Aaron Hoos

Many small businesses are fueled by passion: Entrepreneurs get a great idea (or they end up hating their manager) and they start their own business. The business itself is loosely assembled and operates somewhat haphazardly.

Eventually, something has to happen.

Either, the wheels fall off and the small business crashes and burns (which is pretty common) or the entrepreneur realizes that things can be tightened up for a more efficient, more profitable operation (which is less common, unfortunately).

At this point, the business transitions from passion to plan. Of course the entrepreneur might still be motivated by his or her passion for whatever they’ve created but the business moves forward in a specific direction.

Making the transition isn’t easy (and if you ask many seasoned entrepreneurs, they’ll recall the passion-fueled years with great fondness) but it needs to be done to ensure your business’ survival. Here’s a simple way to transition…

1. DECIDE ON WHERE YOU WANT TO GO

What kind of business do you want to be in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, 100 years from now? Do you want to be the biggest widget-maker in the world? Do you want to be rich and famous? Do you want to be the best at something? Do you want to leave a local, trusted business for your kids to run? Do you want your business to have a worldwide franchise? Do you want a steady income until retirement, at which point you’ll shut the business down?

This your exit strategy — either you exit your business (by selling it, for example, or by letting someone else run it after you retire) or you and your business exit the marketplace (by shutting your business down, for example). Every business/business owner will have an exit so you should think about it, create an exit strategy, and work toward it (instead of just letting it happen).

2. DETERMINE WHERE YOU ARE NOW

Next, you need to figure out where you are now. It’s easier if you compare your current business with your future one.

For example, if you want to be the next Walmart and right now you own one small corner store, then you know the kinds of measurables that you can use to describe Walmart and you can use those same measurables to describe your current business: For example, annual inventory turnover, annual revenue, annual dollars-spent per customer, etc. Use whatever measurables are appropriate for your industry.

You don’t have to use too many measurables — just a couple are fine.

3. CREATE A LIST OF MILESTONES, ACTIVITIES, AND RESOURCES

After you’ve developed an idea of what you want your business to eventually look like, and you’ve figured out where you are now, you need to build a series of steps to grow.

You’re going to do that by breaking your measurables down into milestones, creating activities to achieve those milestones, and then identifying resources to support your activities. Here’s what I mean in more detail:

Look at each of the measurables that you listed (in the example above, I listed inventory turnover, revenue, dollars-spent… but you might be using different measurables, of course). Break down those measurables into smaller “milestones“.

So if you’re measuring annual revenue, the journey from being a $10,000/year company to a $100,000,000,000/year company doesn’t happen in one step, obviously. Give yourself a realistic timeline and break it down. For example, decide to go from a $10,000/year to a $20,000/year company. Then from a $20,000/year company to a $50,000/year company. Then from a $50,000/year company to a $100,000/year company… and so on. Do this for each measurable you’re going to use.

Once you have these steps in place, figure out what activities you need to do to achieve that milestone. So, to continue using our example, to go from a $10,000/year company to a $20,000/year company you need to identify various marketing and sales activities that will double the number of people through the door or you need to identify various marketing and sales activities that will double the amount of money each person spends.

Create activities for each milestone. (Note: The sooner you plan on implementing this, the more detailed your activities are. You don’t have to plan as much for those 20-year-out milestones. Focus instead on what you can do in the next couple of years).

With your milestones and activities in place, you also want to figure out what resources you need to successfully accomplish those activities. You might need specialized staff or a specific tool or technology or some investment money for more inventory. This is where a lot of small businesses falter — they have some great ideas but they lack the resources to implement. If you know ahead of time what resources you need, you can invest effectively. If you don’t think you can afford those resources, you need to either get some investors, find an alternative, or adjust your timeline.

4. GET STARTED!

You’ve done a lot of work to get to this point. You’ve created what is essentially a business plan (although, in my opinion, it’s way more useful than the kind of business plan most people are familiar with). This business plan is a checklist of things you need to do to grow your business. It’s laid out for you in a measurable, step-by-step list that you simply do, cross off, and move on to the next thing.

