The first area to look at is the financial statements of the business. The first and most readily used is the Profit and Loss Statement as it shows the income and expenses of the business with hopefully the income greater than the expenses. Just as important, however, is the Balance Sheet as this document shows the wealth of the business. With an up to date profit and loss statement and balance sheet, a trained business appraiser can then calculate what the owner of the business could expect to get if they decided to sell it on the market.

In addition to the financial statements, the next performance area to measure and manage can be simple business metrics that include the number of incoming calls to the business (and this can be broken down into times of day if call volume is an important metric,) the number of hits to the website, volume of email, volume of faxes and volume of orders placed on-line (if important.) Depending on the business, the total number of orders placed and/or the number of orders placed by each sales person. In simple terms, sales can generally be easily measured. It’s important that the sales team is clear on sales targets and agree how they are to be measured. Sales people are motivated by getting results. Make sure the results are measured accurately, consistently and fairly or sales people will become de-motivated; which is obviously the complete opposite from what you want to do. It’s important to start by building Key Performance Metrics for your business. Don’t be afraid to change and add other metrics as they are normally easy to isolate and therefore count.

Make sure all metrics are counted monthly and as many data points shared with everyone in the business as possible. Celebrate successes and ask the team for suggestions when the performance isn’t acceptable.

The next aspect to a Performance Plan for the business and something not always done is an annual performance review. There are different approaches to this topic; some are personal preference. For example, some businesses tend to link the annual performance review to also a salary review. My preferred strategy is not to link them. My reason for this is that I don’t think they are linked. Compensating someone on performance is important. However, the good performance of one person does not always mean the business can afford to pay as collectively the business may not be performing well enough. The argument goes that incentives should include as many workers as possible so if they are successful so too will the business, but you can have a top performing employee that is bring in the best sales for the business but his demeanor or attitude to co-workers may not be acceptable.

Therefore, how do you financially reward a top performer during a meeting and then point out behavior or communication problems. Rewarding people for sales is great however, you will lose any goodwill from acknowledging and rewarding great sales and then bringing up negative issues.

If the performance of each employee is measured with an Annual Performance Review an extension of that is to include feedback from the co-workers at the same level as the employee. This is called a Peer performance review. It can be controversial as someone may choose to denigrate the performance of a co-worker they don’t like. So there are risks. However, it can provide constructive results if managed correctly.

A best practice for a Performance Review is asking an employee that reports to a manager their opinion on the performance of the manager and how the manager could do things better. This is called a Management Review. Once again this approach can have a downside but it can enable a business to grow and be internally stronger if open and honest communication is part of the business culture.

The final item to consider is your performance as the business owner. Not every owner has the time or desire to put such a process in place, but if you want your business to grow and have a healthy business environment I think it’s one of the best means to enhance the success of the business. Depending on the size of the business, the Owner Performance Review can be done by hiring an outside consultant. An alternative suggestion is to do it by anonymous survey but this approach reduces the effectiveness as it restricts the answers that can be given and doesn’t allow an exchange to clarify things.

There is a business axiom that says “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” The Performance of a business can mean the difference between success and failure. Most businesses do not fail overnight. They decline gradually, with often the decline picking up steam towards the end. A good Performance Plan will provide warnings that if measured and managed will allow corrective action to be taken in time.

Part 11 of this article series, explains the importance of a Disaster Recovery Plan. Most businesses don’t have the time to put this together. That can be a mistake and this article explains why.

How does this affect our business? There is no question that data including audio and video are exploding online and helping sell more goods and services. Hand held devices such as iPhone’s and Blackberry’s are growing in popularity, devices that track the GPS to give us driving directions are here to stay. We therefore, if we own and operate a business, need to ensure we use technology how it was designed and this is as a tool to help us be more productive.

To make technology work for us in our business we need a plan. There is no point adding a new device to the existing technology in the business if it won’t work. You can buy the latest piece of Windows compatible software and try to install and run it on a MAC but if the MAC doesn’t operate the Windows software you are done. Similarly, if your computers are running Windows 2000 server software and the hardware breaks and needs replacing, you have to make sure the replacement hardware will work in the old server and the software.

