5 Business Success Planning Tips
by: Megan Tobin

Plan, Do, Achieve - Business Success

Action planning can help you get there fast!

Let me ask you three questions - Does business success planning sound more fun than business planning? To be successful in business, do you need to take action? Do you take action more quickly and easily when you are having fun, or when you know that your action will make a difference? Answering ‘yes’ to any of the above questions indicates that you are ready for business success planning - an action-oriented approach to help build your business faster. The driving force behind this is the thought that you can move faster and with more ease when you focus on doing what you enjoy and when you understand key requirements to grow your business. This eliminates the worry and loss of time that results when you have no business success plan.

Knowing your ultimate destination, planning and considering your options along the way, and taking focused action to meet milestones, will help you reach that destination one win at a time. This is a key aspect of business success planning - a fun variation on old-fashioned business planning. It’s not just creating a plan document. It’s an action-and-results oriented approach to plan, do and achieve business successes, which helps you to maintain business building momentum and, also, adds to your credibility along the way. Plan, do and achieve, starting with 5 Business Success Planning Tips to move forward fast:

1. Get clear on your purpose and products, and pace yourself – Understand and be able to convey your vision, your mission and why you are in business. Identify and plan competitive products/services to sell today and tomorrow. And, pace yourself. Outline timelines for milestone achievement that will help you to reach your ultimate destination, and get into action.

Think about what products and services you will sell to meet your goals. How will you do it? Why are you the one to deliver this, and what sets your business products and services apart from the competition? Do you have a mantra and mission that propels you forward? Do you know that this is not an overnight journey? Have you identified milestone achievements, so you can pace yourself to get where you need to go?

2. Write it all down – Document everything along your business journey! With good documentation, you will be surprised how much of the work will already be done when you need to share information for marketing, sales, financing, staffing or other business requirements.

Think about customer needs, existing and future products, competitors, suppliers, human resources, etc. Write you findings down to keep track and make sense of them as you explore your business development and take action. It will help you to understand and think through your business, how it will work and the requirements to be successful. Compiling your business success plan along the journey assures that the documentation will be ready when you need it.

3. Validate your plan, share it and always be open to revising it – Share your findings and action results with “independent parties.” Listen carefully to their reactions and recommendations. Be open to making revisions that will help you achieve your milestones and your ultimate goal.

Think about what it will take to be successful, including predictions and thoughts on products, services, financing, market demand and competition. Consider how you will respond to market, technology, financial and other business changes today and tomorrow.

4. Get help to develop and maintain your success plan in order to meet milestone commitments, and be willing to adjust your course as necessary – While you definitely need to commit to milestone achievements and testing your plan out, you may need to change course slightly or shift your business to reach your destinations. Working with a business consultant or coach can help you navigate shifts and stay on track to meet your mark.

Think about what help you need to commit to milestone achievements and testing your plan out. Identify and hire qualified resources who are committed to milestone achievement and your longer-term business success. Where will you find this help?

5. Do the math – Think through (and document) the financial requirements for your business in the near, medium and long-term.

Think about the capital you need to realistically prepare for and attain milestone achievements. How will you track business progress to measure efficient capital deployment and to remain in business? Your investment in the business in terms of time, money and effort is only worthwhile if you know and understand your business financial requirements and can fund activity along the way. This is key to reaching milestone achievements and, then, longer-term vision.

Use these tips to make your business ownership journey success-oriented and rewarding. You can even aim to make it downright fun!

© 2007 Time2Market Inc. All Rights Reserved

About The Author

Megan Tobin, an independent business development coach based in New York and doing business as Time2Market Inc., works with entrepreneurs and business managers on focused-action planning to achieve business results - fast! She emphasizes keeping a positive, yet realistic perspective on the business planning and building process at all times. Her blog can be seen at: http://www.time2marketblog.com http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8753.shtml

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How to Revolutionize Your Retirement Thinking
by: Lin Schreiber

As you think about your retirement life, acknowledge that “who you are” is much more important than “what you do”. This one shift in your belief structure will enhance your chances of having a happier, healthier retirement.