• You’ve identified these activities as your key growth activities so build your schedule around these activities. Evaluate all other demands (on your time and on your investment capital) against whether or not they will support or distract from completing the activities and fulfilling your milestones.
• Check your milestones regularly. Are you moving toward them? Be extremely flexible and be willing to scrap different activities if they aren’t effective. Be sure to test your efforts, though, before you make major changes.
• Keep up with trends. There are many trends — in marketing and internet marketing, in your marketplace, in your industry, in your community, in the economy, etc. — that will influence your milestones and your activities and your resources. Make constant adjustments to your course all the time.
• Invest. Remember that you can invest time, money, and effort to accomplish your activities. Depending on which of those three are abundant and which of those three are scarce, you might need to constant revisit the resources section of your plan.
• In spite of all of this strategic planning, don’t lose your passion! Just harness it with this plan.

Whew! There was a lot of text here. Hopefully you weren’t scared off by what I’ve listed because although it can take some time, it’s really a very fun exercise. And the time you invest now to build this plan will help you grow your business in the way YOU want for the years to come.

What is the biggest challenge or problem you face in your business?

What do you feel is keeping you from reaching the next level?

What is the one thing that, if you could eliminate it, would break the chain and truly unleash you?

Hopefully you can think of one thing that you feel is really dogging you. (If you can’t decide between several potential problems, just pick one, follow the steps in this blog post, and come back again in the future to handle another one).

Maybe it’s cold-calling, maybe it’s asking for the order, maybe it’s asking for referrals, maybe it’s organizing your time, maybe it’s getting motivated. Those are the big ones I’ve found either in my own business or working with others.

We tend to identify this one thing (whatever it is) as a huge anchor… but we really don’t do a lot to break that chain and unleash ourselves to reach our true potential.

When was the last time you did something to break that chain? Now’s your chance!

BREAK THE ONE THING THAT IS HOLDING YOU BACK

1. Articulate it. Write it down. Describe it in detail. Break the topic down into granular points and figure out what parts you can do, what parts you can’t do, what parts you like, what parts you don’t. (You might discover that by describing it, you realize that only part of it is a problem rather than the whole thing. For example, maybe you don’t hate cold-calling but only the rejection).
2. Write down your vision of what life would be like once you have mastered it. Take time daily to imagine yourself living out your vision.
3. Write down a measurable goal (with steps) to achieve your vision. If you don’t know all the steps to reach your goal, do as much as you can but leave the rest blank… you’ll fill them in as you go.
4. Mindmap what you know about the topic. As you learn, fill in what you don’t know.
5. Find the top blogs on the topic, bookmark them, and schedule time to read them daily.
6. Schedule time each day to do whatever it this thing is… and plan to do it consistently (more than usual) for at least a month. You might hate it at first but the mandatory routine will help. Also, if it is something that is truly holding you back, you should see some reward for your effort after a month.
7. Find books about the topic and read them.
8. Find a mentor who is an expert in the area and ask them to help you.
9. Start your own blog (on Blogger.com or Posterous.com) to chart your progress. If you want, keep it anonymous so that other people don’t know that it’s you going through the same thing (although people will probably appreciate that you’re so open to sharing your journey).
10. Learn everything you can about the topic with the goal of teaching someone else to become successful at it.
11. Become an expert on the topic. Yes, an expert. Not just a mediocre “I-know-some-of-it” wannabe but an honest-to-goodness world-class expert who other people call because they’re desperate for the same solution.
12. See if you can automate or outsource some of it.
13. Create a checklist (or some other tool) and sit down and do that checklist every single day
14. This one may sound crazy but it’s really not: Find joy in the challenge. Figure out how to thrive and get energized by doing whatever it is that you once feared or struggled at. For me, I used to hate cold-calling… until I discovered that I loved to cross things off of a list with a big stinky Sharpie marker. (Yeah, I’m weird that way). Since then, whenever I needed to make cold calls, I would list 1 through 25 on a piece of paper and then pick up the phone and start calling, looking forward to crossing things off with my Sharpie!

