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Business Advisor Cambridge

Planning – Where Dreams Begin

We’ve all heard the saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” but how many of us really take it seriously?

Stick with me here but have you noticed that bar the very occasional exception weddings tend to be fantastic events and you rarely hear of a bad one? Is this coincidental? Probably not. I think it’s because they’ve had literally months and months of planning and attention thrown at them. Every detail has been considered, contingencies are in place and the procedures get continuously reviewed and adjusted throughout the months before the big day.

Does it therefore make sense that the same amount of effort should be put into planning your business?

Here’s a simple 4-step method to achieve your objectives:

  1. Dream
  2. Set Goals
  3. Plan of Attack
  4. Take Action

Once you have spent time getting a clear picture of your dreams and what you really want to achieve the next step is to set SMART goals. By SMART we mean your goals should be Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant and Timely. These goals then need to be translated into plans so that the actions we take then feed back up the line which ultimately help achieve our dreams.

So to start, get total clarity on what you’d like to achieve in the next 3 to 5 years. With that in mind decide what you need to achieve in the next 12 months? Once you’ve got your 12 months goals break them down and continue working backwards and create 90-day plans. Following this keep going and break them down into monthly and weekly goals, in some businesses daily and even hourly KPI’s need to be in place.

Once you have all your goals, targets and KPI’s in place get good at reviewing the daily plan and preparing for the next. Then move towards working on the weekly review and planning for the week ahead and so on. Before long you’ll have exercised your planning ‘muscle’ and it will become second nature.

Planning is an essential tool for achieving your dreams, and the more you work on it and have fun with it, the more your life and business will bear the fruits. Your goals and ultimately your dreams will be achieved much faster with this type of focus and will probably be realised faster than you think.