planning posts, articles, and infographics

New Year’s Resolutions — Forget About It!

January 5, 2012 by Barbara Weltman
with 50 views

How many times have you promised yourself at the start of a year to lose weight, save money, eliminate debt, get organized, or undertake some other transformation that’s important to you? If you’re like most people (myself included), resolutions usually don’t work. [read more]

2012: Plan Your Year -- Now

December 14, 2011 by Dan Kraus
with 69 views

11 months gone. 1/2 month left – but only about 10 real working days – and the distractions bring that down to about 5. So… What are you doing now that will make next year different than this year? It all comes down to business development. How are you going to better develop your business next year? Marketing? Sales? Customer... [read more]

The Pyramid Scheme for Strategy

December 3, 2010 by Brett Duncan
with 987 views

I’ve been thinking a lot about strategic planning lately. Partly because I’m in the midst of doing some myself, but mostly because I see so many of us struggle with it. Regardless of what we think we know about strategic planning, the actually “doing” always seems to be more cumbersome than expected. To simplify, I wonder if an... [read more]

Marketing One Day at a Time

September 9, 2010 by Barbara Weltman
with 929 views

For a small business owner, marketing responsibilities can seem overwhelming. In smaller firms there is no marketing department staffed with experts in this area; many of the marketing hats are worn by the business owner. The task of marketing by the owner and any employees given marketing roles can become manageable, however, if various aspects of marketing are broken down into smaller, well-defined actions to be taken each day. [read more]

Take off the Cape, Super Yes Man!

February 12, 2010 by Alora Chistiakoff
with 256 views

As I've written before, I firmly believe that entrepreneurship requires a basic level of optimism, simply to get up every day, much less to actually be successful. In addition to being optimistic, successful entrepreneurs also need to have a keen ear for the sound of opportunity knocking -- and then rush to answer the door. Because of... [read more]

Short-cuts and Epiphanies

January 14, 2010 by Dennis Faust
with 145 views

Let me describe a common scenario that I recently relived for the 1000th time in my career: Agree to scope of project and set out to get it done by the due date. Encounter problems that put the date in jeopardy. Deal with stakeholder upset at the prospect of a late delivery date. Someone comes up with a brilliant idea... [read more]

Seven years gone

December 31, 2009 by Seth Godin
with 234 views

A friend worried out loud to me the other day, "I spent the last seven months doing this [job] and I have nothing to show for it. If I had known I would have spent seven months and gotten nothing, you can bet I would have done something a lot more fun." Ten years ago I wrote this post about the decade that ends today. The oughts (the... [read more]

A Great Time for Planning

December 28, 2009 by Tim Berry
with 139 views

It’s a very cold and very foggy morning in Western Oregon on Monday Dec. 28. This is that strange week we get every year, right in the middle of holidays. A lot of companies close. Retail does a lot of business. And it’s a great time for planning. I emphasize planning, not just the plan. Don’t sweat the formality of “the plan,” but... [read more]

Is Your Business Actually Going Somewhere?

October 29, 2009 by Chuck Blakeman
with 109 views

We love to know exactly what the near-term process is we’re supposed to be doing, we’re almost obsessed with it, to the point that at least in business, we’re too often okay with knowing exactly which direction we’re going without any idea where it’s leading us. It’s a little Yogi Berra-like “I don’t know where I’m going but I’m having... [read more]

Making Versus Planning

September 16, 2009 by Albert Wenger
with 142 views

Fred had a good post yesterday about why he considers Y-Combinator the “Best Deal in Startup Land." I believe that also and want to add a key reason for it: An intense focus on making versus planning. By entering Y-Combinator, teams commit themselves to a mad sprint to get something built. Ideally something that works well enough or is... [read more]

Panic and the Rise of Micro Management - Killing Sales From Within

March 23, 2009 by Niall Devitt
with 167 views

Btb Guest Author Paul McCord I’m hearing more and more frustration from both salespeople and sales leaders as the slow economy increases the panic on the part of senior management. Sales are slowing dramatically, profits are down or have completely evaporated, and the pressure is increasing on all levels to produce, produce, produce... [read more]

How far away is your emergency?

March 7, 2009 by Seth Godin
with 118 views

It's amazing that people have so much time to fret about today's emergency but almost no time at all to avoid tomorrow's.A glimpse at the TV and internets shows one talking head after another angsting about today's economy. These are the same people who needed to devote entire hours to mindless trivia nine months ago when they could... [read more]

Dipping Your Toe Into the Social Media Pond

February 25, 2009 by Becky McCray
with 127 views

In this hyper-connected world in which we presently exist, I am still amazed at just how many small business owners have been hesitant to embrace new technology and marketing methods.To be sure, small business owners find themselves in a very unique situation, in fact, most of the business owners that I know (myself included) are tasked... [read more]

Hey chicken, where's your head?

February 24, 2009 by Greg Verdino
with 40 views

No doubt, you're familiar with the phrase "running around like a chicken with its head cut off." In fact, if you work in media, marketing, advertising, PR or (let's face facts) just about any industry at all you're more than just familiar with the phrase -- you might be a living embodiment of it.For the past few years, we ran around... [read more]

Planning for Profitable Growth – What will your success look like?

May 19, 2008 by Wayne Wilson
with 47 views

Goal setting and measurement provide accountability for your mission and vision. Goals help you to visualize what your success will look like as well as providing signposts along the way.[i] The best goals are: Relevant to your mission and vision Achievable with effort Measurable Here are a few examples: A retail distributor... [read more]

The Power of Focus

December 27, 2007 by Gadi Shamia
with 52 views

I just ended a two-day strategy workshop with a small startup, less than 3 years old and 12 employees strong. The CEO and founder figured out after 3 years of being reactive and flexible that being a real software company requires focus and clear strategy and was smart enough to stop everything and take the time to think about what’s... [read more]

More on Passion in Business

December 6, 2007 by Jeff Cornwall
with 65 views

Sam Davidson has a nice follow-up piece to my post the other day on passion at his blog site CoolPeopleCare. He offers a thoughtful four step process that takes you from dreams to passion, from passion to plans, from plans to action, and from action back to dreams. TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) Comments on this Entry:Link to original... [read more]

Podcast of Gary Harpst on Startup BizCast

November 21, 2007 by Skip Reardon
with 39 views

Gary Harpst, CEO and founder of Six Disciplines Corporation, was recently interviewed by host Steve Mullen of Startup BizCast.During the podcast, Gary talks about the importance of planning, as well as a summary of his book "Six Disciplines for Excellence."Listen to the podcast here: Startup BizCast 24 - A Business Plan for your Small... [read more]

Reality vs. theory in a high-growth, bootstrapping business

November 10, 2007 by Pamela Slim
with 69 views

One of the real lessons of getting older is seeing more and more of my idealistic proclamations of youth blown out of the water. These are things like: I will never work for a large, multinational oil corporation (I wasn't an employee, I was a consultant - does that count?) I will never feed my kids sugar until they are 10... [read more]