If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail

This is sort of a companion piece to today’s Feature Article. You can’t just hope that your business reflects your priorities and builds the lifestyle you want, you need to plan for it.

Trouble is, many of us solo-entrepreneurs only have a business plan in our heads rather than on paper. And some don’t have a business plan at all!

The sad truth is about 80% of all small businesses fail within the first 2 years. And it’s usually because they didn’t have a business plan or a marketing strategy.

As Larry Winget says, “Dreams don’t come true, plans do.”

I’m not saying you should give up your dreams. Remember: a goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.

If you want to have a successful business, you must have concrete goals and plan to achieve them. Now don’t freak out. We’re not talking about a 300-page tome that only an MBA would understand. What we’re really talking about is a road map of goals and action steps to create the life and business that you want.

Studies have shown that those who write down their goals accomplish significantly more of them than those who don’t. 

Here are just some of the goals you should have written down for your life and coaching practice:

• Number of new clients you want to attract each month 
  
• Amount of money you want to bring in broken down by month 
  
• New products/services/marketing you want to implement in the next 6 months to a year 
  
• A Marketing Plan including a Marketing Calendar showing both when and how you are going to achieve your money and success goals 
  
• Personal goals such as: staying healthy, vacations, family, and fun 

There are many resources that can help you craft a business plan for your practice including books, classes, seminars, and hiring a your own business coach.

Here’s a simple business success formula that is tried and true:

Your Dream + Goals + Action Steps = SUCCESS

Business Coach & Mentor Barb Wade