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Do you really need a business plan?
I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve espoused the need for having a formal business plan before. In fact, many clients have hired *ME* to create a huge 50-100 page business plan for their organizations.
However, after considering the issue I’m having second thoughts and maybe you should be too.
* What’s the advantage of a business plan?
* Why should you chuck your current business plan and redesign it?
* How is your business plan damaging your brand and profits?
Come join us tomorrow (Tuesday, August 19th) at 9:30 pm ET / 6:30 pm PT as I discuss “A New Look at an Old Paradigm: Business Plans 2.0″ during my LIVE Broadcast. Remember you have to register with uStream in order to participate in the chat room and ask your business questions live. It’s also an awesome way to connect with other business owners, entrepreneurs and possible strategic alliances.
After the discussion, I’ll be updating this blog post and I’d love to hear your comments on it.
Get the Ball Rolling FAST In Your Business
A friend of mine once called me to let me know he was starting his own business. I congratulated him
and said that if he ever needed any support from me to give me a shout. I hadn’t heard from him in several weeks so I emailed him to find out how everything was going. He wrote back,
“I’ve recently completed my website (of course, it’s a work in progress) and I just don’t know
where to go from here. I feel like I’m preparing to no end; but have not had one client to date. How can I really get the ball rolling? E-mail blasts, mailings, registering on the various search engines; I’m just
not sure which road to take.”
I wrote back a lengthy email with plenty of ideas. In the days that followed, we talked at length
about his strategy. Here are a few bullet points from that dialog:
1) Get out there.
You really have to put yourself out there and get ‘face-time with people
so they get to know, like and trust you. Building relationships is the
main thing. You want people to be able to know you well enough, trust
you deeply enough and think of your professionalism high enough to not
only do business with you, but also refer you to their friends,
colleagues and loved ones.
2) Follow Up. It
is often said that it takes prospects an average of 7 - 9 contacts with
you before you even get on their radar screen, let alone be the chosen
solution for the problem they are seeking to solve. So implement a
follow up system that will allow your prospects to have your contact
information handy and keep on you on top of mind when they need your
services and/or come across a referral.
3) Start in your own
backyard. Did you ever read that classic book, Acres of
Diamonds? The character in that book sells his field and wonders
the world in search of treasures. When he returns to his town an abject
failure, he finds out that his field had a diamond mine. He was sitting
on a fortune all along! So with us, usually, we think we need to have a
global strategy before we master a local strategy. I am a huge proponent
of thinking big, but you need to start somewhere. Make a list of
everyone you know and contact them to let them know you are available
and what services and products you offer. If they’re not in the market
for your services, ask them for three referrals each. And repeat the
process until you’ve reached your sales objective.
4) Specialize. It’s
tempting to offer a ton of services and cast as wide a net as possible.
But that actually hurts your business in the long run. People who try to
be everything to all people usually tend to be perceived as a novice. Or
worse, your prospects may think you are very likely to be
low-balled in your prices because there’s nothing you do extraordinarily
well, so you’ve become a commodity in their eyes where the only thing to
separate you from the competition is how low you’re willing to go. Also,
people tend to think that if you do one thing, you do it well and
command the credibility and prices you deserve.
5) If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Your competition could very well be a hidden treasure
trove of client referrals. Make a list of 5-10 businesses that have a
similar offer as you do, and approach them to become a referral partner.
They may be overloaded with work and can give you the overflow, or
perhaps they have the same offering, but for a different target market
than yours. Take advantage of those subtle differences by serving each
other’s customers. Both you and your competition will look like winners
in your prospects’ eyes.
If you are struggling to drum
up business right now, then you need to be spending 80-90% of your time
marketing your business. I like to call it “rain making.” You can take
very specific action to plant seeds in the beginning of your business (I go over them in detail in the
Mastermind Coaching Gym). That way, when it’s time to make it rain,
you’ve already done the preliminary work and just watch your work bloom.