So what goes into a Technology Plan? A good starting point is a breakdown by make and model number of each of the pieces of hardware in the business. You need this data for tax purposes anyway and it is necessary. This information should include any devices that are specifically used and taken out of the office by any employee. If that employee leaves, you obviously want the item returned for their replacement in good working order and condition, all the data on it. Your technology plan should also include how often the data is to be backed up, where copies of purchase receipts and warranties are to be stored in case the machine breaks down and needs to be replaced or is stolen and a replacement machine needs to be bought and replaced urgently.

A technology plan also needs to clearly outline for all employees how they can and cannot use the business technology. If the use of Social Network Marketing sites like FaceBook, LinkedIn or Twitter are not allowed, then that needs to be communicated. It could be this ban applies to some positions but allowed for others. For example, it may not be a good use of time for the accounting, technology and operational employees to use these media but it may be encouraged or indeed part of the sales and marketing plan to use these technologies. Technology is not simple and straight forward. It does require discussion, the creation of policies but also review of these policies.

Another important component to technology which is sometimes overlooked is the need for training. Businesses in the technology are constantly competing to maintain and increase market share. One of their most important strategies is to deploy new and better hardware and software than their competitor. This constant change of products means employees that use these new and upgraded products, to remain efficient, need to be trained and kept up to date.

To make sure the technology plan is kept relevant and up to date, consider having one primary and one secondary person responsible. Both people need to live and breathe technology. Their responsibility is to keep the technology plan current, but also escalate problems and just as importantly, relevant new ideas that will help the business. As the owner of the business, if you delegate managing the technology to another employee, make sure you understand the difficulties they face staying on top of it all. Technology is supposed to serve us and the business. Because of its constant changes and oftentimes being deployed before it is truly ready for the market it can be a bear.

Measuring the performance of the business is the role of the Performance Plan. Part 10 of this article series looks at the need to score and then tweak so the business knows its success meeting annual financial goals.

Chances are you have a list of projects and tasks you want and need to do. It probably doesn’t include answering phones, sending and receiving emails, reading articles and newsletters, attending conferences, staying on top of compliance items that affect your industry but numerous day to day activities that lead most entrepreneurs at the end of the day to say “Where did the day go?” And that’s the point of a Productivity Plan.

A Productivity Plan is an attempt to put some system into each month, week and day. Whether you are the President of the United States or the unemployed person looking for a job, we all have exactly the same amount of time in a day. While we may not always be able to control who we spend our day with, we can control how we spend it. For example, do you know how much time each day you spend on email? Do you respond to each email as it arrives? If so, you are not being productive. An email is a non urgent means of communication. If it was urgent you would be using the cell phone or other telephone line. The goal of a Productivity Plan is to plan and manage your day, firstly, so you enjoy it and secondly, so you get the important tasks done while the less important tasks wait. Closing down your email so you answer each email in a window of time and then again in the afternoon allows you to be more productive…which is what a Productivity Plan is all about.

You generally work to a month as it coincides with a financial period that most businesses follow where the book-keeper or financial analysts close out the month in preparation for the next month.

What other areas can I address to remain as productive as possible? The starting point is to make a plan each week. You may prefer to set aside a little time to do this late Friday afternoon and therefore plan for all of the next week or you may prefer to do this first thing Monday morning.

Deciding what tasks you need to do in your business will vary greatly from another persons. Not only because you are in different businesses but also because you could be in different industries, and different positions but also at different stages of a life cycle of the business.

If you want some help with what productivity tasks to accept, look at your normal work habits and decide how they can be improved, the tasks that must get done that slows down others, and even consider what you avoid doing or spend too much time procrastinating over. This is where you can improve your productivity.
The best option is to either write your plan in a word processing document or a spreadsheet. Making a written record and spending the time to define what needs to be done is the first step towards success. Another important task is to make sure you allocate a priority – A for urgent, B for needs completing within a reasonable time and finally C for non urgent. The labels I have used are simplistic but they really need to be tweaked for your own situation.
Finally, a Productivity Plan is not about measuring results. A Productivity Plan is about defining AND agreeing what needs to be done with what urgency. Measuring the results of your Productivity Plan is important, but that’s covered by a Performance Plan; which will discuss at another time.

Part 9 of this article series looks at a Technology Plan and how this fits in with the success of a business. Technology is now a key component to most businesses; having it as a tool and asset rather than a drag on the business is critical.

