, and best friend and ask what they “think” of your plan or idea. What they honestly, REALLY think of your business concept.  Listen to their questions, remarks or doubts. Take notes. Don’t interrupt them with “Oh yeah, I meant to say that..” or comments to that effect. Just listen! Find the answers to their questions. Perfect your answers to those questions. Rehearse your answers over and over in your mind. The inventor of the Palm Pilot, Jeff Hawkins,  had several failures while trying to solve the PDA problem. With the “Pilot” he walked around his company’s offices with a  wooden block that was small enough to fit in his shirt pocket. He LIVED with his design. He asked questions, he pretended to use the “block,”  as if it were a functioning device, so that he could discover what would work and what would not work. The Palm Pilot was not designed in its perfect form the very first time Mr. Hawkins sat down at a desk and conceived the product.  It took hundreds of questions, different approaches to input and storage and many, many failures and persistence.

Learn from your weaknesses. Learn from your competition. Competition makes us stronger-if we so choose.  Choose to succeed. You must have the “never give up attitude” if you are to succeed in your enterprise. There are very few NEW things under the sun. Oh, there may be some very nice unusual products or services that seem wonderful and  imaginative. BUT, they are not necessarily new. They are just better mousetraps. Choosing to succeed and never give up doesn’t necessarily mean to stick with your idea no matter what. It may mean adapting the idea, changing the strategy, or both.

When conceiving your business plan, be patient, but be persistent. Ask questions and LISTEN to the answers. Don’t be offended by criticism; be inspired by it.