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As a multi-passionate entrepreneur, you probably have several business ideas you may want to start. You may have even found yourself procrastinating on starting your business because of feeling overwhelm and indecision.
You see, most entrepreneurs start out with a dream and a vision, but that is where it ends. Without a workable business action plan, even the most innovative business ideas can wind up never opening their doors. Because a good action plan gives you focus and a timeline to get things done.
You move from just thinking about your business idea, to taking focused daily action that gets you to your goals much quicker. Think months if not weeks rather than years.
So are you ready to create your business action plan?
Tips to Create a Powerful Business Action Plan
1: Put Your Business Action Plan in Writing
In the early stages of creating your business, it is important to put your business action plan in writing. This can be with pen and paper or digitally. Without this piece of the puzzle, it can get messy quite quickly.
Having your action plan in your head is not nearly as efficient as putting it down in writing. What you put in writing often gets done. And it also feels more real.
2: Start With a Long-Term Vision
If you’ve ever been on a job interview and were asked, “Where do you want to be five years from now,” you might have thought that it was an odd question. Especially when your real answer is “not here!”.
However, as a business owner, this just might be the most important question you ask yourself. You have to know where you’re going in order to take the right road and ask for the right questions. You have to have a clear vision.
Without knowing where you’re headed in the long term, it’s impossible to create a map to get there.
Your long-term vision will help you take the right actions that will lead you to your ultimate destination. It will help you map out your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly actions. Then help you to track your progress to be sure you’re still headed in the right direction.
So take some time to figure out where you want to be in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, and 10 years’ time. In both your life and your business. This will ensure you create a business that supports your life and not drains from it.
So, take action do this now.
3: Streamline Your Path
If you have a dream and created a vision – excellent.
Now, you know where your business and life is heading. It is important to get focused on streamlining your path when you first start your business. Otherwise, you are likely to find that your business is “all over the place.” Be sure to be specific in where you expect your business to go in the first twelve months.
Step 4: Create Manageable Goals
When you create your business action plan, make sure to break down your bigger projects into more manageable ones. This way, you’ll be able to implement your action steps without it feeling overwhelming.
Think about it, if you said to someone that you wanted to move from earning £60,000 to £150,000 in the next 5 years, that’s going to sound like a pretty overwhelming task.
After all, it’s a £90,000 increase and most people will look at that and immediately dismiss it as impossible. But you and I are not most people. You can make that leap in a year but for simplicity let’s stick to 5.
When you break it down into smaller chunks, it suddenly doesn’t look so daunting. In the first year of the plan I’ve outlined here, your income needs to increase only by £10,000.
- Year 1: £70,000
- Year 2: £85,000
- Year 3: £105,000
- Year 4: £125,000
- Year 5: £150,000
That’s less than £1000 per month! Surely that’s easy enough to accomplish! You can break that down further by weeks: £1000 per month is just £250 per week.
If you sell just one more group coaching package or five more of a £50 training program, you’ve already reached your milestone.
What does that mean for the actions you take in your business? Well, it might mean sending one more email to your list, or investing an additional £20 per month in Facebook ads, or perhaps reaching out to one more JV partner.
The point is, reaching this much smaller goal is far easier than thinking about that five-year plan.
So what’s your big dream? How can you deconstruct it into smaller and more workable goals, and finally, daily and weekly tasks? If you can do this (and you definitely can) then you can achieve anything in business and in life.
5: Create Milestones
Once you’ve broken down your big goals into smaller actionable goals you can begin to create milestones. Milestones help you to stay on track and to celebrate your journey to your goals. It’s also important to set both big milestones and small milestones that help you achieve those big milestones.
So what are milestones?
Let’s say, your goal is to create and launch your business and for it to replace your current consistent income with a year. Your milestones may look something like this:
- Launch Business – Big Milestone
- Setup Business Legally – Small Milestone
- Design Website
- Create Products
- Get First Paying Clients
- Earn first £1000
- Sell 10 products at £100
- Earn a minimum of £5000 in 3 consecutive months
With these milestones in place, it’s much easier to figure out exactly what you need to do to achieve them, by setting monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
6: Delegate
Don’t be afraid to delegate some of your action plan. If you try to do everything on your own, chances are all those balls you’re juggling will come tumbling down sooner rather than later.
So outsource tasks or get help from friends and family when you can.
7: Measure & Track Your Goals Consistently
Make sure to check up on your goals on a regular basis. By tracking and measuring your goals, you consistently making sure you’re on the right track. If something isn’t working you can see quickly to re-evaluate, and pivot or change what you’re doing to get better results.
Creating a Timeline For Your Action Plan
Create a Timeline for Every Task
You may think it is not necessary to create a timeline for each and every task; however, a timeline is essential for success. Creating a timeline will help you to manage your time and your business.
Keep It Real
A timeline should have a manageable date attached to each task. If you create a timeline goal too soon, then you might be setting yourself up for failure. By being realistic, you set yourself up for success.
Differentiate Your Tasks
Make certain to differentiate your short-term tasks from your long-term tasks. For example, a short-term task would be to hire employees and a long-term task would be to improve your social media engagement.
Stick to Your Timeline No Matter What
I get it life happens but you need to try to stick with your timeline as much as matter, as this is the only way to achieve success. If you need to re-evaluate your timeline because something major has happened in your life then do it. But try to make your timelines non-negotiable.
Stay Focused
Finally, you need to stay focused on your ultimate vision. It’s very easy to let a task go because other “stuff” gets in the way. As I said life happens, however, stay focused and stick to your timeline. Check your progress as you go along the way.
Don’t Let Your Dreams Wait
We all have dreams. But turning them into reality can be very hard if you don’t know what steps to take. In order to turn any dream into a reality, you have to create an actionable plan that will help you make the right steps towards your ultimate goal. That’s what your business action plan is for your business.
It doesn’t have to be complicated a simple action plan is all you need to start moving in the right direction with your business.
So go dream big and create an action plan to get your online business started.
Download Your FREE Copy of The Business Plan Template!
