Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Do You Pause And Reflect On Your Business?

May 26, 2009 | Advice, Feature

This last Friday, I decided to take a breather from normal production in my business. I took the laptop to Panera Bread (a local coffee place with free wifi) and sat down to do a little strategic planning.

iStock_000005614684XSmall Do you ever stop and simply reflect? Do you stop and look at the big picture?

Those of us who work for ourselves often end up wearing almost every hat in the business. We do accounting. We write. We create our own products. We do everything. When you’re into these activities on a day-to-day basis, it is really easy to fall into that employee, worker-bee mentality. You begin to lose track of the overall plan and simply turn into an assembly line worker in your own business.

Not good. Not good at all. We’re supposed to be the ones making decisions which guide our businesses into expansion and more income. If we’re too busy working, we’re not doing enough thinking.

So, my advice is to schedule in time to stop working and simply get your bearings.

Strategic Versus Tactical Planning

Strategic planning is the grand plan. It is your plan of attack on a larger scale. It is what guides all the actions which are supposed to take place in the business. These are the tactics. The tactics are the smaller minutia in how you’re going to execute day-to-day operations. But, tactics must be guided by sound strategy.

If you don’t routinely develop and revise your strategies and set forth plans, then all those actions you do every day begin to move rather aimlessly. We work hard but we don’t get anywhere.

Ever had that feeling? I know I have.

Let’s Get Specific

At least once per month, you should take time to simply write down overall plans for your business. Put forth your goals. Set plans that will result in expansion and more income. Also, actually write down what your ideal scene is. In other words, what will your business and day look like if everything is going pretty ideally? Write this down in present terms as if it is actually that way (i.e. "I am making 10 orders per day").

Break your overall plans down into a series of actions that, when executed, will result in that plan being accomplished. If any single action item seems fairly large and not finite in terms of being done in a day or less, then break it down into smaller sub-actions.

When you’re done, you’ll have a list of actions which will make up your daily to-do lists. Because you engaged in this strategic planning, you will know that all your to-do lists contain actions which all align to achieving your goals.

Take Action

If you’re reading this blog, chances are you have an online business already or a blog which you would like to grow into a business. So, sit down with a piece of paper or even just a blank Word document, and write down your OVERALL goals for the business. Make a certain amount of money? Get a certain number of visitors? Launch a new product?

Then, take those items and break them up into a series of actions and sub-actions which will lead to goal accomplishment.

At the beginning of every week, you should schedule time to set forth your to-do items. These items should be based on your planning.

If you do this and do it routinely, I think you’ll find that you start accomplishing things quickly and your actions won’t feel so dispersed.

I know it helps me. I’m human. Sometimes I "work" all day and get to the end of the day feeling like I wasted a lot of time. It isn’t cool.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

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  4. Strategies Vs Tactics – Important To Know For 2009 [#19]
  5. Will Politics Affect our 2007 Business Plans?

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  • Luckily I'm getting better at looking at the bigger picture as well as trying to simplify, automate and outsource as much of my business as I can. I'm still far from my ideal goal of have the business run itself but it is better now than what it has been :)

    /Mikael
  • David,

    Valuable lesson all business people should learn. I love the point you make about separating yourself from your usual work area, and heading for a coffee shop to sit quietly and reflect.

    I'm wondering about how you measure your success. Do you have a set of metrics to measure your performance? Do you have a support group to help you work through some of your planning?
  • mackmcclendon
    Right on point, David.
  • I like this post and it is something I need to do immediately. Very easy trap to fall into, and it is even tougher to break out of. I keep saying "one more week," but I just keep plugging away on the repetition instead of taking a step back.

    I think sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that unless we are sitting down and "working" that we aren't accomplishing anything, but part of being an entrepreneur is knowing when to let go, outsource, or drop a project.
  • Well, right now I haven’t started my own business yet.
  • 47
    I started doing something similar to this in January and it's helped tremendously. One additional thing I do is explicitly show the hierarchy to link each action to a tactic and each tactic to a strategy. That keeps me focused a little more because it reminds me why I'm doing an action.
  • I like Jared's comment about planning too much. I have considered starting numerous businesses but got so bogged down in the planning that they never moved forward and then eventually I just let it die. Now I have another business that I spent time planning but have since moved past that stage and actually started implementing the plan. I just have to remember to go back and plan from time to time just to keep things fresh.

    Nice post David.
  • Great Post David,

    Planning is great you got to do it, mix that with solid action and well now your getting somewhere.

    Just don't get stuck too long in the planning part. I have worked for many companies that have that problem. All planning and no action. Maybe that's why I am looking to forward to working for only be working for myself.

    Jared
  • tombabinszki
    Another very good piece, david.

    What works very well for me is taking those hats one by one I have to wear as a small business owner, and pick the one I'm the least competent in, and consult it out. I always find that money best invested into the business is consulting things out which I'm either not too good at, or it just feels like it is a painful task. After working with a couple of accountants, I found the one I really like. He has saved me days which I was able to spend on my business. Not that he worked on my stuff for days, but because of his help I did not have to spend days on figuring out how to do certain things.
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