Running your financial or real estate business is complicated enough. So any opportunity to simplify is great. (Here’s a recent blog post about simplifying your selling process!)

Create checklists and flow charts to simplify your business

Yes, it seems almost too simple, right? After all, we already create checklists for when we go grocery shopping or when we have a project around the house… and our daily task list is also a checklist of sorts. But a simple answer is often the best answer! (Hey, even the medical profession has discovered the value of a checklist)

By creating checklists and flowcharts for your business, you become a master over all of your tasks. You also gain several advantages:

• You stop having to remembers stuff, so you can free up your brain to remember that more important stuff!
• You ensure that you don’t miss a step (which can happen even when you do something on autopilot).
• You break something down into basic steps, which can help you to see where you are spending your time (for better or for worse… and sometimes you can identify new profit opportunities that way).
• You identify opportunities to eliminate unnecessary steps and automate or outsource the steps you don’t need to do yourself.
• You highlight some of the areas where you are weaker and stronger, giving you an opportunity to improve or leverage.
• You make things really repeatable if you ever need to train someone to do what you do.
• You turn a big task into smaller tasks which you might be able to more easily fit into a busy schedule.
• You turn a big task into smaller, measurable tasks.
• (For flowcharts specifically) You create opportunities to predict outcomes and identify contingencies.

So, what can you create checklists and flowcharts for? Here are a few ideas:

• Make a list of the things you do everyday. Think of it as a HUGE checklist. Now turn each one of those things into one or more checklists.
• Make a list of the tasks you want to outsource some day. Create checklists for them now. (Yes, even if outsourcing is a long way off. You can still use that checklist yourself!)
• Make a list of the most important revenue-producing tasks you do. Create checklists for each of those.
• For situations where there is some complexity (such as client interactions — initial meetings, sales presentations, fact-finding discussions, etc.) create a flowchart with all of the possible scenarios.

Still want more ideas? Here are a few specific ones for the financial or real estate professionals:

• (For investment professionals) A checklist of the things you need to know about prospect to open their investment account.
• (For all financial and real estate professionals) A checklist of the things you need to know about a client to build rapport.
• (For insurance brokers) A checklist of the things you need to know about a client to sell them insurance.
• (For real estate professionals) A flowchart of most-important to least-important decision-making factors that clients have when searching for the perfect home.
• (For investment professionals) A flowchart of how you review a client’s investment portfolio.
• (For investment professionals) A checklist of what you need to cover whenever your investment client stops in for a visit. (Hint: Be sure to include “Asking for referrals!”).
• (For all financial and real estate professionals) A checklist of conversation starters whenever you meet someone. (Obviously you’ll want to commit this checklist to memory or YOU’LL be a conversation starter for them!).
• (For all financial and real estate professionals) A checklist of things you need to do when you write a blog post.
• (For all financial and real estate professionals) A flowchart of the most likely paths someone takes when you cold call them.
• (For real estate professionals) A checklist of things to bring with you when a client asks to list their home.
• (For real estate investors) A checklist of things to check for when a bird dog tells you about a home.
• (For accountants) A checklist of things to collect from clients when they bring in their taxes

It’s the time of year when we are knee-deep in planning what we want to do for the rest of the year. Stop smoking, lose weight, start eating more cookies, whatever.

Planning is good but by the end of January, there’s a good chance that most of those plans fall apart under the pressure of reality (which is why a lot of year-round gym membership-holders avoid the gym in January to let all the enthusiastic people join and then leave).

Plans don’t always work because their main ingredients are hope and luck. If you want to eliminate hope and luck, try developing a kick-ass plan.

