A business plan is a serious matter.
A business plan, however, is also a tool that enables you to enjoy life. You should have fun while growing your business. If you are all about work and never play, you might wind up at the end wondering if it was all worth it. You may even question that now!
To borrow a friend's (Jay Van Z.) saying, you don't find too many souls at the pearly gates wishing they would have spent more time at work.
Business planning can be stuffy, stiff, and formal ... if you let it. When we did our annual strategic planning for the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce, the key staff officers went on retreat to a resort near the Oklahoma headquarters. Some of the day was spent planning. The majority of time was spent participating in fun, team-building activities that facilitated a cohesion, added a light atmosphere to the discussions, built camaraderie, and resulted in a powerful operating plan for the coming year. By making planning fun, everyone bought in, and the relationships forged in the process enabled a cooperative, professional working environment that was extremely productive. The team regularly achieved all of the goals established for they year at that session!
You can make planning fun. Richard Branson writes about the importance of not taking yourself too seriously in this article from Entrepreneuer you might want to read - http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217440?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+entrepreneur%2Flatest+%28Entrepreneur+Latest+Updates%29&utm_content=Google+Reader. Everyone wants to enjoy life ... or at least most of the people I know. There are exceptions. Smile! Laugh. Take time for yourself. Enjoy life and the people you care about.
Planning for your business is about your passion. The plan shares your vision with your employees and your customers. It outlines strategies and tactics to follow that mission and enables you - and everyone else - to have fun enjoying what you do.
Our goal is to help you grow your business and have fun in the process.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Small Businesses Drive Our Economy!
Small businesses are the engine that drives our nation's economy. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that small businesses represent 99.7% of all employer firms. All firms! Those businesses employ more than 1/2 of all private-sector employees and pay 44% of the total private payroll in the United States.
Why are small businesses the engine? During the past 15 years, according to the SBA, those small businesses have generated 64% of the net new jobs created. They create more than 1/2 of the non-farm private gross domestic product and hire about 40% of high-tech workers such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers.
A whopping 52% of those small businesses are home-based and 2% are franchise operations. Do those businesses remain home-based? In some cases, yes. In other cases, they grow and expand to become large and succesful.
Ron Weyers and Wally Hilliard started their insurance business in the basement of Ron's home. I wrote (p. 176) in Masters of Success (http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Success-Techniques-Achieving-Business/dp/1932156798) about how they grew that fledgling business into one they sold to a larger firm. They used that capital to start American Medical Security in Green Bay and by 1994 when the Wisconsin firm had more than 2,000 employees, Inc. magazine dubbed it the 21st fastest growing company in the United States.
Stories such as Ron's and Wally's abound in virtually every community. Patrick Deprey started Skyline Technologies (http://www.skylinetechnologies.com/Pages/Default.aspx) in his home on Skyline Boulevard in Green Bay.
As Andrea Kay pointed out in her column in the October 11th edition of the Green Bay Press-Gazette (http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20101011/GPG0703/10110474/1247/GPG03/Andrea-Kay-column--There-s-work-where-needs-need-filling), "maybe it's time to do what you've always talked about: Start your own business."
Fluidity can help you navigate the swirling waters of launching that venture.
Why are small businesses the engine? During the past 15 years, according to the SBA, those small businesses have generated 64% of the net new jobs created. They create more than 1/2 of the non-farm private gross domestic product and hire about 40% of high-tech workers such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers.
A whopping 52% of those small businesses are home-based and 2% are franchise operations. Do those businesses remain home-based? In some cases, yes. In other cases, they grow and expand to become large and succesful.
Ron Weyers and Wally Hilliard started their insurance business in the basement of Ron's home. I wrote (p. 176) in Masters of Success (http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Success-Techniques-Achieving-Business/dp/1932156798) about how they grew that fledgling business into one they sold to a larger firm. They used that capital to start American Medical Security in Green Bay and by 1994 when the Wisconsin firm had more than 2,000 employees, Inc. magazine dubbed it the 21st fastest growing company in the United States.
Stories such as Ron's and Wally's abound in virtually every community. Patrick Deprey started Skyline Technologies (http://www.skylinetechnologies.com/Pages/Default.aspx) in his home on Skyline Boulevard in Green Bay.
As Andrea Kay pointed out in her column in the October 11th edition of the Green Bay Press-Gazette (http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20101011/GPG0703/10110474/1247/GPG03/Andrea-Kay-column--There-s-work-where-needs-need-filling), "maybe it's time to do what you've always talked about: Start your own business."
Fluidity can help you navigate the swirling waters of launching that venture.
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