Strategy for Creating Strong Planning Structure at Start-Up

IN THIS ISSUE
* The Importance of Incorporating Strong Planning Structure Into A Start-Up Venture
* News You Can Use - June 3, 2010
* Would Your Company Like to Advertise at No Charge in The 610 Business Journal?
* Say It Again Sam - Things we wish we had said.
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The Importance of Incorporating Strong Planning Structure Into a Start-Up Venture
You are ready to move forward in your business. You have developed a core vision for your company. You have refined your product and identified the compelling benefits for purchasing the product. You have defined your niche market and established a probable demand for the product. You may have even built a prototype of your product and confirmed that it does what it is supposed to do. You are ready to launch your product and your company, right? Not exactly.

Eddie Sajjad, the Marketing Director of Innovative Solutions (Houston, Tx), explains that for any company to move forward from this point, it must create solid structure in the way that it plans for growth and development. In this context, the word, "structure" takes on a very specific meaning. By infusing planning with structure, he means that the plans we make to carry out our objectives become very chronological and very concrete, the execution of each task item critical to the execution of the subsequent task items. The sequencing of each task is set in stone and once the company moves forward, the die is cast and all the rest will become history.

A company at this stage of development is still at base one. The company is nowhere near ready to have a public launch. So what should the principals of the company be doing at this point? They should be building this structured strategy for transforming an idea into a successful business entity. This is the time to identify what will be the important milestones of the company as it prepares for the official launching event. Then the next step is to start with where the company is, to list all the important task items that have to be accomplished  to get to the first milestone and to arrange the tasks in the order they need to be completed. After that, create a list of tasks to be completed to get to the next milestone and to again put the tasks in chronological order. And so on, until the planning reaches the actual launch event. When this planning structure has been created, it can be translated into a checklist that guides the company through each phase. This is the battle plan that is as detailed and as organized as thoroughly as a military campaign. It is the creation of this structured strategy that truly marks the real beginning of the company.

Milestones are significant events on the time-line of the project. Here are some of the more usual milestones for most companies:

• Define the product concept. 
• Complete product design specifications.
• Finish a prototype.
• Raise capital.
• In the market place, test out the product
• Refine the product and market the final product to the customers
• Achieve Breakeven

(from The Art of The Start, by Guy Kawasaki, 2004)

The emerging game plan takes the shape of an outline, with the tasks being broken down into Phases, with the first heading being: Phase One. Under Phase One will be each task in sequence that needs to be accomplished before the first milestone has been reached. Then Phase Two follows with a new set of critical tasks, culminating in reaching the second milestone, as defined for a particular company. And so on, until the company has reached a defining milestone, which marks a delineating point in the company development, such as the official roll-out of the company. By the time the company has reached this defining milestone, a new period of development will have already been planned, with it's own subset of milestones and phases.

Companies have an additional compelling reason to create this structured strategic plan. As the company moves forward, the original organizing group will need help to carry out the increasing work load. As the plan becomes more detailed and concrete, it also becomes easier to identify what professional types the company needs to recruit to build the production, marketing and administrative staffing. So throughout this period of development, having a gameplan makes it possible to bring in new associates in an orderly process, adding associates at the very time they will be required.

This structured approach to planning also makes it possible to hold people accountable, when they take on a task. Each task will need to be done to a certain standard and will have a clear deadline for completion. When it comes time to reward individuals for having played a role in building the company, defined criteria can be utilized to make a metric evaluation of each person's performance and relative contribution to the cause.

It goes without saying, that there are numerous specific tasks one needs to be aware of. In truth, successfully rolling out a company means attention to an almost overwhelming number of details  As author of this piece, I acknowledge that fact. But this posting is really not about any of the specific tasks in the list. It is about that bigger picture of what is happening from the standpoint of planning/strategizing as a small company tries to launch itself.

You have to imagine the pilot of a jetliner as he revs up the jet engine on the runway. The crew is trying to get enough forward momentum to gather enough speed to get the plane off the ground. What a start-up company is trying to do is pretty much the same thing. Everything has got to happen at the right time so that the company can get enough forward momentum to launch. itself into existence. That takes planning, organizing and focused execution of the game plan. Building a strong, concrete business strategy and staying on track can make the difference as to whether any start-up company succeeds or founders.

Howard Fireman
Productivity Consultant/Accounting
howard.fireman46@gmail.com
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News You Can Use - June 3, 2010

Merely wanting to win is never enough
A sports analogy that serves as a reality check for those in business. Editorial comment that it takes more than having the right attitude to succeed at anything. (Courtesy of The Boston Globe Online)
Please input the URL below to access this article. 

http://www.boston.com/jobs/news/articles/2007/09/02/merely_wanting_to_win_is_never_enough/

5 Principles in  Managing Cash Flow Successfully
Managing Cash is basic to the success of  all business. Managing cash is a struggle for many businesses, from sole proprietors to large corporations. Understand 5 principles to successful cash management. (Courtesy of Biznik)
http://biznik.com/articles/5-principles-to-managing-cash-flow-successfully?utm_source=articles&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2010-05-26

The Entrepreneurs Guide To Tech
A look at the technology that is enabling the new crop of  entrepreneurs. (Courtesy of AccountantsWorld)
http://www.foxsmallbusinesscenter.com/technology/2010/06/01/entrepreneurs-guide-tech/

5 Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires
Many modern millionaires live in middle-class neighborhoods, work full-time and shop in discount stores like the rest of us. 

http://shine.yahoo.com/event/financiallyfit/5-secrets-of-self-made-millionaires-1370279/

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WOULD YOUR COMPANY LIKE TO ADVERTISE AT NO CHARGE IN THE 610 BUSINESS JOURNAL? 

