10 "not-so-secret" steps for business success; Step #2

Step #2 - Figure out where you’re going . . .

There was cover line on a magazine that I once saw that said, “Planning? Who the hell has time to plan?” Of course, the article then went on to applaud the merits and benefits of planning.

It's unfortunate that many businesses and family offices are run on an immediate, daily firefighting mode, with very little consideration for a long-term plan. Of course, how many of us would be willing to risk the outcome of our coveted vacation by just showing up at the airport to randomly pick out a flight that happens to suit us at the time? Probably not many, yet it happens in business all of the time.

The business planning process can help us map a course. It includes two important components:

1. the quantitative plan (the number crunching), and

2. a qualitative plan that includes the details of how to make the numbers "happen”.

Together these components can provide a road map for the business or family office to follow, so as to plot out its trajectory. Of course, events happen that cause things to veer off course, and planning should be fluid so as to adjust accordingly. However, the concept of “the plan” is meant to provide us with a compass of the overall direction to follow.

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