When I set up in business in Richmond 30 years ago, working for oneself was not too common, the Chamber of Commerce was not particularly active and I had not heard of the word “Mentor”.
Looking back, I relied on Mark Twain’s two ingredients for business success – namely ignorance and confidence. I made many mistakes, was not particularly focused and in retrospect lucky to have survived.
Roll on 30 years and attending the Richmond Chamber’s Entrepreneurs Conference, it was great to see so many entrepreneurs and “would be” entrepreneurs attending the various seminars and learning from other people’s experiences rather than having to learn from their own mistakes. Thank you Richmond Chamber for organising so well.
At the conference, I held a seminar on Business Planning – a subject I feel passionate about. In the UK this year, there is likely to be 350,000 new companies (that’s almost 1,000 per day) and if they do not have a good plan, their chances of success will be extremely limited.
So here is a synopsis of my Business Planning seminar:
Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, is often attributed with the saying “Failing to Plan is Planning To Fail”.
This year in the UK, around 250,000 companies will cease to trade – that’s a staggering 650 or so per day – and I surmise the vast majority of those companies had never heard of Franklin’s wise words – let alone done anything about it.
Here are five Business Planning Tips to help you run a successful business.
Tip 1 – Getting your plan down in writing helps to expose any weaknesses in your Business Model.
If you have to raise investor monies or loans from Banks, you might have to prepare a full blown Business Plan, which may amount to a dozen, two dozen pages, often more.
But for the majority of companies, five to seven bullet points will often suffice.
A good exercise is to write down your Elevator Pitch, which is to pretend getting into a lift with someone on the ground floor and having 40 seconds to one minute to explain to them exactly what you do. This will really show if your company has focus and direction.
Tip 2 – The real test of a plan is to show it to a business colleague, a critical friend or Mentor because by doing so, your thought process will be challenged and this will give you additional ideas.
To illustrate my point, take Robert Burns’ poem “To a Louse”. Here he describes a good looking lady named Jenny, who was walking down the aisle at church – she was beautifully dressed and on her head she had a lovely hat.
She thought everyone was looking at her because she was so beautiful – but they were all looking at her because on her hat was the most “ginormous” parasite.
This inspired Burns to write the lines (translated into the vernacular):
“Please Lord give us the gift to see ourselves as others see us”
By talking through with others – you will find you have an even better plan.
Tip 3 – if you are not 100% committed to your plan, you will fail.
In Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ book, “Mind Over Matter”, he recounts of one of his most remarkable achievements. For 1,350 miles at a rate of 14 miles a day, he and his partner Dr. Michael Stroud trudged across Antarctica, claiming world records for both the longest unsupported polar journey and the first unsupported crossing of Antarctica.
In the final page, he quotes the Scots Philosopher, William Murray:
“Until one is committed there is hesitancy – the chance to draw back – always ineffectiveness.
The moment one definitely commits oneself – then providence moves too – all sorts of things happen to help one that would otherwise never have occurred”.
Ranulph Fiennes knew he had to be committed to succeed.
Tip 4 – When Microsoft set up in business their Mission statement was to have “ a computer on every desk and in every home”.
But Bill Gates admits that Microsoft should have changed their plans to build their own search engine – by not doing so they lost out heavily to Google.
This is a good example of how in this fast –a – changing business world of to-day, one has to keep re-inventing oneself and continually reviewing one’s plans.
Tip 5 – Outside Twickenham Stadium there is a bronze sculpture – 27 ft tall and weighing five tonnes – it depicts five rugby players jumping in a line-out.
The sculpture is by Gerald Laing and engraved around the bottom of the statue on the pavement are the five core values of the game of rugby union – namely teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship.
Incorporating these five values into your planning process and it will help you build a successful company.
Take on board these five tips – and Franklin’s words “Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail” will never apply to you.
Onwards & Upwards – Norman Jackson
Partner – JFP Strategic Planning
Director – Sunningdale Corporate Finance Limited
Director – London Scottish International Limited