First Step to Success – Put together a Plan

 

Rapid Business Planning Model

As a retired US Marine Corps officer, tactical and operational planning was a way of life. What was so strange to me when I retired from the Marine Corps was the fact that so few businesses operated according to a plan. Many had certain measurable goals and objectives but had no real plan on how to get there. US Marines are known for many great things but what many ordinary citizens don’t realize is that the foundation of their success is based off of a strict demand upon quality planning. The model that I put together is a modified version of what Marines call the Rapid Response Planning Process (R2P2). In the model, you can see how it flows from left to right. The planning begins after receiving a specific tasking or mission and proceeds through analysis of the tasks (both specified and implied) and continues through identification of essential elements of information (EEI’s). All these planning steps occur in a planning sequence that is designed to give the decision maker enough information to look at several options (courses of action) before he or she makes a decision. By looking at the diagram, you’ll see that the decision actually occurs towards the end of the planning cycle. All too often in the business world I have observed decisions being made without any real planning conducted prior to it. Unfortunately, all too often it’s realized way to late that the plan the business leader decided upon with minimal prior planning considerations, was  non supportable from the start. Unfortunately, way too much time and resources was wasted on a bad decision when with a little preparation, things could have worked out much more favorably. For more information about this process, please contact me as I provide one on one mentoring/consulting services with business leaders looking to improve their business.

Tom

 

Good Links – Proper use of Leverage

You’re probably wondering about what I am talking about but in essence, what I have found is many self employed entrepreneurs end up doing much of the work their business requires themselves. This violates the old philosophy that a business owner should work “On their Business” NOT “In their Business”. One great way of avoiding getting bogged down in the mechanics of your business is by leveraging networks that are thriving and are literally a click away.

One such network is http://www.elance.com. Elance is essentially a modified form/usage of Free lance, except it is an on-line source. At elance, you can post  the requirements for a tasking and have workers from all over the world bid on your job. I recently went to a 3 day seminar and had written over 70 pages of notes. I wanted to be able to up the notes and reorder what I had written so i went on elance and put out the job for note transcription. I received nearly 15 bids in 24 hours and hired someone from Pennsylvania (I’m in Florida) to retype my notes in 24 hours for $50. I received bids from all over the world with many coming from India. At elance, many of the workers also already have a satisfaction rating from their previous jobs/employers so you can also see what type of previous client satisfaction they had. Presently I have a job being bid to build a squeeze page for one of my websites and the bids range from $60 to $350 from people all over the world. I think I will accept one for $80 from a vendor in India w/ a 97% satisfaction rating.

If you don’t like elance, then check out

http://agentsofvalue.com    They are out of the Philippines. I’ve never used them but have heard good things.

 

http://bestjobs.ph    For $650/ month you get full time IT Development.

These are only a couple of sites and hopefully they help you out. Start with a small job and go from there.

Good luck and TGIF!

 

Tom