"What am I supposed to do now in order to be successful in my business?"

"I'm ready to work hard on my business, I'm just not sure what to do next."

If you have ever found yourself asking these questions on Monday morning, you need an Action Plan!

*An Action Plan is a specific, daily set of to-do items that, when accomplished consistently, will result in your success.*

But they don't teach you how to create an action plan in school, so how are you supposed to learn? I learned from asking my mentors and following the examples of successful people. This post is meant to help a few more people learn the steps to action planning that I have pieced together over years of asking, collecting, and trying new ideas. Feel free to post a comment or contact me if you have your own ideas or success stories!

The first step in creating an action plan is to find your WHY. Find your favorite chair, dim the lights, and get a nice pen and a clean sheet of paper (I recommend real paper and pen, but if typing is easier for you, I understand). Write four questions on this piece of paper, and answer them as completely as you can. Give yourself at least 15 minutes for the four questions.

Tip: If you get stuck or blocked, just start free writing whatever comes into your mind. Moving the pen on the paper can get you un-stuck better than doing nothing.

-Why am I really doing this business?

-What does this business allow for me that I wouldn't have otherwise?

-What are the obstacles to my success (both internal and external/circumstantial)?

-What personal strengths and gifts do I have that will help me succeed?

This step is crucial to success because it will help you create a reminder for yourself of why you decided to start a business in the first place, why you will be good at it, and what to watch out for. It may seem corny or fluffy at first, but the first question ALL of my thick-skinned, hard-hitting business mentors ask me is, "WHY are you doing this business? What is going to keep you motivated to succeed?" I refer back to my list frequently, and my answers always inspire me, give me new ideas, or give me a good kick in the backside to refocus my efforts. Remember that this is a work in progress. You can always go back to it and add, delete, or re-do a question.

Advanced Tip: If you need to create a brand for your business, these questions are also a great starting point for focusing your branding ideas.

The second step to creating your action plan is taking an inventory of your resources, including time, money, number of current contacts (your database), and your skills. My marketing plan would be totally different if I had 30 hours/week, $2,000/month, and knew how to design and build webpages with xhtml coding. Decide the hours you are willing to invest in your business, and create your action plan around those hours, not the other way around. If you plan your time after you chose your marketing system, you might end up resenting your business for eating up too much of your free time, and end up either re-doing your plan or quitting (and I don't want that to happen to you. Or me.)

A basic template for taking stock of your resources would look like this:

-Number of contacts I have currently: (how many people do you know?)

-Hours per week I can spend:

-What days/times I can work: (e.g. weekends, nights, lunch hour, etc.)

-Skills I can put to work immediately:

-Amount of money can I spend per month:

-Potential Mentors to ask for guidance:

-Potential business partners:

Be real with yourself about your commitments and resources. A sustainable action plan is better than an overly ambitious one.

The third step in your action plan should be choosing 3-5 marketing systems, based on a specific target market. These 3-5 marketing systems will be the daily grind of your business, so choose them wisely they should fit the following criteria:

~They involve activities you enjoy and excel at.

If you hate writing and can't spell, an article writing campaign may not be the best strategy (unless you have the dough to spend on ghost writers).

~They are directly aimed at your target market.

A campaign directed at health-conscious middle class 20-30somethings looking for environmentally friendly alternative products should be marketed at local health food stores, not the local burger joint.

~They are getting results for you, or have gotten results for someone else in the recent past.

If you're not sure it will work, don't spend a lot of time on it. There are a plethora of good marketing systems out there that other people have already invested years of time and fortunes on - don't re-invent the whole car, use someone else's!

The final step to your action plan is writing your action items in your scheduler, every day. You can use either a virtual scheduler, or a tree-based one, but I recommend the former. The important thing is that you create a daily to-do list that you will refer to every morning, and check off every night. A typical day might read...

~Check email and respond to urgent items

~Update blog with new content and Ping it.

~Send email update to list about new blog entry

~Follow up with new customers from last week

~Send out 15 letters to mailing list

These specific action items will keep you focused on the tasks that will get you results in your business, and keep you from getting sidetracked. They are the vegan-crumbles and potatoes of your business, and with regular consumption, will help grow strong bones.

I hear frequently that the biggest reason new businesses fail is because the owner gets discouraged with their results and gives up within 90 days. I wonder how many of those businesses would have been successful if the owners had worked a consistent action plan past 90 days...

As Eleanor Roosevelt said, "It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan."

So stop wishing and get to planning!

Here's to your success,

~Colin