A key way this would help a business transition from a seller to a buyer would be if the seller used a Management Plan. What you may ask is a Management Plan? From my perspective, a Management Plan is where all the critical areas of a business are summarized so if the owner of the business wins the lottery and never wants to work another day in their life in the business and not come to work tomorrow, the business will survive and grow.

What are some things to include in the Management Plan? At a minimum the Management Plan needs to include a summary of key business information. This includes the following:

1. A current and monthly updated summary of all the employees in the business. The rule should be that if any employee needs to be contacted, their information should be available in less than one minute. This information needs to include emergency contacts of each employee, if they are willing to provide it and your State government agency allows you to collect it.

2. A current and monthly updated summary of all suppliers. All suppliers may be too much but at least the suppliers that supply any critical materials or provide more than 5% of the company materials.

3. A current and monthly updated summary of all business support services such as the CPA, attorney(s), financial planner(s), landlord, lenders, government agencies in case any are needed urgently.

4. A critical document that would help any buyer is seeing the business Training Manual. Again this document should be kept up to date and break down each of the current positions of the business. If the business doesn’t currently have this document, start creating it. It’s very easy to do. Have the current person encumbered with that job write down what they do. This is then presented to another member of the business with the instruction to execute what’s provided. If they can do it then the jobs done. If they can’t, it goes back to the person who wrote it for re-writing. If some employees don’t want to write the document as they are concerned they will be let go because anyone now knows how to do their job, hire a student from a local college to come and write things up or hire a technical writer.

5. In addition to the Training manual, put together an Operations manual. Michael Gerber is the master of written procedures. He’s written numerous books including The E Myth and The E Myth Revisited. Very simply, Michael Gerber believes that being a true entrepreneur is being able to take an idea and break it down and writing to the point where each person in the enterprise clearly knows what they need to do to collectively make the enterprise successful.

This is the purpose of the Operations manual; to clearly state the business process to achieve an outcome. Would you like an example? Let’s go with the example of a fast food restaurant that sells hamburgers. Let’s choose the person that makes the fries. The Operations manual would break down each step of that process. It starts with where to get the fries, what to do when the quantity of fries in the storage area gets to a critical point and what to do to order more; what temperature they should be stored. The next steps would detail what temperature the oil needs to be to cook the fries, for how long and in what container. Now detail what to do with the fries when they are ready, how much salt to add and in what container to place the cooked fries. Where the containers are stored and what to do when you reach a minimum threshold. You can do this in more detail but the beauty is that once this is done, it only needs to be checked say monthly and now on a consistent basis you can cook and deliver the best fries in the world.

It may seem like a lot of work putting these things together. These suggestions are the tip of the iceberg. What else can you document to make your business easier to operate? Using technology can make doing this so much easier. And remember to make sure you have a backup so all your hard work is not lost.

The most important reason to do this is that by creating this Management plan, your business will be of more interest to the right business buyer. In real estate, there is a rule called the principle of comparison. In simple terms it says that when a buyer is looking to buy a house, they will buy the best option not only on price, but also comparing it to other houses for sale in that area. If the buyer wants a 3 bedroom, 2 car garage, 2 bath house in a specific school district and they have 3 to choose from, they will not necessarily make their final decision on price but it could be features, for example, because one has a swimming pool… or not. The bottom line is that a strong and clearly laid out Management Plan adds value to a business being sold.

Part 8 of this article series looks at the value in creating a Productivity Plan and its importance to defining what and how things need to be done so the business is successful.

So what is a Communication Plan?

A Communication Plan is an attempt to standard the message that goes out from the business to its customers. It complements and dovetails with a Business Plan and Sales and Marketing Plan. In some instances there can be an overlap. It includes all written, spoke and electronic communications.

Some of the ingredients of a good Communication Plan include the brand of the business. The brand, with no more than a graphic or a word defines the company. Think of Google and its colors. I expect you would have trouble remembering what letter of the alphabet belongs to each color but there is no mistaking what the word Google means. Similarly, the word Coke. As soon as you read the word Coke the color red comes to mind. So one of the first things to consider in your Communication Plan is the brand and how you want it perceived by the market.

