Finola Howard 0:03
In this episode, I share with you the reasons why so many plans fail and why so many entrepreneurs fail to plan. I pose the question, what if you could build a plan that felt like something you could truly believe in? What could happen then?
I'm Finola Howard, intuitive marketer, your host and founder of how great marketing works, I believe that every business has a story to tell, because that's how the market decides whether to buy or not, and your story has to resonate with who you are and with the people you want to serve. And this podcast is about helping you reach the market in a way that feels right to you. So if you're an entrepreneur with a dream you want to make real, then this is the podcast for you, because great marketing is your truth shared.
So one of the greatest challenges entrepreneurs and business owners face is how to think big picture and still get things done. It's the argument of strategy versus tactics. One is usually sacrificed for the benefit of the other when what they need to do is dance together in harmony with each other, and this is actually one of the key reasons that planning often fails. They fail when they are not integrated into the day to day operations of the business. A strategic plan that you don't know how to implement will never be used. That's why I love this quote from Sun Tzu, strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. That means you need a planning system that allows you to integrate both types of thinking, big picture thinking, with everyday action.
But let's take a moment here to reflect about the other reasons plans fail or people fail to plan. Plans fail because of unrealistic goals or expectations, frequent changes to the plan, lack of discipline around implementation, inflexibility in the plan, which doesn't leave room for unforeseen events or changes in the environment, also insufficient resourcing of the plan due to lack of expertise, monetary or time constraints, and simply not believing in the plan because it isn't aligned with who you are or what you want, or it's not communicated correctly to you or anyone else involved.
On the other side of the coin, we have the question of why people fail to plan, and people fail to plan because it's not a priority, a feeling that it's not actually needed, maybe not knowing how to plan, or not knowing what the end game is, and not knowing how to define that, a fear of committing to that end result. What if you get it wrong? Shame around where you are instead of where you feel you should be, fear of failure. If the plan fails, the idea that you're a failure. In a nutshell, it's usually about fear.
But what if you suspended disbelief for a moment and built your plan just for you? What if you could build a plan that felt like something you could truly believe in the result would be a plan that excited you about your future. You could stick to it because it was yours, not somebody else's version of what you should be doing. You would believe in it because it is your dream. You could resource it because you'd factored in the resources you have and not should have, your doubt about the future would disappear because you decided to create the future you wanted, and no more decision fatigue, just focused action around something that you believe in.
For me, a plan needs to be simple. No 40 page documents here gathering dust on a shelf, and one page is always my preference. Why one page? You ask? Well, one page makes you focus on what matters you just simply can't escape it. One page makes you set realistic goals. That's that lovely, smart, anachronism, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, smart, one page helps you go deep enough without getting bogged down in the detail.
So can I manage my entire business with just one page? You ask? No, but six? Can the right six? Six snapshots of your business that interconnect in a system that gives you the whole picture at a glance. Let me share with you the six one page plans that I actively use with clients and in my own business. Here are the six pages
one, The five year path so you've mapped the route to your end again.
Two, an annual plan that breaks that five year path down year by year.
Three, a 90 day plan that breaks the annual plan down into a bite sized chunk that you can focus on every day.
Four, one page that illustrates the journey you take your customers on to solve their pain.
Five a one page marketing calendar that integrates live campaigns with individual sales targets.
And lastly, a scorecard that keeps you on top of the numbers and on track at a glance. This is a system that makes it all palatable and workable. You don't have to delve into a big report to understand where you are at any point.
So let's break it down a little. Okay, let's start with your five year path to success. That's what I like to call it. It's really visual. It's a step to graph, noting the milestones to get to where you want to go. So take a blank sheet of paper, horizontally facing you, and put a.in the bottom left hand corner of the page, and now put a second.in the top right hand corner and draw a diagonal line between both dots. What you're drawing here is a path to get from where you are. That's the first dot to where you want to go, and that's the second dot. Now we'd love for that pathway to be a straight line that we simply follow to get to our end point.
What's more realistic is a stepped approach, like a stairs or a ladder. One step represents one year. So as you've probably guessed, I want you to put in five steps, one for each year. So let's break that down. Each step is a collection of individual milestones that you need to hit before you move into the following year, no more than two or three and sometimes only one. Milestones are things that change the game for you. They take you to the next level. Otherwise, they're just on your to do list. They could be the size of the community that you want to build, the number of customers you want to have, the type of customers or markets that you want to be in, the level of sales, maybe a new product that you want to develop or want to launch, or even a pivotal role that you want to hire. They've got to make sense at each point, and they've got to flow into each other. One must build on the next. So you're getting exponential growth at each point. Resist your entrepreneurial tendency to want to do it all.
