THE 10 R’S OF SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH PLANNING (6)

Here’s my final thought on writing a plan down. It’s also the most important: 15 pages maximum. It is much easier to write a 50-page tome than it is to codify all your knowledge and thinking and dreams down to their pithy essentials. Scholars disagree on who said, “I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn’t have time.” (I’ve seen attributions to Pearl Buck,Mark Twain, and Marcel Proust, to name but a few.My guess is they all said it at one time or another.) Regardless of
who said it, the sentiment pertains to any written document. Err on the side of being concise. In doing so, you make your plan more direct, easier to read, easier to update, and, therefore, stronger.

8. Repeated
Once all those involved are more or less nodding their heads yes to the growth plan, it then becomes important to share that information with the organization in all forms of communication. First, get a copy of the plan into everyone’s hands. From this point forward, every ad hoc meeting by every division should review the current plan. Every internal
newsletter or memo can highlight aspects of the plan. Your web site can also include plan information, with sensitive data password protected in an intranet application. Even new hires should be brought up to speed right away.

The longer you wait to communicate the growth plan, the more it becomes their plan versus our plan. For some reason, there is a tendency to lose momentum after the arduous task of writing the plan is completed for the first time. Warning: Don’t. To push this onto the back burner is a mistake. Remember: Regularly repeating the plan is a big part of the plan. Get the word out fast and frequently.

Taken From:The 7 Irrefutable rules of Small Businnes Growth

THE 10 R’S OF SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH PLANNING (5)

As I suggested before, most small businesses do have some semblance of a plan. Too often, this means the plan is in the owner’s head, passed on to the next level of management by word-of-mouth on a need-to-know basis. Like the old children’s game of “telephone,” by the time the directive reaches someone who actually needs it to do his or her job, the message has often become hopelessly garbled.

Did you ever see the classic screwball movie Caddyshack? In it, the executive director of the golf club gives specific instructions to the head greenskeeper to “kill all the gophers.” By the time the instructions reach Bill Murray’s character, he’s understood that he is to “kill all the golfers.” The situation is not only hilarious, but also should be familiar to any manager who relies on the spoken word to communicate important information and directions.

The act of writing down notes from the meeting is also imperative. Always assign a nonparticipating scribe. I’ve seen some groups rotate the responsibility among the regular participants. More often than not, there is one person best suited to the role who should take on the task each time.

I once sat in on a planning session that was taped, to be transcribed later into a written format. There was a malfunction, and the entire session was lost. All subsequent attempts over the next few days to re-create even the most general of discussions and decisions were useless. Even when someone would remember something important, someone else would disagree with the conclusion, if not the entire subject. Understand that I have no problem with recording your sessions, given that the technology works. That’s not my point. The point is that things you think you could never forget are often lost when it isn’t written down.

Taken From:The 7 Irrefutable rules of Small Businnes Growth

THE 10 R’S OF SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH PLANNING (4)

6. Responsibilities
Who is going to do what? When are they going to do it? The smaller the organization, the better able the team is to isolate responsibilities. Betty is going to do this and Bob is going to do that before our next planning session. It’s simple to assign and simple to monitor.

As you grow, however, things become decidedly more difficult. Betty’s department will be responsible for this just as soon as she fills the two new positions that have opened up, thanks to our most recent growth spurt. Bob is now in charge of R&D instead of manufacturing, but his old department will be responsible for this and that, while Bob will keep some of this, too, because he’s the only one who knows how to do it. Bob’s replacement is too new to be held responsible for much beyond getting his business cards printed.

While it will undoubtedly be a challenge, resist the temptation to list all the things you wish you could accomplish in a perfect world. If no one has responsibility for a task, you can count on it not getting done anyway. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Don’t put it into the plan until you have someone who can own it.

7. (w)Ritten
Any growth plan should be written down if you expect it to have a lasting impact.When it is written down, the plan takes on the sort of permanence that you need. It can be easily shared with others. Drafts, redos, and improvements can be made over time. Remember, the growth plan is a never-ending process, not an event with a start and stop date.

Taken From:The 7 Irrefutable rules of Small Businnes Growth

THE 10 R’S OF SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH PLANNING (3)

I made effective use of a three-person advisory board. It worked very well for me, but I’ve also seen things work just as well with a skilled facilitator. I don’t have a strong recommendation for how you should proceed on this. However, I do like what my friend Chris DiCenso, president of Growth Strategies Partners, has to say on the subject:

An experienced outside facilitator will provide a streamlined planning process and disciplined focus, challenge “sacred” beliefs, and ensure that all team members provide input to the plan. Unless one of the team members has significant experience developing business strategies, the company will achieve a much better plan with a facilitator.

Chris has helped scores of small businesses in this process, and I respect his views immensely.

