Business planning, part 4

Well, now that you know I’ve been lazy (Jan 14)
And I’ve told you about some resources I’ve found helpful (Jan 28)
And I’ve explained how I implemented a reasonable household schedule (Feb 12)
Let’s talk about how I’m applying all this to my business planning.

To some degree, I’ve been “playing” at my jewelry business.   I’m not sure whether it’s been a profitable hobby or an extremely part time venture but I’m feeling the need to take it to the next level.  I’ve been depending pretty much solely on craft shows for my sales but it’s time to step it up and go beyond the shows.  Making a plan will be an important part of that effort.

I started by analyzing my business – marketing, practices, activities.  What am I doing right?  What needs improvement?  What tasks need to be done regularly?  Then I set a few goals.  Some goals are very long term, some are more immediate.  But they’re goals (if you don’t have anything to shoot for, you’ll never hit the mark).  My 5 goals for 2013 are:
Improve my online sales
Improve my offline sales
Expand my product offerings
Improve my show displays
Streamline my business record keeping

I considered a customer service goal, but that is an area that is currently satisfactory – need to stay on top of it of course, but it doesn’t require any major changes right now.  And by the way – this analysis has taken place over a couple months and has included discussions with several other people for outside (and maybe more objective) input.  

For each of my goals, I have listed 2-4 strategies.  A strategy is defined as “a plan designed to achieve a particular long term aim” – in this case, broad ideas for achieving my goals.  Each strategy is broken down into specific tasks intended to help implement the strategy (eating an elephant one bite at a time).   So, I have a goal – a purpose to achieve; a strategy – a plan to help achieve my goal; and tasks – the specific activities to carry out the plan.  Example:

Goal:    Expand my product offerings
    Strategy:   research trends in styles and colors
        Task:  talk to beautician about wedding hairstyles
        Task:  read the Pantone color forecast for 2013

        Task:  get the new color swatches from the bridal shop
    Strategy:   learn new techniques
        Task:  take a class in wire working
        Task:  purchase a tutorial on making ear cuffs

        Task:  purchase tools and supplies needed

        Task:  practice techniques to gain proficiency

Now that I have a set of goals and the specific tasks needed to achieve them, I can use this information when planning my days, weeks and months.  I can be more productive because I’m not shifting aimlessly and when I have completed a task, I enjoy a sense of accomplishment.  And while I certainly hope that these efforts will result in greater sales, I can be confident that I’m utilizing a well thought out plan, not wasting precious time on meaningless tasks. 

I’m going to have to be flexible about this at times and prepared to make changes when I see the need.  After all, if I’m successful at increasing my online sales, I’m going to have more product to make, more to ship, more packing to do, more materials ordering to do ... well, you get the idea.  Some of my goals may change ..or at least change in priority.  

I'm adding a goals form that I created -- and hopefully it can be downloaded by you!  You can save it as a jpg file by right clicking on it with your mouse and selecting "Save Image As" from the drop down list. OR to save as a pdf file, click on the Goals Planner title link which will take you to Scribd where you can download it - Scribd is free to join.

   Goals Planner by  

I grew up on a farm and enjoy gardening ...so this is the perfect analogy for me.  A good business is like a plant – it’s a growing, living, changing thing.  The seed is off to a good start and the roots are in good rich soil.  I have a plan in place to nurture it at this stage of growth but like a plant, it may need different care as it matures.  With a little watering, a little feeding, a little weeding and some tender loving care, it will produce an abundance in time.  As it grows, I’ll be keeping an eye on it ... and looking forward to that harvest!

Business Planning Part 3

So far, I’ve confessed my laziness.  (see post for Jan 14)
And I’ve shared a couple resources that I’ve found helpful. (see post for Jan 28)

Now what?

I’ll start with my home plan because it will lay the foundation for business planning.  My goal:  I wanted a cleaning schedule that was easy to manage, kept everything reasonably clean but didn’t overwhelm my life.  I made a list of every room in my house, then made a list of EVERY cleaning activity necessary for each room.  Yes, I included washing windows, cleaning curtains, even washing walls....but don’t panic yet!  I then assigned a frequency to each task.  Some tasks, like doing dishes, are daily tasks.  Some, like washing walls, are done once a year.  Everything else falls somewhere in between.  Oh ..and remember .. you are NOT Martha Stewart!  It doesn’t have to be perfect all the time.  But you do want to keep the common areas clean enough so if your Mom drops in unannounced, you won’t be embarrassed by the size of the dust bunnies!

Once I had my list of tasks done, I looked at the rhythms of our lifestyle.  Our weekends tend to be busier with social and church activities (and these days, craft shows) so I avoided adding any cleaning tasks to Saturdays or Sundays.  And because they are social, I want the house to look decent, so I made sure that the cleaning tasks involving the common areas of the house were added to Fridays.  Make sense?  I intentionally planned that my kitchen,  dining room, living room and bathroom would be clean and ready for those weekend social events.  Tasks needing to be done 3 times per week kind of naturally fell into Mondays - Wednesdays - Fridays while tasks needing to be done 2 times per week fell into Tuesdays and Fridays.  Thursdays ended up being “light” days for me – and became the perfect place to do some of those less frequent tasks like washing windows.  I ended up doing most of my laundry on Thursdays – so most of our clothes would be clean and ready for anything that came up on the weekend.

The beauty of this plan is that once you’ve laid out your schedule and you implement it, you don’t even have to THINK about when tasks need to be done.  We lived for 6 years in a big, old Victorian house – 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a massive living room, 3 kids (2 homeschooled) and assorted neighbor kids.  I could do most of my household tasks on Mondays through Thursdays (except laundry) in about an hour per day.  Fridays took about 2 hours – but the whole house was ready for anything the weekend threw at us. 

My point is that before I developed a cleaning plan, I would look around the house and feel overwhelmed at all I thought had to be done.  Before I laid it all out in black and white, then prioritized, I would see EVERYTHING as a task needing immediate attention.  Once there was a basic plan in place, I was free to do only what was actually necessary, being confident that everything would be done in it’s time.  Having a plan did not constrict me ...it freed me. 

So what does all this mean for developing my business plans?  I’ll get down to some business nitty gritty in a couple weeks.