THE IMPORTANCE OF PLANNING

Planning plays such a massive part of our everyday lives and should be perceived as a natural process. It’s easy as deciding what to do at the weekend or what to have for dinner! But when it comes to your life and your business, it really does need your constant attention. Planning comes after you define your dreams, needs, desires, and ideas for business and life and this is so important for your personal and your business development.

So why is it so important to have a plan in place?

Planning helps you identify your goals. When you’re preparing for the future, it allows you to realise the impact you would like the company to have and figure out exactly what you need to do to get there. If your team is working together to set these goals, then everyone is working toward a common, shared purpose. This then also establishes your shared focus and necessary targets.

Look at Facebook, Google and Amazon, these small ideas became one hell of a business!

And there can be endless benefits to you when you focus on your planning…

• It will give you a sense of direction. Without plans and goals, you will continue to react to daily tasks without considering what will happen in the long run.
• It will focus your attention on your business objectives and results. It will keep you focused on the results that you want and it will motivate your team.
• It will establish a guideline for strong teamwork. Your diverse management groups cannot effectively cooperate in joint projects without a solid plan.
• It will help you pre-empt any suspected problems and cope with the inevitable change. When you foresee these potential issues, it will minimize mistakes and reduce the “surprises” that could occur.
• It will support your decision making. Your decisions are future‐focussed. If your business doesn’t have any plans for the future, it will have very few guidelines for making decisions now.
• It will carve the process for your other management functions. Planning comes first, without knowing which direction your business is taking, the business won’t be able to implement basic activities such as; organizing, staffing and leading.

Your plan should be seen as your road to success; Everything that you need to complete and achieve to get to your end goal, your best possible life.

I meet so many people that can find this sometimes daunting, but there are so many ways to make planning a little bit fun – I never underestimate the power of a visual plan! Something so basic with colour on a timeline, or a vision board can put everything into perspective and will highlight your success and failure. When you bring a plan to life, it will help influence a decision or action that you need to take a certain time.

Planning is such an integral part of your journey, in order for you to stay focused on your goals. Your idea is nothing more than an idea if there is no plan to execute it…

Everyone’s plan is unique but these are some key elements to how we help you get there;

1. What are your objectives? What do you want to achieve? Start with the biggest pictures, the DREAM! What does your best life look like?
2. Milestones. What do you need to achieve your objectives?
3. Estimate. How long will it take me to get there? Identify the resource and effort required to achieve your goals.
4. Schedule. Bring the plan to life, visually! Show the journey with dates, times and tasks.
5. Analyse. Consider all possible outcomes and evaluate any risks associated with each element. Record and manage these risks and make sure they are included in your schedule.
6. Learn. What do you need to learn to help you on this journey? What resources do you need to guide you there.
7. ACTION. You’ve laid your best plan out, you know what you need to do to get there. Now all you need to do is do it!

Believe it or not, this is actually the fun part!

If you would like some help with your planning, then get in touch with Outside ideas today.