Before you read the article, it is essential to understand that there are no ironclad rules for success. For every sound piece of advice, you can find counterarguments; when everything was done wrong and achieved tremendous success – everything must be tried on and tested.
Planning for the year can usually be challenging. It applies to everything – even playing online casino in India. When there is a blank sheet of paper on the table and specific goals need to be outlined, there can be two extremes – too many goals and no goals at all. How do you solve this contradiction?
Rule 1. Get into a resourceful state.
To begin with, it is essential to determine one’s status. Imagine an entrepreneur who does not sleep well, does not exercise and has arguments in the family. He eats primarily fast food. The company has many tasks, cash breakdowns, pandemic issues, etc. Self is constantly gnawing at himself for various kinds of failures. Reading business magazines, he considers himself a nobody, especially when he sees the cases of those who are already a billionaire at 25 years old. The bottom line is likely to be dismal.
Task #1 is to put yourself into an energetic resourceful state. Any thoughts and planning in a negative form are not likely to be very effective.
You need to relax and get into a good state in any way. Fuss and superfluous emotions block common sense – a good idea will not come to a noisy brain. So how do you get into a resourceful state?
First of all, you need to get enough sleep. So go to bed early, and greet the sunrise – it always gives you more energy, charge, and inspiration.
Take up sports. It’s essential to find a joke that you enjoy, so it’s easier to exercise regularly and not drag yourself to the gym of your will. If you don’t have such a sport, start with at least 5-minute morning walks or a massage course.
Meditate. Meditations can be very effective – there are now many meditation apps. You can start with 5 minutes a day.
Sing. Another way to put yourself in a resourceful state is through songs. Choose fighting songs and have a karaoke session.
Rule 2. Change the Scenery.
The minimum time you should spend planning and creating a vision for the future – is five hours ideally, if you can allocate two or three days for this, with complete disconnection from communications. It is better to go out of town for half a day.
It is desirable to find a place of power that charges and energizes. During work, you must exclude absolutely everything that can distract you – phones, communications, instant messengers. Everything! After two or three hours of planning, any phone call can cross out all the work done, and you’ll have to start all over again.
Rule 3. Look outside and inside for ideas
It is helpful to analyze the current market and create a list of strategic development alternatives before planning. In addition, it will help you choose 1-2-3 vectors of development under which to form already a working plan.
The ideal strategy is to answer the question: at the expense of what and in what market will we be the best and become a monopoly?
Another option to search – for is not from the market but internal motives. Ask the team members a question: what idea can ignite? Collect answers from everyone – everyone should come up with nine options. The first six ideas tend to be on the surface. The remaining three ideas may be the most exciting and are worth thinking about and working on.
Rule 4. Define the planning horizon
Entrepreneurs have different opinions about how long to make a strategy. Some believe that today it is not always possible and appropriate to write an outline for ten years. Now all horizons have become very short. A strategy for a year (2-3 years at most) would be optimal.
It is suggested to write a strategy for 5, 10, and 15 years. It is something like predicting the future, but such a plan will give an approximate vector of movement, which can be adjusted. But the strategy for the next six months, years, or two years should be written in full detail and necessarily on paper.
In a detailed strategy, it is necessary to record:
- What you want to achieve,
- what it will require from you,
- what will be needed from your partners and team?
In addition, answer the question, “How will you respond to market trends and competitors?”
Rule 5. Involve all top management in planning
Many successful entrepreneurs believe that to set clear goals and objectives for the year, and you need to hold an annual strategic session with the entire top management.
Be sure to take these actions:
- Discuss with executives and senior management the primary sources of growth for the company in the next year.
- Identify three key initiatives. They should be the top priority for all top management and each department and division.
- Set specific goals and objectives for the top management for the following year.
Seven qualities of a robust strategy
- A strategy answers the “what?” question and tells you what you do in the marketplace and what products you deliver.
- The strategy answers the question “why?” and reveals the principles and goals of the business.
- The strategy answers the question “how?” and describes the steps to achieve the goals.
- The strategy considers changes in the market—for example, changing trends, socio-economic dynamics, established procedures, and the behavior of other players.
- Your strategy is difficult or impossible to copy.
- The strategy relies on a competitive advantage.
- The strategy increases demand for the company’s products.
- Prepared by the editors of the Knowledge and Services Platform for Business, based on materials from the 120 Seconds project
Rule 6. Do the essentials to the detriment of the secondary
If there are too many goals and directions, you can use the concept of “Take your time.
To have time, you have to be able to cut off unnecessary things, and you should not try to do everything. If there are too many priorities, you have already lost. You need to be able to highlight the main thing and discard the secondary.
Ideally, there will be no more than three strategic objectives. The maximum is five.
Rule 7. Deal with Fears and Risks
When planning grandiose goals, there will always be obstacles to reaching those goals. And what without fears. There will always be fears, which can also get in the way of achieving goals.
You need to understand these fears, bring them to the surface, realize them, and maybe talk. Then they are less likely to affect you
Also, do risk analysis: what could go wrong? Then, for every significant risk, work out a solution plan. If the threat materializes, you may no longer have the time or fortune required to make a sound and balanced plan.
Rule 8. Invite a strong mentor
Suppose we assume that your results are the average of those you interact with most often. In that case, it will be super if you can involve a mentor or mentors in a strategic session—those who have already increased their business 10, 100, or 1000 times.
Also, the whole business reflects the creator and the leader. All barriers in business are barriers in mind, and there are no external barriers on the outside – all obstacles are in the head. And a strong mentor can bring an outside perspective and point out the internal obstacles and limitations.
