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Is Your Business Plan Driving Your Business In The Right Direction?

March 22, 2012 2 Comments

 

Listen to internet radio with Howard Lewinter on Blog Talk Radio

I was talking with Tim Berry, the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software, this week on Talk Business With Howard radio which airs every Wednesday at 11 AM on Blog Talk Radio. Tim and I discussed business plans, business planning and leadership.

I consider Tim to be the entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. Pamela Slim, the author of the best-selling book, Escape from Cubicle Nation, was right when she called Tim, “the Obi-wan Kenobe of business planning“.

Tim shares a great analogy about how to think about business plans.

To paraphrase:

A business plan is much like the steering column on your car. You have to steer the car in order to go somewhere. The car doesn’t arrive at its desired destination by itself. As the driver, you need to have a route in mind. As you put the key in the ignition and begin your journey, you need to constantly be aware of the weather, the traffic or anything that may suddenly come into the path of your vehicle such as a tree in the road.

When the unexpected happens on the road as the driver, just like your role as CEO, president or business owner, you must make constant course corrections along the way. A business plan isn’t any different, whether it’s a long trip across the country or a short trip across town, you must constantly make course corrections to get there – much like how you manage your business, day in and day out, for success.

Tim went on to say that a written business plan is about ”what should happen in your business” so you can better manage or steer your business in the right direction.

If you follow Tim’s advice about business plans and business planning, you will drive your business toward significant, profitable improvements.

Listen to the show for more of Tim Berry’s business wisdom.

 

What are your comments and questions about business plans and business planning?

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  • Rose M

    Hi Howard – I live in South Africa and there is a big time difference between your city and mine – 8 hrs or more.  That then naturally makes it awkward to listen to all these programs you speak of.  But is there is a website i could visit, or a You Tube video I could watch  that would be good.  Can you recommend anything.  My needs are very basic indeed – I don’t want to get any involved business plan material.  Just a simple outline of what to do and what to expect. 

    While reading that part about going off course, I could hear the voice of that woman that does all the guiding and prompting on a GPS – ‘ re-calibrating’.  

  • http://www.talkbusinesswithhoward.com Howard Lewinter

    Hi Rose – Thank you for your post. I have never visited South Africa but I understand that it is a beautiful part of the world! To answer you question, all of the weekly radio shows on Blog Talk Radio are available for replay. You can catch the replays here on my blog and website. Just scroll down the right side column of the page or you can refer back to the posts each week and often there is an audio replay attached to a blog post. Other options include: go directly to my show page on Blog Talk Radio and you will find announcements of upcoming shows plus an archive of past shows which you can listen to any time. Go to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/talkbusinesswithhoward. And you can find all the radio shows on iTunes. I also post links to the show on the Talk Business With Howard page on Facebook – so I invite you to “like” the page and join in the conversation.

    The second half of your question refers to business plans. Definitely check out the site Tim Berry referred to during the radio show this week, bplans.com. Here is url: http://www.bplans.com. The site is an excellent source of information about business plans. Tim Berry also talked about another business option entitled, Live Plan. You can check out the site and see if it fits your needs at this url: http://www.liveplan.com.

    Remember, a business plan can be as simple as one page, depending upon the business and the goals of the business. As Tim Berry remarked during the radio show, the key is to simply “get started”. A business plan is always in flow. It’s always in motion. Put your plan down on paper or on a document using your computer. Then be in action with the plan every day; review monthly, for example; and make it happen for greater business success!

    Does this help to answer your questions?