I very much appreciate the individuals and companies which have visited this publication on a regular basis. As a way to show my appreciation, I would like to offer a limited amount of advertising space at no charge until July 31, 2010. The 610 Business Journal publishes on Monday and Thursday of each week. We can handle one display advertisement no longer than six column inches long and  a display of eight business cards  each issue. This publication currently has circulation of between 400 and 500 subscribers.

Issues will be published on the following future dates: June 7, June 10, June 14, June 17, June 21, June 24, June 28, July 1, July 5, July 8, July 12, July 15, July 19, July 22, July 26 and July 29, 2010. The deadline for submitting ads for a particular issue is 4 days prior to publication date.

If you or your company is submitting a display ad, please submit it as a scan-ready document. Please email  it as a jpeg attachment, to Howard Fireman, editor, at howard.fireman46@gmail.com, with your request for inclusion. Please include your name, your company name, your office/cell number and company address.

If you wish this publication to include your business card, please scan your business card and send me the jpeg file of your card as an attachment in an email. Please include the same information as we requested in the paragraph above.

If you have any questions, you can reach Howard Fireman at 832-754-1913.
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SAY IT AGAIN, SAM

On Excellence: 
"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor."
Vincent T. Lombardi








On Goals:
"The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where is going."
Napoleon Hill

"If you know where you're going, you're already gone."
Stephen Sondheim, lyrics from Sunday in the Park With George



On Excellence in Leadership

"A lot of people conclude that all you need to win is to have the right attitude. They think that if you want to win badly enough, you'll win. And so they go around working at wanting. Bull... Merely wanting to win is never enough... Don't worry about being great, worry about being better. Don't just try hard; innovate hard. If you want to motivate people, don't give them a great speech, give them great tools, great preparation, great products. Find the daylight, and then run for it."
Dale Dauten, September 2, 2007, Boston Globe Editorial

A Personal View on a Common Thing: HOME

I got home today, just before lunch. I had just returned from a very significant and exciting business meeting. I was a little revved up. A business idea I am working on is really taking shape and I was caught up in the moment.

But as I started to go to the kitchen, I realized something I had never noticed. For the first time I can remember, I stopped in the living room and looked around the room and sized up what I saw. The room and the things in the room are very ordinary and a little out-of-date style-wise.

 The house is a nice house but not extraordinary. We have had the furniture for a few years and it is showing a little bit of wear and tear. But it is home. It is familiar and comfortable. It has the feel of my comfortable loafers,  which are a bit worn, but they feel great on my feet. And in this setting and to the people who share this space with me, I am viewed as mostly a known quantity, without huge distinction. I am defined by the people who share this place with me not by my accomplishments or my possessions. I am defined by my relationship with them.

In that moment, I was forced to put several things into perspective. Out in the business world, I cultivate a particular image. My reputation and my accomplishments precede me. As a businessman, there are issues of image and status and position. In the business world, I am also judged by the clothes I wear, the car I drive, where I live and how well I follow through on a project. At home, those things do not count as much. The standards by which I am judged at home are set to a much higher benchmark. What happens in my home ultimately proves to be infinitely more important to me than anything which happens in my professional life. That is as it should be.

In that moment of realization today, I thought about Warren Buffett, one of the most successful and wealthy men in the world today. He lives in the same house he has lived in for fifty years. That speaks volumes to the substance of the man. He knows what is important. He could well afford a home worth millions of dollars. But he chooses to remain where he is.

Today I understood maybe for the first time, why when we are at our home, it is a very different experience. We are more grounded and forced to keep things in perspective. We are not allowed to become too full of ourselves or to strut around with an inflated ego. At home, no one will or should put up with that sort of attitude. It is a place where the only person each of us is allowed to be is ourself. Home is a port in the storm where we do not have to wear a particular mask to fit in or make it. Home is a place where we can find acceptance without judgment and a refuge from the hurly-burly of the world.

There is that part of our lives which thrusts us into the frenetic world of business with all the excitement and the stresses. There is that part of our lives centered on our family, our friends and the people who mean something to us. For some people, their work has become their lives. That isn't what our lives should be about. We must always remember that we work so we can have a life, not the other way around. And if we are going to find the balance we so desperately need in our lives, we should always view our home as the central place in our lives and not an outward reflection of our professional status or our successes in business.