PLANNING IN REVERSE
Karl Dakin
Capital Coach | Stakeholder Investor Campaigns | Design, Stage, and Manage or Support | Reduce Time, Money, and Risk of Raising Funding | Increase Probability of Success! | Opportunity Management
QUICK CALENDAR
TOMORROW, August 20, Successful Funding show, 8 am MDT, LinkedIn Live – Emiliano De Laurentiis – Learning Management Systems and AI Avatars
NEXT THURSDAY, August 22, Community Revitalization show, 8 am MDT, LinkedIn Live – Stephen Shaff – Community Engagement
?FUNDING HAPPENINGS
Some days, a draw is a win.
Although every day starts with a set of intended outcomes, some days turn routine tasks into stretch goals. A little humor goes a long way to making the day better. I subscribe to?Gaping Void?(it’s free) for thought, providing illustration and commentary on topics of interest to entrepreneurs.
?FUNDING POINT – PLANNING IN REVERSE
?This morning on the Don Cohen show, the topic was business planning. Don kicked off the show with a question to me of “What is the most common failure I see in business plans”? I responded that most business plans I see lack enough detail to be useful. They state a desired outcome which is a vision statement. However, there is little more.
A business plan should be a set of instructions that can be given to a person for implementation. The instructions have to be complete enough that a person can perform all of the tasks without needing supplemental information or having to ask questions. Anything less is only a guideline. This invites team members to figure it out and fill in the blanks. Often with bad results.
The business plan serves as a communication used by all members of the team. ?It informs everyone of what needs to be done, how it will be done and who is responsible.
The development of a business plan will start with the end in mind. This is the outcome that justifies engaging in the good and bad of managing a small business. The goal, too often, is very subjective and open to interpretation. Instead, it should have hard metrics. It should state that selling so many units by date results in a level of profits. The goal should be clear enough that anyone – team members, vendors, and anyone who will participate in the plan’s implementation – knows if you succeeded or failed.
With the goal in mind, the business plan will work backward to define the path between where one is today and the goal. The business plan must be more specific than the words of Horace Greeley in “Go West Young Man.”
Unfortunately, most small businesses stop at this point having set a dollar outcome and then leave the details till later.
Worse yet, a trend as been to declare business plans as of no value and encouraging entrepreneurs to wing it. The thought it that the market will tell them what to do. Since customers are not running the business, this seems like an exercise in futility.
Every task in the business plan and in the capital campaign should be identified. It’s always a question of how much detail is too little or too much.
Once a task is identified, a description should be provided with a clear statement of a metric when the task has been completed successfully. With this start, someone should be tagged as the person primarily responsible for completing the task. A start and end date should be set. A cost – both labor, direct and indirect expenses determined. And one is not done till the person who is responsible acknowledges and accepts the task.
It is helpful to develop plans for each person, business, organization, or government agency to interact with the business. This assures a smooth interface and later finger-pointing if a task is not completed.?
SUCCESSFUL FUNDING
TOMMOROW, August 20, Emiliano De Laurentiis with Knowledge Avatars will be my guest again on the Successful Funding show. Emiliano will share his knowledge of learning management systems (LMS) and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) avatars on just-in-time sharing of knowledge.
You may register in advance to be in the audience for this show at:
LAST TUESDAY, Eric Hanson was my guest again on my Successful Funding show. Our topic of conversation was “Getting to Yes.” We discussed how to tip over an investor to provide funding.
You may view a recording of the show at:
You may view recordings of all past Successful Funding shows at my LinkedIn profile under Events:
领英推荐
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RCI COMMUNITY FUNDS
As a member of this new company, I am working with a team of professionals to craft a new funding mechanism for revitalizing underserved communities.
THIS THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, RCI Community Funds will present the Community Revitalization show with Stephen Shaff of Community Vision as our guest. 8 am MDT on LinkedIn Live.
You may register to be in the audience on LinkedIn at:
LAST THURSDAY, RCI Community Funds hosted another Community Revitalization show. With Bill Huston and I as hosts, Jeff Dangremond was our guest where we discussed impact investing in communities. Jeff provide background on the definition of impact investing, a profile of people who act as impact investors and how investing in communities achieves impact.
You may view a recording of this show at:
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DON COHEN SHOW
THIS MORNING, August 19, I was a guest on Don Cohen’s show as we continued to discuss Funding Tips.
You may see a recording of this show at:
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Don is my mentor and guru on using LinkedIn as a social media platform to build my brand and build my community of individuals and organizations who work like me to help small businesses and communities raise funding.
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SUBSCRIBE
You may subscribe to this Weekly edition of my Instant Funding Newsletter, or you may subscribe to my Daily edition.
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Karl Dakin, the Capital Coach
Dakin Capital LLC
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Capital Coach | Stakeholder Investor Campaigns | Design, Stage, and Manage or Support | Reduce Time, Money, and Risk of Raising Funding | Increase Probability of Success! | Opportunity Management
7 个月Is your plan complete and up to date?