Many business owners choose to hire a brand or image consultant work through this part of the business. They would look at things such as the business name, colors, logos, graphics and other items so that there is a consistent look and feel. Large corporations spend a lot of money getting this right as it quickly represents the company. Consider BP, Subway, Macy’s, United Airlines, FedEx, HP, AT&T and Edward Jones to name a few.

A good way to build a Communication plan is around objectives. For example, it could include excellent customer service, customer retention or loyalty, how to touch each customer be it through a monthly newsletter, email or telephone call. It obviously includes bringing the employees of the business together so they understand any objectives and understand their role of that communication.

Another suggestion includes identifying what tools you will use to communicate to your customers. For example, it can be your website and blog as well as newspaper advertising, magazine ads, posters and even things such as report covers. There is no shortage of ideas.

It’s also important to establish a timetable especially where goals and objectives are attached. The current work environment is overwhelming and requires prioritization; especially if others are involved.

Finally, the communication plan should include measurable results. These results can be established on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. They need to be reviewed on a monthly basis and then communicated back to the team so they know what they are doing is effective, or it isn’t effective, what needs to be changed to achieve the desired results. A final annual report then needs to be provided so it’s archived but available to review each year.

Part 7 of this article series looks at how the Business Plan, Sales and Marketing Plan and Communication Plan are tied together with a Management Plan.

The sales and marketing plan can be as complex and as detailed as you wish to make it. It can include a list of tactics you could deploy, it can list and detail only specific tactics you plan to use or a combination of both. It’s important, though, that you understand how each idea is to be used but you have some idea of the expected results each tactic should bring to the business. There is an old adage in business management: If you cannot measure it you cannot manage it. There is also a famous quote that says “I’m convinced that 50% of my marketing is effective, I just can’t tell which 50%.”

There is also another saying that says “I can’t afford to advertise.” If you cannot afford to advertise then you probably cannot afford to be in business.

Some of the key items you want to see in your sales and marketing plan includes a profile of your typical current customer, what percentage of business they bring, where they come from and how they found you. If you are planning on growing the business by either more of the same type of customer or a different customer demographic, this needs to be defined, measured and made sure it makes good business sense to target. Sales and marketing should always be seen as an investment and just like all other aspects of your business, needs to bring a return that you measure or you need to go and try something else or adjust your sales and marketing plan.

If you are looking for different sales and marketing tactics there is simply no shortage of them. Here are a few suggestions. Each one needs proper consideration and research to make sure it’s the right strategy for your business. These tactics include obvious things like your business cards, office letterhead and stationery, email signature, coupons or flyers as well as things like your website, blog, monthly electronic newsletter, networking, taking someone out to lunch once a week, social networking media such as FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Other strategies could include TV advertising, seminars to educate customers about your service, trade shows, hiring a Public Relations expert, joining local associations such as the Chambers of Commerce or other local business or trade association groups.

Just like your business plan, the sales and marketing plan needs to be a living and breathing document. It needs to include projections and just as importantly, the results from any activities undertaken so you can tweak and constantly improve what you doing. And don’t forget your sales and marketing plan should include how each person in the business answers the phone right through to the book-keeper.

There is no reason your book-keeper and clerical staff cannot answer the phone and offer a monthly special to see if they can bring in new business. It’s a little unconventional but sales and marketing is about getting results, not whether something is conventional or unconventional.

Part 6 of this article series looks at how the Business Plan and Sales and Marketing Plan are tied together with a Communication Plan.

One of the best tools that enable entrepreneurs to be successful is creating and working a business plan. In simple terms there are two types of business plan. The first type of business plan is for a brand new business that is moving towards entering the economy. A new business or enterprise requires a different approach to an existing business as there is a lot of data gathering and initial research to build and make decisions. Additionally, there are a lot of one offs to attend to such as researching and deciding the best legal entity, setting up and creating a proper set of financial records, knowing what business licenses, permits and other regulatory requirements need to be met, creating job descriptions and hiring the right people for those positions, researching technology options, buying the right equipment, getting it setup correctly including any necessary training, and the list goes on.