Now, what often happens is entrepreneurs can see what they have to do this year, maybe next year or in the final year, but it's the bit in the middle that always confuses years three and four. They're often empty. You've got to spread those milestones across all five years, otherwise you'll burn out. Pace yourself. You get to set the pace. Remember that.
Let's move on to snapshot number two, and that's the annual plan. And this helps you take that bigger five year picture and bring your focus into this year. And I always incorporate a short vision statement on this plan so that you never lose sight of the end game. And then you can get specific adding target sales for the year and the number of customers new and existing that you need to hit those target sales numbers. Those three things vision target sales and target customers are important as they're all interdependent. They define the success for the year, and then comes with it in the middle. It's about how you'd achieve the milestones you set for yourself for this year of your five year path. Some of these will be self evident projects in themselves, like a new product you're developing or launching. Others. I call levers that, as the name indicates, leverage growth to allow you to hit those milestones you set in the five year path. Levers can be investment in your visibility, a new podcast, you increase reach a robust content, process, marketing automation, partnerships, affiliates, or even a live website, whatever you choose, it needs to deliver on the milestones you set for yourself in that five year path. And this sets the scene for your 90 day plan, which is next.
That 90 day plan is about helping you be more productive in the now, knowing the everyday fulfills the bigger picture, we have moved into implementation now, in the annual plan, you remind yourself of the five year vision for the business. In the 90 day plan, you need to connect to what you want to achieve by the end of each quarter. Your focus for each quarter is the initiative or lever you've identified that will move your business to the next level. Each month you'll break that lever. Down into specific actions so you can fully activate it in your business.
Remember, we're not trying to do it all at once. These actions are not items on your to do list. They are the seeds of your success. They are a practical approach to achieving a milestone, and this is where you put your focus. You still have to accomplish the everyday stuff that's where your actual to do list comes in. We still have a business to run, clients to serve and grow, which are also included visually in this plan.
What we're focused on here is ensuring that you take consistent next level actions as you keep everything else in flow. This is about giving yourself the time to grow without burning you out. And if your quarterly goal seems too big, break it down so you can make it possible.
Step number four, or snapshot number four, is what I call aligning the product journey. Too often. There's a disconnect between the customer and the product journey you can take them on. There's an anxiousness around making the first sale, instead of nurturing that sale and the next one and the next one, you've got to remember that nobody ever got a proposal on their first date for each customer, build out the product journey you take them on, from first noticing you to how they take you for test drive their first purchase to solve their Pain, then the next step and the next step, seeing that on one page for each each customer type is a powerful reminder of your understanding of the life of the customer with you. It informs your entire marketing strategy and keeps you on track. It's also a powerful product development tool, as you nurture new customer types.
Number five. I love this one. The one page marketing calendar is a one page calendar that integrates your sales and your marketing campaigns with sales targets for the year. It connects the dots between marketing and sales too often marketing initiatives are not allocated enough time or resources to deliver the results that are possible, or they end up competing with each other again at the expense of results.
This one page plan allows you to map out the year ahead in terms of content, campaigns and offers that all make sense and work together hitting the numbers you need for success. We bridge the distance between marketing and sales here.
And lastly, the scorecard. Got to make sure you hit the numbers, and if you don't, you've got to be able to see why at a glance. Here's what you need to be tracking on a daily basis for your business to succeed, cash flow, that's debtors, creditors and work in progress. So you know where you are with that leads and prospects like what's coming down the line. You need to know that that funnel and that prospect list is full and keeping your cash flowing in your business over time. Lastly, a content impact statement is what I like to call it. It's all about tracking, list growth, site traffic, where it's coming from, where it's landing, how it's feeding your funnel, and are you getting conversions, the right conversions at every point. That's your scorecard. That's it.
Six page system to run your business. Let me recap them again for you. One is the five year path so you've mapped the route to your end game. Two is an annual plan that breaks that five year path down year by year. Three is a 90 day plan that breaks the annual plan down into a bite sized chunk that you can focus on every day. Four is a one page that you can illustrate the journey you take your customers on to solve their pain. Five is a one page marketing calendar that integrates live campaigns with individual sales targets. And six is a scorecard that keeps you on top of the numbers and on track at a glance. So have a go at putting these simple plans in place for your business, and if you'd like to get access to this proven system that I use every day with clients and in my own business, just click on how great marketing works.com/powerful-planner.
I hope you enjoyed that episode. Reach out and let me know your thoughts in this episode, and if you found the six page planning system useful. Just click on the show notes to find out more about it. And if you'd like to support the show, please leave a five star rating and review on Apple podcast. It truly does help people find the podcast. And we'll be back next week as usual, and until then, take care you.
