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Never leave your success to chance. Become skilled in the art and science of planning and execution and you’ll have the greatest guarantee of achieving the ultimate small business operation.
When an entrepreneur conjures visions of the future that no one else can imagine, it can be thrilling. It can make you feel like you're about to be part of something big.
Executives who have a great ability to envision a new reality tend to draw people to them in droves. They really are magnetic people.
This type of business creativity of imagining the future is the artful side of planning and execution.
But once those broad brush strokes have painted an intoxicating picture that people are willing to put their all behind, an entrepreneur has to be extraordinarily skilled in bringing it about.
This is where many small business owners can fall short — taking their vision from misty dream to sparkling reality.
Enter the scientific part of planning and execution. Any business owner or entrepreneur should have an effective approach, a foolproof system that will get them from here to there.
When it comes to executing strategic planning within an organization of people, the direct and uncomplicated method below works better than any I have ever seen in my many years of business consulting.
Read on for the-step by-step.
Review Your Business
The first step of being able to envision anything for the future is to have a clear picture of where you're at currently.
In planning and execution, we’re drawing the line from what is to what will be. So you’ve got to include the “what is.”
Start with analyzing the full range of your business: customers, sales, production, expense, profits and everything that falls under these general categories.
Keep it simple and make notes on everything.
Take a look at what your key performance indicators are telling you…
Are profits down?
Do you have adequate leads? Are they being sold?
If the sales are down, what employees are in that department and how are they performing, each one of them?
What does your manpower look like overall? Are you top heavy in some areas, not staffed adequately in others?
What is the production capacity of each area of the business, vs. the actual production being done? Do you need to hire, or get the current staff more efficient? Maybe both?
Make your notes and call for more information and details from your team
as necessary.
Doing this type of review is what will give a business owner the direction and marching orders he can then issue to his team. Never again will he have to wonder, “what instructions should I give my employees?”
Important note: KPI’s (key performance indicators) are the one thing about a business that is not founded on opinion. They are the cold hard facts. Use them as the foundation for your business decisions and directives—always. As long as you keep accurate numbers, they’ll never steer you wrong.
Summarize Your Findings
Once the review is done, write up a summary of your analysis that covers each department of the business.
Again, keep it simple and to the point.
It might go something like this:
The above example shows a weekly snapshot of how a business owner can get improvements and hone the operation from one week to the next. When you are actively managing a business, if you only review things monthly, or worse, only quarterly, things can get too out of control before you have a chance to fix them.
A weekly analysis will keep you in control and your business on track.
Set the Objectives for the New Week
Next, take your notes and create some actionable steps for the coming week.
For instance, the section of notes that state:
Would be converted into the actionable step of:
Be sure to frame the directive in a clear and concise way that leaves no question as to what’s to be done.
These directives will provide the necessary push that will urge the business forward, before bad situations can become worse.
Publish the Summary and Directives
Now that you have some sound objectives based on the factual circumstances of the business, it’s time to publish them.
This is a crucial step. It’s the very start of creating real and positive change in your business.
Publishing your directives will elevate you from being a passive business owner to a dynamic leader, bringing about real change by the strength of your will alone.
Note: the published version will not necessarily be the same as your private, executive summary. You’ll need to frame things in the proper context for the employees (audience) you issue it to.
Here’s what the email and attached weekly summary and directives might look like:
Execute the Plan
Now that you’ve published, it’s time to follow up and execute.
This is when it really helps to have the support of an office manager or executive assistant.
The first step is to ensure everyone in the company has a copy of your directives, and that they’ve read and understood it.
Verification of this can be done one-on-one, or in a staff meeting.
Simply ask your employees if they’ve read their assignment, and if so, ask them what they intend to do to complete the objective.
A large amount of business planning fails to get done because employees either don’t understand what is being requested, or they are unsure of how to go about its execution.
With this simple conversation, you’ll uncover any uncertainty or misunderstanding employees might have and be able to set them firmly to their task.
During the week, you and your exec assistant can check in with them multiple times, whether as part of a production meeting or stopping by their workstation. This will ensure things are moving forward and are on-target for being completed by the deadline.
If you discover difficulties that would prevent execution, get the snarls out of the line through discussions with the responsible employee. Empower them to be problem solvers and push things forward.
Your assistant, if required, can chase up compliance reports at your request, showing evidence of the tasks having been completed and submitting them to you by the deadline.
A large portion of exec assistance duties should be centered around ensuring that the owner’s intentions for the business are carried out. Weekly bonuses for that assistant who achieves a high percentage of compliance to the boss’s orders will usually get you a lot of progress too.
Review Results and Reset Objectives
At the end of the week, the executive reviews what has been completed and the results, as well as what still needs to be done.
He writes up his summary and lays out the new directives or resets the incomplete objectives and republishes.
In this way, his team is coordinated, all working in the right direction, and making progress week after week.
This is the simplest and most effective approach to planning and execution in a small or medium sized business that I have ever seen. Follow this approach consistently, believe in your team, and watch your business grow.
For information on the best way to design an executive dashboard or which KPIs to monitor in your business, read the following articles:
And as always, we want to hear about your success in business! Reach out to us at info@mainstreet-mastery.com
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