The second type of business plan is for an existing business. This business plan is probably much easier to create than a business plan for a brand new enterprise, as the business plan should have a basic structure or set of foundations that can form the basis of the business plan. If the business does not have this then consider using the business plan for a new business with one of the first things to create is an organizational chart of the management and support team including their job title and description. If current employees are in place with these positions, have them write the job description and then review to make sure it corresponds to what you expected the position to be doing. Now take this job description and see if it fits into the business plan. If it doesn’t, you have some changes to make, probably including re-training.

If you need sample business plan templates to help you get this critical task started, please visit my website and go to the sample documents tab. There are over 20 free documents available for you to download and use and these include templates of a business plan for a new enterprise as well as an existing business.

As you create the business plan keep the following in mind. Is there an ultimate reason for the business plan? If the business needs to obtain finance then almost without exception, the lender will want to see a business plan so they can understand the current operation of the business and its success and why and how any money being lent will be used.
The best practice is to create a business plan and review it annually. This is because the business plan keeps you honest. It forces you, as the entrepreneur, to have a vision for your business and make sure that vision is realistic and achievable. Additionally, a business plan tends to be a static document. Once it’s created it is easy to forget about. This is a mistake as the business plan is generally built over a period of time. With time comes clarity of thought and purpose and so the business plan provides an anchor for the business and allows the business to be set up so it weathers all four seasons. This is the beauty of the business plan. It allows you to review why you set out in the direction that you did and what benchmarks and measurements you made to determine if you were and are successful. If you are not as successful as you planned, what adjustments do you need to make to get the results that you need?

Other ideas to keep in mind as you build your business include the need to keep financial projections real. A budget is a mandatory document to include with a business plan as it rounds out the strategies and tactics for the business and supports them with a financial snapshot. Another suggestion is to write the business plan as if the reader knows nothing about the business. Include jargon if you need to but too much jargon will make the document irrelevant to the reader who doesn’t talk your talk.

Finally, keep the business plan precise, clear and professional. It’s not the place to rant and rail to explain your management style and it’s not the place for humor. This is a business document and reflects what the business is all about. Each reader brings their own perceptions and preconceived ideas. If the business plan is confusing you may lose the support of a reader that could mean the difference between the success or failure of the business.
With the Business Plan follows the need to create a supporting Sales and Marketing Plan that identifies how the business will attract customers and therefore revenue.

Part 5 of this article series covers how to put together a Sales and Marketing Plan.

Most entrepreneurs do not enjoy numbers. They are happy to relegate the task of debits and credits or journal entries or double entry book-keeping to someone who enjoys it. Define your core competencies and what you do well and then delegate to other people who have the right skill set and aptitude to do the things they do well. In simple business terms it’s called outsourcing.

The problem with outsourcing your personal and business finances is that you can lose track of what all entrepreneurs call the bottom line or their net worth. For different reasons the bottom line tends to move around a bit. I’m not talking about the monthly bank statement bottom line, I’m talking about “taking money off the table” of your business and investing it and moving this into your personal finances such as your 401K, investing in property or some other form of long term investment.

One of the first items to review as part of your financial plan is the legal entity you are using to operate your business. If you operate as a sole proprietor all your personal assets are exposed should you do something wrong. Changing your legal entity to a Corporation or LLC may offer legal protection but get the right advice from an attorney.
In addition to the legal entity, getting an annual review of your insurance products is a wise and fairly cheap investment. Your insurance agent should be willing to reassess your personal and business needs to make sure you have enough life, death, vehicle, health, business interruption and other insurance policies.

Another aspect of your Financial Plan is the performance of your business and if you are transferring profit from the business to fund and maintain your retirement. This advice is best sourced from your personal financial planner as they track trends and performance and can advise whether it’s best to put money into the stock market or other classes of asset allocation. They too have access to a full range of financial products that not only cover investing for your retirement but insurance products, short and long term investment strategies.

The above are all personal or external reviews of your finance. An equally important aspect though is the business. A lot of business owners do an annual check-up just prior to handing over all their documents to their accountant to prepare and report their tax returns. What, however, is a good strategy is doing at least a monthly review of the performance of the business and there are a number of reasons for this. This especially applies if the owner of the business has another member of the family or an employee look after the books. Whether we like it or not, this recession has seen an up-tick in theft from businesses from those entrusted with handling the books. If frequent and relatively detailed reviews are not put in place, money can disappear from the business. A simple strategy of getting a copy of the monthly Profit and Loss Statement, check stubs and bank statements can allow a series of questions and answers to quickly reveal whether or not things are in order. Expenses are always allocated to a category on the Profit and Loss Statement. Doing a test each month on some of the larger categories to make sure there is nothing unknown or unexpected can reveal if any further more detailed checking is required. These tests need to be random and sometimes with little notice.