5. Results Oriented
The best growth plans are filled with very specific results that stem from a logical interpretation of the current situation and the likely opportunities. To grow the overall business by 25 percent is specific. To increase trial of our new products and services among our targeted prospects and customers from 22 percent to 46 percent by November of next year is even more specific. The more specific you can be now, the
better able you are to measure your performance throughout the life of the plan.

I also like having a quantitative way to keep score, as much for morale as for results. Good people seem to like to “make” whatever number you put in front of them. It’s engaging. It’s challenging. It’s motivating.

Taken From:The 7 Irrefutable rules of Small Businnes Growth

THE 10 R’S OF SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH PLANNING (2)

Once you get a bit of success and can afford it, going out of town for a night is a good idea. Go just far enough so there is a need to spend the night. It’s amazing how much your brain can handle when you fill it up with information and ideas the first afternoon, give it time to digest things overnight, and then set it on problem-solving mode the next morning.

Whatever you do, don’t hold a planning session in your office or place of business. There are simply too many distractions. The same holds true for your house. One more suggestion: no alcohol—not just during the actual meeting times, but even that night after the day’s work is done. I’m no teetotaler, and I could argue that a drink or two might help the creative juices flow. However, it has been my experience that serving alcohol eventually causes problems. You and your team are there to work. Alcohol just gets in the way of the job at hand.

4. Realistic
My grandfather used to quote the Scottish national poet Robert Burns’s (1759–1796) famous line: “O would some power the gift give us to see ourselves as others see us.” (“To a Louse,” verse 8.) It’s so true. Organizations, like people, have a very tough time being truthful with themselves. I have heard many small businesses express wide gaps between who they think they are and who they are in reality. Sometimes the gap lies between the owner and the team. Other times it’s between departments. Most often I see it between the “new” management team and the old guard.

Any plan that seeks to be a road map for growth must include a realistic assessment of who we are now, where we want to be, how we plan to get there, and the resources we’ll need to make the journey successfully. To that end, I advise including at least one outside observer as a realitymonitor.A retired business school professor or successful business owner with some time can be used to sniff out the bull from the believable.

Taken From:The 7 Irrefutable rules of Small Businnes Growth

THE 10 R’S OF SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH PLANNING (1)

I also suggest that there are some common traits to a good growth plan. I know, I just told you to avoid confining structure. That’s not what I mean.What I do mean is that I’ve done quite a bit of growth planning over the years, and I’ve developed some opinions on things you might want to consider when building your growth planning system. I call them the 10 R’s of Small Business Growth Planning.

1. Representative
For any growth plan to succeed, you have to include the entire organization in the process. It can’t be the founder’s plan or the management team’s plan. Some people call this getting buy-in. I call it logical. If I want people to perform at their very best, then it only makes sense to let them have a say in what they plan to achieve and how they plan to go about achieving it. I learned this helpful piece of information early in my career and quite by accident.

2. Research
Knowledge is power—trite, but true, especially in this Information Age economy in which we all live. Synthesize everything you learn from the ongoing efforts recommended in Chapter 4 (Thoroughly Understand the Marketplace) and be sure to include that synthesis in any planning you do.

3. Remote
I highly recommend going offsite for your planning sessions. Finding a conducive environment in which to work is a must. I usually try to find a quiet, secluded banquet room in a quiet, secluded restaurant. For one thing, I’m fond of eating, so it keeps me close to the food. More importantly, it usually doesn’t cost anything for the room if you make it a regular date. Free is good.

Taken From:The 7 Irrefutable rules of Small Businnes Growth

SO WHAT DO I SUGGEST?

I’m an advocate of a DIY (do-it-yourself ) approach to growth planning. In a nutshell, I maintain that an organization like yours will benefit more from building a proprietary system for growth planning, rather than from relying on someone else’s construct. Instead of a fill-in-the-blanks assignment, the actual creation of the process brings positive results in
and of itself.

“We started to think and talk strategically from the very beginning,”
says PrintingForLess.com (PFL) founder, Andrew Field. In the beginning, the planning process was pretty simple. Once a month or so, they would order pizza and get together as a group to discuss any and all things. Not much was written down, but pretty clear goals and directions were established. Field and his key managers also met regularly with their outside board of advisors. “The advisory board really helped us keep our focus early on,” Field adds. This system carried the fast-growth company up to the point of about 30 employees. “Once we got over 30 employees,” says Field, “it was obvious we needed to do something a little more formal- ized. By this point we had written a few plans for the outside world and that helped us see how a written plan could help us
internally as well.”

Since mid-2002, the PFL organization has been developing its own quarterly planning system. Meetings with the outside board are scheduled far in advance. These dates prompt plenty of internal activity by department heads, group leaders, and RATS. (At PFL, RATS are a good thing—it’s an acronym for “research and technical support.”) “Department heads drive this process,” says Field. “Peer pressure between managers to make a goal is the ultimate motivator.” Field cautions against waiting until these quarterly plan reviews to identify bad news. “I tell everybody in the organization, ‘Do what you say you’re going to do, or renegotiate.’We don’t want any surprises.”

