Build a Six-Pack Business Plan for Core Business Stability and Strength!

It’s business planning season again! While you were opening your Crimbo presents you were thinking of what you want to achieve in the coming year. You’re not allowed to have your laptop open, because its “family time” so you’re writing little notes to yourself on your phone so you don’t forget them. And then tomorrow you’ll grab a template off the internet (even though none of them are quite what you want) and build a brilliant business plan. And then next year you’ll use The Plan to drive your business and inform your key decisions and develop core strength.

Regrettably, no you probably won’t. Sobering statistics are against you. A recent study showed that over 97% of Business Plans were never referred to again after completion. Tragic when one thinks of the hours that went into populating the crappy template, and banging away on a calculator (because you just can’t trust Excel, can you!) to arrive at a set of numbers which in their heart of hearts the Authors knew were totally unrealistic.

Fail to Plan….Plan to Fail. 

You’ve heard that old saying before, I’m sure. Well here’s a new version “Plan and Fail Anyway!” Yup. It’s true. Look, people know they need business plans. That’s why Business Plan templates are the most searched for business item on Google. Nearly 100,000 searches per month. (Which is why we’re developing a fabulously easy to use and powerful on-line version).

But what happens? Why do so many of them never get used? Simple, really. The Business Plan is not connected to the day to day running of the business. So here’s a fun way to think about bringing your business Plan INTO the business, so it doesn’t gather dust on a top shelf somewhere. 

How to develop core strength for your business:

Six-Pack Routine Number 1. Book your workout dates 

Make sure your business plan has a set of dates embedded in it for checking on progress against plan objectives. 

Example: You review the plan monthly on the dates you have entered in your Outlook calendar… or phone… or whatever. And then you DO IT! You and your team (or the cat if you don’t have a team) review progress against objectives and timelines, making adjustments to both as required. 

The best business I ever worked for was transformed from a sleepy company into an international leader by Kevin Roberts, until recently the Executive Chairman of Saatchi, using the business planning process he had learnt at Pepsi. It was a brutal awakening, but in less than 6 months the entire organisation had detailed plans and we were completely transforming the business. And Kevin would turn up unannounced to monthly divisional meetings which were embedded in the plan. And if the ENTIRE meeting wasn’t about the plan, results, red flags, and how it was to be adjusted to account for the unexpected, then it was deuced uncomfortable! But that only ever happened once….. otherwise you weren’t at the next meeting.

Make sure your business plan has a set of dates embedded in it for checking on progress against plan objectives.

Six-Pack routine No 2: How much can you lift? 

Set objectives and a way of measuring them. Even croquet, that most diabolical and vicious lawn game played by genteel people with Pimms No. 1 Cup cocktails to hand, has objectives and a scoring system. Tiddlywinks (probably showing my age here!) has specific objectives and a scoring system. 

What’s my point? An amazingly large number of business plans are long on “Omona” (as in “Omona sell lots more widgets next year to a whole bunch of new customers”) and VERY short on the detail. The company I worked in where Roberts made such a rapid difference had been like that. I was in a meeting where someone stood up and said “We need you (Kevin) to help with getting this very difficult change made, because we’ve been trying for 2 years without success”. Roberts said “Break it down. What EXACTLY do you want to achieve?” 

After a bit of anatomy scratching a very clear objective with performance measures was tabled for the very first time in two years. A week later we all met again and Roberts said “My piece is 100% done. Now I expect you guys (and yes, there were women in the room) to achieve your objectives in the same way. Make them specific and measurable… so I can compliment you when you’ve done a good job.” You could have heard the sweat beads forming!

Ensure your business plan is FULL of measurable objectives. Example: Achieve 5% increase in consumer traffic to website by end of Q1. Convert at least 7.5% of those prospects into customers within 24 hours of first contact. 

Six Pack Routine Number 3: Compound muscle exercises  

Delegate responsibility widely. Use your Performance Management process to give those objectives to someone on your team, so everyone is involved in making the plan a reality and strengthening the core. What!!! You don’t have a Performance Management process? So how do you things done through people? You do it all yourself because you can’t trust them to READ YOUR MIND??? Oh, that’s Really efficient…

Six Pack Routine Number 4: Repetitions

Engage with your Team frequently to discuss progress The more often you talk about the Plan, and how its going, the more likely you’ll achieve it. Keeping The Plan in front of your team makes it a living thing, not a vague idea.

Six Pack Routine Number 5: Intense sessions

Find a rallying point  “Win that client!” “Set a new Sales record!” It’s important because you make it so. And everyone can get behind it and work their butts off. Because they know you’re a huge believer in Six Pack Routine Number 6.

Six Pack Routine Number Six: Celebrate Success!

We did it! Really great organisations, large and small, hear this all the time. And they’re wise to celebrate every time. Employee engagement, commitment, loyalty… call it what you will. But EVERYONE likes being part of a winning team and celebrating their success.

Six Pack Business Plans for Core Stability and Strength

So, there you have it. Join the 3% of wildly successful businesses who have learnt how to plan, take action, measure results, and regularly celebrate those results on their way to riotous success! 

As Kevin Roberts demonstrated all those years ago, once you measure it, you can move it. Because what gets measured, gets moved. And your business aint going nowhere without the flexibility, core stability and strength that a well-crafted Six-Pack Business Plan will provide.

 (Steve Ashby is Founder and CEO of Systems4, which is dedicated to helping businesses become GREAT, no matter their size, by getting the basics right. Rapid Change, Rapid Results.)