Finally, if you are looking to buy your business, it will be important to have your financial plan in order. For buying a business this includes knowing what cash you have available to use as a down payment to buy a business. If you plan to borrow money from your inheritance, a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle get a letter in writing so you can show it to a seller and the bank lending you money. You can also borrow money against your 401k plan. This takes time to put together, so make sure you allow the lead time of about 30 days to make this happen. Other parts of your financial plan to get in order are your credit score and credit report. Most third party lenders are looking for a credit score of at least 700 at the moment. It’s also critical to check your credit report to make sure there are no errors on it. Do this as soon as you can as errors take time to correct. Although not related to your financial plan, it’s also important to have an up to date resume as this will be looked at by lenders and possibly the seller if the seller is being asked to carry a note on the selling price.

One of the main reasons for being an entrepreneur is so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. Being an entrepreneur allows you to follow your own dream instead of working for someone else and building their dream. Having a quality and creditable financial plan should be part of your success strategy. And remember, just as our personal fitness changes as we journey through life, so does our financial situation. We recognize that going to a doctor or dentist is good for our personal health, equally good is talking with different financial professionals including estate attorneys to make sure our financial plan is well rounded is just as important.

A solid and well researched Business Plan is one of the three key tools of an entrepreneur’s success. Part 4 of this article series covers why a Business Plan is so important and offers a link to download a business plan template for free.

Entrepreneurs are constantly challenged by many emotional risks. The obvious one is success or failure. For most entrepreneurs, once they come to terms with the financial risk involved with business ownership, their next challenge is coming to terms with the fact that owning a business comes with the possibility it will fail. That alone is a concern but the real concern is what they will say to family and friends.

Another emotional risk which is part of an entrepreneur’s journey is handling the ups and downs. Every entrepreneur hopes there are more ups than downs but the downs are part of the landscape of being a business owner. This means not only emotionally handling these situations but more importantly, building and using different tools and resources so they are available when needed.

A further emotional risk is having the self-confidence and self-belief that you have the skills, tenacity, and acumen to handle all situations. It is a given that the capitalist system goes up and unfortunately and inevitably goes down. Each phase of the economic cycle requires using a different set of tools and approaches. Similarly, each individual business has its ups and downs. Generally they follow the economy but this is not always the case. Many, many new businesses emerge and come to life in a recession. A new entrepreneur sees a need or identifies a trend and takes the idea to the market. The market embraces the idea and so the business moves forward and grows. If the idea is strong enough, it attracts others who also embrace the idea and so competition pushes and refines the idea; another emotion an entrepreneur needs to handle.

So being an entrepreneur comes with different emotional risks. There are many more than the ones I have identified above. However, to help an entrepreneur understand and manage the emotional risks, it’s my suggestion that the first main action the entrepreneur puts together is a life plan. What is a life plan?
A life plan is a very broad and simple document that answers some basic questions. They will vary with the individual and their situation. Part of the reason for writing your plan life is so you can share it with the important people in your life and also as a place for you to come back to on an annual basis or as needed to remind you why you decided to become an entrepreneur.

From my perspective, this is critical. We often decide to do something major in life at a certain point for reasons that make sense at that time. However, our lives are constantly evolving and changing due to many external pressures, almost all of them outside our control. To therefore have a document to look back at and jog your memory why you decided to become an entrepreneur can also help you decide in the future if your objectives have been met and it’s therefore time to try something else in your life. Alternatively, it can be sustaining and invigorating to remind you why you decided to become an entrepreneur and allow you to refocus on that.

Just to repeat an earlier point, it’s important to share your life plan with those who are close to you. Don’t share it too broadly as it may become a document others judge or hold you accountable. It’s not a document of accountability, it’s a place to keep your thoughts so you can be comfortable with the decisions you are making.
Some of the thoughts to keep in your life plan can include what’s personally important to you and what you hope being an entrepreneur will allow you to do. If it’s to support your family and allow you to also contribute to local society, include those thoughts. If values are important to you, what values will you bring to being an entrepreneur? What are your priorities and how do you intend to manage those priorities when they come in conflict with other priorities? What should happen with the business if something happens to you?

