The Importance of Planning Your Business & Your Life

If you’re one of those people who loves New Year’s Resolutions, let’s take the time to consider them.

Have you made any progress, or did you decide to give up and try next January again?

In case you haven’t achieved any goals yet (or just skipped making any goals at all), let’s talk about the annual targets you made for your small business instead.

Are you on track to hitting them, or did you change direction for some reason?

Kudos to you if you’re one of those people who eat goals for breakfast!

However, don’t despair if your answers to these questions fall short of your expectations. What you likely need is to learn how to create a plan that will deliver the results you want.

In this article, we’ll discuss everything planning. We’ll discuss the reasons you should always think ahead and lay out the direction you will take to realise your full potential and achieve success and happiness in life and business.

We’ll also cover what can happen if you fail to do so that you will be better motivated to push through this seemingly tedious part of the process.

And finally, we’ll share a step-by-step guide on how to plan for the growth of your business and life in general.   

Why Planning Matters

Sir Winston Churchill once said, “He who fails to plan is planning to fail.”

It might sound absurd at first. Not all great successes in history are brought about by care and deliberation.

Some were spontaneous but incredible feats that resulted in innovations or breakthroughs.

While that’s a comforting thought if you feel constrained by methodical approaches, most of the achievements, convenience and comforts in our day-to-day lives are due to proper planning.

Why?

• Planning sets the direction and pace of your journey to your goals. It defines what, when, how, and with whom it should be done. You won’t second-guess your next step because the path has been laid out already.  

• Your sense of purpose becomes stronger. Everything you do is for a reason. You do not just exist for the sake of it. Instead, there is a mission you must accomplish by carrying out your plan.

• A plan can free you from unnecessary burdens and dilemmas. It will be easier for you to refuse anything or anyone not aligned with what you have set out to do. You’ll feel more confident about your decisions because you have a clear vision of the future you want.
• Contingencies and roadblocks won’t overwhelm you. Though we can’t predict everything that might happen to us, the process of establishing a plan involves thinking of solutions or alternatives that can get you through challenging situations and uncertain times.

• Planning can lessen your regrets. You won’t be left wondering about the what-ifs or might-have-been because you have considered the probable outcomes while creating the plan.  

Are You Setting Yourself Up for Failure?

We live in a fast-paced world. Most of us are primed to take action and deliver the results right away.

Here’s the thing, though.

This kind of strategy has the success rate of shooting at a target with your eyes blindfolded.

Some might get it done through high-level training or sheer luck, but most will fail.

Compare it to someone with enough time and guidance to aim the shot. There’s a chance of failure, of course. But the risks involved are much fewer, and with the right strategy and solid determination, even the inexperienced can hit the bullseye.

To better understand how skipping the planning stage can hinder you from success and happiness, here are the consequences of having no plans in life or business.

You will find it hard to work on your priorities

It’s easy to lose sight of what is truly important, given the pressures and demands we face every day.

You might have committed to a healthier lifestyle by having a balanced diet and exercising regularly.

However, as you juggle your personal matters, relationships, work errands, and other responsibilities, your resolution can get sidelined because it seems less important than you initially thought.

Unfortunately, this shortsightedness can have disastrous results in the long run.

You become more sickly and less able to overcome the challenges that come your way.

Your endurance suffers and, in the end, you will fail to follow through with this particular commitment and get no closer to attaining your long-term goals.

You will feel lost or stuck

Since little to no driving force moves you forward in a particular direction, you become more vulnerable to frustration or despair.

The minor inconveniences or setbacks in your life or business might not bother you now but, over time, they can accumulate like bricks forming into a giant wall.

Without a plan, you might think that the right course of action is to change directions rather than find how you can scale or break down the wall.

That could work – but changing course mid-journey may lead you to winding paths that you’re not even sure will lead to your destination.

On the other hand, some people will give up – assuming there is no other way forward. So, in either case, the lack of a plan fools you into thinking that your original goals are unattainable or unrealistic.

You will become too complacent

Those who live or work without a plan usually fail to realise their full potential.

They go with the flow, regardless of how fast or slow it is.

The direction does not matter as long as it makes them feel like they are heading somewhere.

While some may feel a sense of satisfaction with this, achieving your goals will be much more complicated when you have no control or don’t exert effort to control what is happening around you.

Ultimately, you will fall short of everyone’s expectations—including yours—and waste opportunities that could have pushed you to greater heights.

Step-by-Step Guide on Proper Planning

Planning can do wonders in all aspects of life. When done correctly, it can also help you maintain the balance between personal and work matters. Here are the four steps to creating a plan:

Step 1: Define your goals.

Think about what you want to accomplish. Don’t worry about how you will do it yet—that is the next part. We suggest taking the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) approach.

Let’s say you want to implement a new bookkeeping system by the next quarter. You’re looking for software to help you better track the financial transactions of your growing business. It will improve the internal controls and free up your valuable time for other interests and obligations.

Step 2: Break them down into tasks and milestones.

List all the activities that will bring you closer to your chosen goals. Arrange them in order and assign performance indicators so that you can monitor your progress later on.

In the example given earlier, the tasks may include evaluating at least three potential software to find the best option for your company. Then, consider the training required and how the implementation phase will go.

Step 3: Assign responsibilities and resources.

You don’t have to do everything for your plan to go well.

 Effective leaders are good at delegating tasks. You must also figure out how to allocate your resources in the most practical way.

For instance, you can establish a small team whose aims are to ensure that the system configuration and data migration will go as planned. Remember to prepare a budget and look for financing options if needed.

Step 4: Plot everything down into a schedule

Consolidate every component by creating a schedule. Depending on the scope of the project, it can be on an annual, quarterly, monthly, or weekly basis.

Remember, this schedule isn’t set in stone. You might have to adjust the timing or the plan to suit the circumstances. That’s fine as long as you remain focused on your end goals.

Step 5: Communicate your plan to other people

Whether you’re carrying out the plan on your own or with a team, you should inform others about what you intend to do.

Aside from telling those directly involved, letting others know about your plan can make you feel more committed and accountable.

They can also help you through tricky times by reminding you of your original intentions and motivating you to keep going.

An effective way to communicate a plan is by releasing it in written form. It can be a press release, memorandum, or even a simple blog post. 

Wrapping It Up

Planning begins after recognising a need or grabbing hold of a dream.

It’s the bridge connecting our vision and actions. Without it, we cannot expect to make good progress. Some may take another route only to end up lost, while others might abandon the pursuit entirely.

Preparing a plan involves the same basic steps no matter which aspect of life it will be applied.

Having a plan doesn’t automatically guarantee your success, though. When you begin working according to your plan, you must monitor your progress and adjust as needed. It’s also important to review your performance against your targets periodically.

While all of these may sound like a needlessly long process, the benefits of planning will become evident along the way.

In the words of renowned American writer and lecturer Dale Carnegie:

“An hour of planning can save you ten hours of doing.”