Prioritize growth planning every day. Don’t just talk about it—get really good at it. Enjoy the success it brings. Then let the Peter Druckers and Tom Peterses of the world come and study how you did it so others can attempt (and most likely fail) to replicate it. Now that’s a plan.

Taken From:The 7 Irrefutable rules of Small Businnes Growth

Mad Method (2)

The second phase began with the meeting held a few weeks before the final client presentation. Participants representing the various departments came to the meeting armed with their PTB statements and some loose ideas generated by their various departments. A brainstorming session ensued, whereby a wide variety of creative/media directions were discussed. Ultimately, a few specific directions were agreed to by the various departments, and everyone went away to create magic.

The third phase usually started at around 10 P.M. the night before the final client presentation, when it became clear that little had been done and what had been done didn’t really work very well. That’s when this same representative group of people from the second phase simply threw something together that had little to do with logic or the PTB statement. Adrenaline and fear become your ally; the ticking clock and four-hour-old pizza, your enemy. In this foxhole, junior research staffers are just as likely to come up with the perfect treatment as the most seasoned creative director. Sleep-deprived suits (the derogatory but ubiquitous term for account executives) suddenly become jingle writers.

And here’s the amazing thing: This system worked pretty darn well! I personally observed how this antisystem usually generated outstanding solutions to some pretty vexing problems. I’m not suggesting it was the perfect system. However, I did learn something about the method in this madness.

I learned that when you put a bunch of smart people in a room who (1) possess specific knowledge on a subject, (2) represent a wide variety of skill sets, and (3) are scared to death, the results are often surprisingly positive. (I was going to say “synergistic,” but that sounds too Dilbertesque.) I also learned that good ideas can come from the most unlikely of sources, especially when you have surrounded yourself with smart people at all levels (see Chapter 8). Finally, I learned that having all the departments involved fostered a pride of ownership that was carried throughout the organization. People could get behind a plan
that they had a hand in creating.

Taken From:The 7 Irrefutable rules of Small Businnes Growth

Mad Method (1)

I began my career in the rough-and-tumble world of a large Chicago advertising agency. There, when asked to develop an advertising campaign, we usually divided the planning process into three distinct phases

The first phase was characterized by the large amount of time (months, in many cases) everyone spent preparing situational analyses across the many different disciplines and departments within the agency. The competitive landscape was considered, previous introductions were compared and contrasted, focus groups were conducted, and client directives were discussed (and regularly discarded, I might add).

This culminated in the preparation of the permission to believe (PTB) statement. The PTB gave everyone in the organization an idea of what this product/service was and how it was uniquely positioned in the market. O’Grady’s Potato Chips are cut thicker for more potato taste. That one sentence took away a few months of my life one year. We also tested “for better dipping” and “for a heartier snacking experience.”

Taken From:The 7 Irrefutable rules of Small Businnes Growth

WHAT HAVE I GOT AGAINST STRATEGIC PLANNING? (2)

Are you familiar with the cartoon strip Dilbert? In the 1980s, creator Scott Adams tapped into the American office worker’s psyche, beginning by pointing out the dehumanizing management style of corporate America.Worker drones, hanging on in quiet desperation in their cubicles, hope to survive one more day in a world of senseless corporate bureaucracy and mind-numbing doublespeak. What makes it so funny is the truth in it all. For a real chuckle, check out Dilbert’s online mission statement generator at http://www.dilbert.com/comics
/dilbert/games/career/bin/ms.cgi.

Strategic planning doesn’t work for many management teams simply because the terminology surrounding the process has become trivial sounding. That’s especially true for smaller businesses. Those people who matriculate toward either establishing, or working for, a small business tend to be of a certain mind-set. In many cases, escaping the illogical bureaucracies and rhetoric of big business is exactly what has
brought them all together. Spend two days deciding whether your company leverages or maximizes its core competencies, and you’ll have a revolt on your hands.

However, the primary reason I’m not a proponent of strategic planning for the under $10 million business has to do with unnecessary structure. Forcing a young-at-heart, nimble, innovative, irreverent, enthusiastic small business into a catch-all, disciplined, rule-oriented, boring boilerplate format really doesn’t make sense.

It’s analogous to my trying to squeeze into my 10-year-old jeans. I can force it, but it takes unnecessary time and effort, causes some pain, and significantly limits my range of motion. More importantly, the lasting memory of discomfort causes me to look for ways to avoid ever doing it again. It might look okay for a time, but it’s really not worth the pain in the end.

Taken From:The 7 Irrefutable rules of Small Businnes Growth