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Right this way, Miss Alice
By Larry Galler
May 01, 2010
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Do you remember reading “Alice in Wonderland?”
Alice is walking down the path and comes to a fork in the road.
She looks down one of the paths and then the other, puzzled. She sees the Cheshire Cat on the branch of a tree and asks, “Which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go, either path will take you there,” said the Cat.
Alice was floundering because she, just like many owners of small businesses, failed to define what she wanted or where she wanted to go.
Some business owners don’t have firm short-term and long-term goals. They don’t delegate, lead, or follow-up.
Often, like Alice, who jumped down the Rabbit’s Hole, they jump at opportunities without considering whether those opportunities are appropriate, affordable, or too risky and then they have to deal with the results later.
Your direction — it matters
If you, unlike Alice, do care where you and your business are going, “then it does matter which way you go.”
Business people who know and understand their goals and ambitions write a “vision” to articulate their destination and then business plans, marketing plans, and action plans as steps towards making their vision their reality.
They develop projects that are appropriate to their plans. They don’t find themselves turning and spinning like Alice at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
When I ask a business owner about their long range plans, the typical answer is that they want to be “more successful” or “take their business to the next level.”
But I’ve got to tell you, those are “throwaway answers.” In other words, they just want to somehow satisfy me with any answer and change the subject, but I’ve heard those answers before and understand that they are smoke screens.
So I ask, “What do you mean when you say you ‘want to be more successful?’ or ‘how do you define that next level?’” and watch them squirm while trying to come up with an answer.
What they ultimately describe is what success might feel like, not what success is to them. But what I am really looking for is to know whether they have a vision and can communicate it clearly. Unless they have an understandable vision, they are just like Alice about to go down the Rabbit Hole.
Plan your vision
The vision is a concrete description of the size of their “business of the future” (sales volume $) or geographic area served (local, regional, national, or international) because, if you can describe it, then you are at least on the path towards accomplishing it.
“Success” or “that next level” rarely occurs because someone gets lucky.
Starbucks started out with just one store in 1971 and today has more than 17,000 in 55 countries. Many other one-store coffeehouses have opened and become successful, as their owners have envisioned success, but only one has had the focused vision to open thousands of other coffee shops throughout the country.
Unless you can clearly define what you actually want, then it is impossible to develop a plan to get there.
Let’s say you want to take a vacation in Maine and you will be starting in Florida. It is easy to look at a map and see what direction you will have to travel, the roads to take, the places you might want to stop at for scenery, lodging, and diversions.
On the other hand, if you didn’t have a destination, but only a hazy direction like “north”, you could end up anywhere along that road towards Maine.
I’d love to tell you that, when you do know where you want to go, the road is smooth and traffic flows. Unfortunately, in the real world, even with a good roadmap (or business plan) the road is often bumpy and potholes abound, but without disciplined planning, that road will seem as crazy as “Wonderland.”
So what kind of a plan am I talking about here? I’m not talking about a formal business plan — one you would take to an investor, a bank, or other lending institution. (If you do need to seek a loan or investors, there are many Business Plan templates available at little or no cost on the Internet or from the Small Business Administration and that is a subject for a different article). I’m talking here about an informal strategic plan made of three elements:
1. The vision or a statement of what you want your business to become in the future broken into five-year spans of time.
2. The actions that will be necessary in each year of the first five years. This can be in a simple outline form.
3. The specific actions that will be necessary to implement in detail for the first year. It is preferable that these actions be listed for each month of the first year, but, at a minimum, do it for at least for the first three months. Each action should include timelines (start dates and end dates for each action), budgets (how much will you need to spend on each action and where you will be getting the money to do them) which may require you develop a cash-flow analysis, and personnel requirements (who is going to be responsible for accomplishing each action and how many people in total).
Now, with your roadmap in hand, you are ready to start your journey.
But, like any challenging adventure, you will probably encounter some unforeseen roadblocks.
At least you will be prepared for them and know where you want to go, unlike poor Miss Alice.
Larry Galler specializes in coaching owners of small businesses to grow their businesses through effective marketing, customer retention programs, and systemizing their business practices. Explore how he can help you during a free coaching session by calling (800) 326-7087 or email larry@larrygaller.com. Visit his website at www.oneyeartogreatness.com.