HOW TO CREATE A KICK-ASS PLAN

1. A kick-ass plan starts with a goal and the steps to achieve that goal but if you stop there, you’ve only done what a lot of people do. You’ll do okay (better than if you just create a goal and no steps) but I’m about to show you a way to take your goal-setting up a notch!
2. Next, you need to plus your goal. (Add something to your goal to make it really special — to increase its value and importance). Adjust your steps as necessary.
3. For each step in your plan, identify your capabilities and requirements. Then determine what strengths you have to succeed and what weaknesses you have that could hold you back. Mitigate those weaknesses through investments in automation… or see if there is someone in your network who can help you. (Try tweeting out to your network that you need help in some specific thing and watch what happens. What a great way to see just how much value your network places in you.)
4. Determine how to start strong. For some of you (especially this time of year), this won’t be a problem. But for some, there might be issues of procrastination or feelings of overwhelmedness that need to be conquered first. Figure out if anything is going to hold you back from starting and then figure out how to jam down on the accelerator very early in the project.
5. Starting is good but what you really want to is attain critical mass quickly. This gives your project some life of its own because you see success. Figure out how you define critical mass for your particular project and how you can get there as soon as possible.
6. Next, look for opportunities to maintain momentum. Project inertia ensures that you keep plugging away regardless of the peaks and valleys that you might experience along the way. (Confession: This is another area I’m working on. It’s easy for me to slow down or even stop when the middle-of-the-project doldrums hit). I need to build little motivations into my projects to keep me going. Sometimes it’s as simple as taking a break or rewarding myself with a trip to Starbucks if I get complete a certain number of steps.
7. Determine your finishing alternatives. We all want to achieve a project well but often that “winning finish” isn’t well defined. We need to define it clearly.
8. A winning finish is idea… but it doesn’t always happen. We also need to consider some potential contingencies. You don’t need to go overboard here (or else you’ll end up over-planning and you’ll never get to your project) but you can do a simple A-B-C-D contingency planning: (A) is the ideal finish. (B) is a moderate finish in which some of the winning finish characteristics are present and some are not. (C) is a finish but not something you would define as a win. (D) is if the project doesn’t finish. You’re not grading the project, you’re anticipating what could happen to cause these four potential scenarios and deciding what you can do to make sure an idea finish is the most likely outcome. (For more thoughts on contingency planning, read about a time when I accidentally stabbed myself).
9. If you’re already busy, you’ll need to also do this: Figure out what you’re willing to give up to make it happen. (Note: this is a HUGE area of struggle for me and something I’ve been trying to work on in my own business. I love to do a lot but I’ve started to realize in the past year or two that if I adopt something new, I need to give up something else).
10. Figure out what habits need to change in order to succeed. Do you need to be more diligent so you can blog every day? Do you need to stop procrastinating? Do you need to screw up your courage to make more sales calls? Maybe you need to get desperate!
11. Lastly, become an action figure and blaze forward by doing what needs to be done!. (More on that in this blog post: The entrepreneur’s silver bullet).

If you’ve got this far in my blog, you’re probably thinking to yourself: “Isn’t this insanely time consuming? Is Aaron crazy?”

The answer is yes… to both questions (although there’s nothing I can do about the second question so I’ll just address the first question).

This IS time consuming. But it works. It turns your luck-and-hope plans into real, actionable, achievable kick-ass plans.

Besides, you’ll spend far more time working part-way through your plan and fizzling out than you will if you put in some time in advance to go through these steps. An investment of time at the beginning to develop a kick-ass plan will help your project be more successful, and will help you to achieve it faster and with fewer challenges.

Congratulations for reaching the end of the year!

It’s the end of December. Time to fill out your Monthly Sales Funnel Check-up.

Are you ready for next year?!?

Wondering what the heck a Monthly Sales Funnel Check-up is? Read the first Monthly Sales Funnel Check-up blog post that kicked it all off!