“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” – Benjamin Franklin

Every successful business usually has a special recipe for success. What’s yours?

Any idea may seem like an easy one to execute, until you put it down on paper and map out the intricacies.

But thanks to social media and the business revolution, many new entrepreneurs have been lucky enough to learn from the leading entrepreneurs’ biggest mistakes.

One such learning that I hold significant above everything else is to have foresight well before launching a company – in other words, having a plan.

What it means to stay organised as a business owner

A business plan is a roadmap that can help you make the best decisions every step of the way. Unless you are someone who enjoys making lists, timelines and strategies for the long-term, planning can be:

• Overwhelming: because you may not know the answers to many questions.
• Time-consuming: given that you are most likely running a tight ship already.

But my experience as a VA has taught me that staying organised or disorganised says a lot about how efficiently your business is run – the discipline can be achieved with planning.

Let’s say that you start a restaurant or cafe and you work round the clock to sustain your cafe, right from scouting for a property and all the way to ensuring delicious, quality food – a lot can go right or wrong as you tackle bottlenecks and celebrate success. 

Unless you have a roadmap that you can refer to and constantly review your failures and progress at regular intervals, you will likely be all over the place, unaware of the next steps.

How can we all benefit from staying organised?

A “plan” can do more than just offer you more clarity about your business and company. Having a thought out, well-articulated business plan can throw some light on the likelihood of success, help you raise money with investors, identify potential pitfalls and even aid with how you can avoid or work through thick and thin.

The key positive changes you may notice as a result of rigorous planning are:

• Low costs: when your business functions efficiently, you will be spending and investing wisely on the parts of your business that generates
• Happy team: less chaos means more productivity, happiness and proactivity among your team who will take up your business as their own  
• A better sense of direction: if you plan ahead and redirect your organisation’s growth correctly, you and your team can set objectives and operate in line with the bigger vision 

Take time out to create a rock solid plan for success

For all the daunting business owners who have put all your eggs in one basket, I have some tips on how to go about this.

Measure where you are at in your business

Understand your strengths, weaknesses and growth trends in the past quarter or year – what areas have you been avoiding or taking for granted, what challenges did you ace or fail, and what resources have been underutilised.

Identify the high value activities that convert and focus on that 

A high value activity is one that brings in customers, profits and is aligned with your vision. If you have documented your company’s journey, it’s easy for you to highlight the biggest wins in the past year. When you know, focus on that! An amazing customer service would typically fall in this category.

Identify the high value activities that convert and focus on that  

A high value activity is one that brings in customers, profits and is aligned with your vision. If you have documented your company’s journey, it’s easy for you to highlight the biggest wins in the past year. When you know, focus on that! An amazing customer service would typically fall in this category.

Hit your goal

Focus on what exactly you wish to achieve and create a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly plan to work backwards. Track your progress and refer to this vision when ever required.

Lastly, prepare for when you are successful 

Every entrepreneur pays attention to working towards success, but do you have a plan for after you are finally successful and your business is huge? 

I can help you grow your business exponentially

If you have a business operations, systems or processes question that you’d like answered, join me at my monthly Q&A sessions where I will answer your questions personally. 

Starting and growing a business can be hard, but the thing that makes it easier is having the right people on your side and the systems, checklists and processes to help you and your team (even if you are outsourcing) run your business efficiently and effectively, giving you back precious time with your family and also time to do the thing that you do best, work on your business. 

I can help you and I can start by answering your questions. Join me here or click the image below.