How do you feel about business planning?

As we work our way through the year, there are times when life can feel more manic; less controllable and too many balls in the air.

Life can spin fast at times, and then there are periods of time where you feel you are treading water and lack the clarity needed to move forward with certain business projects.

I have been teaching business planning and mentoring business founders for the past two decades, and I see most people take a short term and tactical approach to their business.

The two biggest reasons I see why most opt for short term tactics is they feel they aren’t in control, juggling too much, and a lack of clarity.

The truth is that, when it comes to business planning, there is very little in our control. We experienced this first hand during the lockdown years where we were forced to withdraw to our homes and change the way we lived and worked, and there are many of us still recovering from this, even though it seems that on the face of it we are ‘back to normal’.

Nor we do ever have absolute clarity about our business for any length of time. Yes, there may be lightbulb moments from time to time where things just click, but I find that most business founders are incredibly creative which means new ideas keep coming and coming.

And here’s a little secret … even though I may look like I’ve got my shit together from the outside, I rarely feel absolute clarity about my business and where I am headed!

So here’s the thing about business planning; we may not have control over how our life and business shows up each day, but if we simply surrender to what it throws at us, don’t we end up reacting and fire-fighting?

And if we spend our time trying to get clarity, don’t we simply spin our wheels as we question ourselves and then come up with another new idea?

There’s a great quote from Eisenhower that I use in my training sessions.

“I have always found plans to be useless, but planning to be indispensable.”

Because you have so little control over what really goes on inside and outside of your business, the plan you create has to evolve as you implement. And yes, there are times that a business plan has to change completely to take into account of external factors such as bad health, a piece of tech that breaks or losing a key member of your team, through to the extremes of global crises, war and changes of government. All of which happens out of our control.

We may think we can be in control.

But there is very little that we have absolute control over.

Life fluidly moves in and around us, sometimes slow, sometimes fast. It’s rare that anything stays the same for any length of time.

So does this mean we simply leave our business to chance and never plan?

Absolutely not.

And this is why I love to use Eisenhower’s quote because it is the planning process that is indispensable, rather than the plan itself.

The act of planning forces you to do the thinking needed to move your business forward, respond to external changes and make decisions on where to channel your time and energy.

Planning forces you to make decisions.

Just think how much mental energy you use when you are feeling indecisive, even about little things such as what to wear and what to have for lunch each day.

Decision fatigue is a real thing and it’s exhausting!

Planning forces you to be considered.

To step up and dig deep into what you stand for and what it is you truly want to accomplish.

Planning forces you to connect outside of yourself.

Stay connected with your current customers, your marketplace and your numbers, which in turn keeps your emotions grounded, particularly in times of uncertainty.

So although many of you may love to create, to be open to opportunities and don’t like being hemmed into targets or strict project management deadlines, don’t let the feeling of uncertainty in your lives or frustrations about lack of clarity let you drift from month to month.

Planning can happen, and needs to happen, no matter how much uncertainty or lack of clarity we feel.

And I know what kind of planning works, especially for our Momentum members who create their Grow Strong Plans at the start of every cycle.

Making decisions.

Being considered.

Being connected.

If you’d like to know about my Grow Strong Planning Process, check out our Momentum programme.