The ultimate goal of creating a life plan is so you can become at peace with your decision to become an entrepreneur. As I’ve mentioned, our lives are constantly evolving and changing. We adapt every day to change. Being able to easily and readily adapt to that change will be the main ingredient to your success as an entrepreneur. Understanding why you decided to start that journey in the first place and being able to remind yourself about this will help you make the many decisions along the way and keep you grounded. There is also great value in keeping your life plan up to date, at least on an annual basis. Once again, it will provide a sanctuary for your thoughts in case you are confronted with major events or changes in your life such as a serious health issue, death of a loved one, divorce, the birth of a new child, a major change in the economy or any other unknown situation.

Part 3 of this article series discusses the importance of a Financial Plan to an entrepreneur and includes some suggestions to help make sure your work as an entrepreneur is a financial success for you.

From researching the origins of the song, I came across something interesting. One of the articles I read suggested that the 12 days of Christmas is not about the 12 days prior to Christmas but in fact, the 12 days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany which begins on January 06. When I thought further about this, it naturally combined with another favorite thing we do during the Holiday Season and that is to make New Year’s Resolutions.

New Year’s Resolutions are a powerful opportunity as they allow us to do three separate things. First, look back at our experiences of the last year and decide if it’s been a good year or not and what we could have done differently. Because it puts us in the mood, we also tend to go back and look at more than just the last year but initially the last couple of years and decide where or not it’s been good. Once we start doing that, we obviously look back at our life and decide what we like and what we wish we could do differently.

Our next reflection tends to move to the present where we look at our life and what we now have. We reflect on our family and friends and how important they are to us. We also look at whatever means we use to sustain ourselves and put a roof over our heads, the food on the table, the clothes we wear and the myriad of other things that allow us to live our life.

This then brings us to the final reflection and probably the most exciting and powerful opportunity of all, and that is to look ahead and decide what changes we’d like to make to build and enhance our life and our immediate loved ones. This reflection, for obvious reasons, takes us to both our job and what we are currently doing or, if we own a business, how that business is performing. Regardless of whether we have or don’t have a job or own a business, it’s the time to ask some questions. These questions include whether or not what I am doing is worthwhile and fulfilling, whether it produces the income I need to live the life that I want, what changes I want to make to achieve the personal, financial and emotional goals I’ve set for myself plus more.

For me personally, as I was sitting down to write this and some additional articles for the New Year that I started my own personal introspection. I’m a great believer in looking back and seeing what I’ve done, how I can do things better, did I get close to the goals I set for myself, what’s the next personal and professional development I need to embrace. All this is in the context that I have a great wife and two kids who probably don’t hear that enough, but that’s another story.

So the point of this article is a couple of things. As you embrace the Holiday Season, enjoy it as it is a special time and I wish you nothing but peace and goodwill to all people. If your time allows, sit down and meaningfully decide on your New Year’s resolutions. If your New Year’s resolutions are likely to include either buying or selling a business you may want to consider a thoughtful and logical approach. If you’ve wondered if such a thing exists, I’ve put it together and it’s called “The 12 plans of an Entrepreneur.” For good reason I am unable to convert it to a song and for a better reason I am unable to sing it to you, but whether we are buying or selling a business, the process requires careful and thorough planning. From my own experience of owning and operating five businesses and using the start of the New Year to review where I am at and where I am going, the process includes looking and understanding these 12 areas of a business.

These twelve areas are as follows. Creating, reviewing and sharing your Life Plan, Financial Plan, Business Plan, Sales and Marketing Plan, Communication Plan, Management Plan, Performance Plan, Productivity Plan, Technology Plan, Performance Plan, Disaster Recovery Plan, Exit Plan and Transition Plan.

To explain each area in a little more detail, this is the first of thirteen articles on “The 12 plans of an Entrepreneur.”
My hope for the Holiday season is that you are happy and prosperous.

Part 2 of this article series looks at the importance of a Life Plan to an entrepreneur and cover some tips that will help you decide where you are on your entrepreneurial journey.