Hate change? If so, you’re in for a rude retirement awakening. Why? Because not since adolescence have you experienced as much change as you will in retirement. Retirement is all about change. Major change. Now before you run screaming from the room, consider this. Change can be a really good thing. And, if you’re going to have the rocking retirement of your dreams, then you will need to embrace change even if you can’t learn to love it.

You hear the word “retirement” and you imagine the room full of admiring colleagues, the gentle retelling of the famous time you messed up, the president’s toast and, finally, the gold watch. Maybe retirement will be the end of your work life. If so, this is the biggest change you’ll experience since birth. Your life will no longer be about “What do you do?” And, that’s actually a gift. Retirement gives you the opportunity to grow into the best possible YOU. “Who you are” is so much more important than “what you do.”

Of course, even if you do have the gold-watch experience, it may not be the end of work as you know it. A 2003 survey conducted for AARP found that many Americans between the ages of 50 and 70 plan to work far into what has traditionally been viewed as their “retirement years.” Nearly half of all pre-retirees (45%) expect to continue working into their 70s or later. Of this group, 27% said they would work until they were in the 70s and 18% said “80 or older,” “never stop work,” or “as long as I am able to work.”

But if you’re done with work, you will need to fill all those hours with something. And the search for how you will spend your time is a change unto itself. Wilma was an executive secretary for over 40 years. She so dreaded the day she would stop working that she did no planning for the inevitable. Always attentive to her appearance, after retirement she devoted her life to resisting the aging process. She primped and shopped and beauty-parlored her days away. She tried Botox and had a face-lift. She was exploring a breast enhancement when her life radically changed. She was diagnosed with breast cancer!

Ironically, her excursion into cosmetic surgery led to early detection and she was back on her feet in no time. But she took life a lot more seriously and was soon the local coordinator for Y-ME, the national breast cancer organization. Her involvement with the group and other women with the disease became a passion that filled her life with purpose and meaning far beyond that of even her working years.

Another other major retirement change is location. If you’re going to move from the four-bedroom house where you raised your children to an apartment in town, then everything is going to be different. Will you be relocating to a warmer climate or moving closer to the grandkids? Even more radical change. And if you’re headed for a retirement community, the biggest change of all, because you’ll no longer have the healthy advantage of being surrounded by people of all ages.

So how do you embrace change? Begin by changing your attitude from one of hostility to one of acceptance. Delight comes later. Consider your daily routine. If you always take the same route to the grocery store, go a different way. If you put both socks on before your shoes, try a sock, a shoe, a sock, a shoe. Add variety to your favorite activities. Try a new hiking trail or even a new restaurant. Learn to go with the flow. Everything is changing around you all the time. Stop fighting it.

If you really want a change, get a new relationship. If you’re single, this might be the perfect time to seek a new mate. But if you’re happily married or in partnership, you can still expand your circle of relationships by seeking out new friends. Take the initiative and make the call to the woman you really liked at the last garden club meeting. Or attend that interesting lecture at the club and see who else turns up. Go out of your way to say hello to someone you don’t know.

And, by the way, if you’re happily married, this retirement thing is going to change everything. There’s more than enough truth to the old adage, “I married you for life, but not for lunch.” Take a lot of time to talk over the future of your marriage once you’re retired long before the golden-watch day arrives. Plan activities you’ll do together or make a deal that you’ll spend some days apart. But whatever you do, don’t let that change sneak up on you.

If you’re heading for retirement, remember what Bob Dylan said, “The times they are a changin’.” But since there’s not much you can do about it, you might as well put a smile on your face, open your arms wide, and welcome newness into your life.

To get started, consider the biggest change you expect in retirement and identify three action steps you can take to help you embrace that change instead of resisting it.

Copyright (c) 2007 Lin Schreiber

About The Author

Certified Retirement Coach Lin Schreiber, author of The Retirement Re-Tool Kit, helps baby boomers revolutionize and redefine their ideas about how they will live life retirement. To claim your free Boomer Transition Kit and copy of 88 Tips for Planning A Healthy, Happy, Enriching Retirement Life, visit her site at http://www.RevolutionizeRetirement.com.

http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8754.shtml

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