Business Planning | Teik Oh

Plan With An Eye To The Outside

Nov 29 2016

When you wrote your last business plan, did you go on a “retreat”?

That’s what most people do – they clear out some time and take their team out of the workplace so they won’t be disturbed, and they spend a couple of days discussing what’s going on in the business and how to improve it and set goals and strategies.

But here’s what’s wrong with this approach – more often than not you discuss and find solutions for problems and opportunities from inside your business, and forget that it’s external stimuli that will have serious and unpredictable effects.

So you go along and implement your plan only to have, one day —– WHAM! A big problem from outside hits you where you weren’t expecting.

Watch this week as I discuss how to plan with an eye to external factors.

Let’s summarise – use PESTLE to analyse and think about the external factors that could have an impact on your plans:

P for Political, being any political changes in your region that could have an impact;

E for Economic, requiring you to look at the local, national and global economy;

S for Social, asking what social trends are happening right now that could affect your business;

T for Technological – what is happening in and outside your industry that is affected by tech changes, social media and so on;

L for Legal, looking for potential changes to the law that could impact your industry;

E for Environmental, including the environment as well as surrounding factors – can any development here affect you?

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How to SWOT!

Oct 11 2016

I’ll bet you that you’ve heard of the term “SWOT”.

In the English-based education system that sometimes describes someone who works “too hard”! But no in this context I mean the management tool that people use to analyse a given situation or business issue.

“SWOT” stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, and the idea is that you assess your business situation or issue by looking at what its strengths and weaknesses are, and what opportunities exist or threats that it faces.

Many people misuse this tool – they take a generic view of the situation and look widely at all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Often they even misunderstand the difference between strengths and weaknesses as opposed to opportunities and threats.

No, as a tool its use is to focus on key issues so that you can make clear decisions and not get swamped by too much information.

In this video I explain how you can use it to provide focus, and eventually identify strategies from the analysis.

There you are, how to use SWOT properly as a management analysis tool!

And remember, use the strengths, fix the weaknesses, exploit opportunities, monitor threats.

Now, the fun really starts when we “talk” about how you use or might use this tool. Click here to leave a comment under the video and tell me 2 ways you have used or will use SWOT!

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Communicating Change

Sep 27 2016

Whatever you’re unsure of, be sure of this – change, like that other word that starts with “S”, happens!

The change can be unplanned, thrust on you, or it can be planned because you see the need to innovate and do something differently.

In either case, you need to communicate that change to all your “stakeholders” – the people who have an interest, financial or emotional, in your business and success. Please, don’t ever think of not communicating changes – planned or unplanned – that’s just poor judgement and I believe unworthy of you. If you are creating or growing your dream business, it is to create a better life for you and the people around you, and the journey has to be transparent and open.

IMHO this means that any change, planned or unplanned, has to be explained – to your spouse and family, to your co-workers and employees, to your contractors and virtual assistants, to your customers, suppliers, bankers, financial and other advisors. They are affected – they need to know.

The question is not “should I tell them”, it’s “how do I tell them so that they come on the journey with me, willingly and collaboratively”?

In this video I discuss 7 steps you should take.

Here they are again:-

Explain the reasons;
Explain the new opportunity;
Explain the new vision;
Allay fear;
Explain your support;
Explain the big picture of the changes; and finally
Get buy-in.

I’m sure you’ve dealt with implementing change in your business, click here to post a comment under the video and tell me a way you have successfully implemented change.

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Back To Front Planning

Sep 20 2016

How do you plan for something? Created some goals right? Identified what you wanted to achieve this year or in 5 years’ time, then worked out strategies on how to get there?

Well, how do you know if those goals and strategies will get you to a place you really desire and not just some random point on the way there? Where even is “there”?

Stephen Covey said it best: “Begin with the end in mind.” I believe that you always have to start your planning from the back end, from where you want to end up, and then go back to where you are now. Otherwise, how can you create goals and strategies to go “forward” when you’re not clear where “forward” actually is?

And I don’t mean some wild and wooly “vision and mission” statement – I mean a clear, quantified, specifically described, ideal future situation. You absolutely need clarity on this before you plan for anything, so that you can ask “Will this goal or strategy or action get me nearer there and only there?”

Watch this video on the one way I recommend to clarify what your “vision” is and what it actually means when it has been achieved.

If you use this method you can cascade the detailing of what your ultimate dream business is, all the way to the detailed steps and actions you need to take – try it out! Remember:-

The first question is “what do I mean by my ideal…..(business)?”
Then keep asking “what do I mean by…..”

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How To Explain Your New Big Plan

Jul 26 2016

So, you’ve completed your plan? Is it a Business Plan, or a Strategic Plan, or perhaps a Marketing Plan?

Whatever it is, apart from starting to implement it – do you know what’s the most important thing for you to do now? Explain it!

Who do you explain it to? Well it depends – if you have a team of employees, you need to explain it to them. If you are a solopreneur and you use contractors, virtual assistants and even friends to help you – you need to explain your plan to them. Even if you work totally alone – you need to explain your plan to at least your spouse and family, if not your bank or other people involved in helping you. These are the people corporates call “stakeholders” and you need to explain your big new plan to them because people hate change, and a plan represents change. If your plan affects them (how could it not?) you need to explain it to them.

I discuss here in this week’s video how you can communicate and explain your plan to them in a way that allays fear and encourages buy-in. It’s exciting to you – make it exciting for them.

So here again are the four points:-

Explain the exciting new opportunity;
Provide the exciting change vision;
Explain the big-picture initiatives; and
Ask for help in making sure everyone knows what to do.

I’d love to hear how you have implemented new plans in your business – and brought your “stakeholders” along – click here to go to the blog and leave a comment under this video telling me how you implemented your plan and communicated it.

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Category - Business Planning

Get FREE weekly ideas to grow your business

Plan With An Eye To The Outside

How to SWOT!

Communicating Change

Back To Front Planning

How To Explain Your New Big Plan

If you want a taste of what you can get for free, download my Entrepreneur’s Business Health Checklist here.