“The wise man bridges the gap by laying out the path by means of which he can get from where he is to where he wants to go.“ -John Pierpont Morgan
I have been working on a business plan for years. Sadly not quite as long as I have been in business or I might have seen where I am today. Actually I doubt it, because although I am now convinced that the people who win in business go in with their eyes open, clear about what they are trying to make, sell or otherwise achieve and clear about what it will take to do it. This is why big businesses stay so big. They know the game plan and they have the resources to accomplish it.
The small entrepreneur with dreams and a heart much bigger than their capitol investment would probably quit before he starts if he really got the full plan of what it would take up front. I vividly remember in the first year of my business when I had no idea what a break-even analysis was, let alone how to get there and I met with a recently successful local entrepreneur. He told me two things: ” Figure out your COG’s and you will sleep better.” which only took to about year three and “Making this business bigger only brings you more of this, it isn’t easier, its just bigger.”
Writing a plan once you are in over your head can be discouraging. As you study your competitors who in my segmented market, means they own the market, it is so blatantly clear that a plan could have saved me from all this. On the other hand, if I had known what it would have taken to make this work and backed out at the beginning, I would have missed everything that has made me the loveologist I am today. I may not have been able to save my own marriage the 50 some odd times that the combination of my love oils and writing had managed.
The truth is that Eisenhower had it right when he said, “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” It was probably in war time when he said it, and things were changing about as fast as they were typing up the plan. This is how it is in life 3D, you make your best guess and then have a solid plan B for all the things you couldn’t have seen coming. Maybe this is why, my business plan remains in draft form because from the beginning, I have always agreed with John Lennon’s astute observation that, “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans”
I am almost fully confident that this 7th draft of the ever evolving plan might just make it onto an investor’s desk. It has taken years, but I think I can finally see the plan that might just make my Good Clean Love dreams come true.
