Disciplined Business Plan
Are you a Disciplined Business owner?
Do you Control the Business or does the Business Control you?
The answers to these questions involve how well disciplined you are in managing the critical success factors that impact the growth and success of the company.
L.J. Nick Callazzo III, a former Marine, entrepreneur, and founder of Resource Specialists, a consulting group that has been helping small business owners for over25 years, has developed a program: The Entrepreneur’s MBA: Managing Business Activities. A Disciplined Approach to Growing your Business.
The primary reason why most small businesses fail is that owners do not understand that a business system, not a product or service, is the solution to predictable, sustainable success. In fact, an owner, who operates without a sound business system, based on a well written business plan, is not only on a disaster course but is jeopardizing his career and potential success.
Discipline has always been the common denominator and most recognizable behavior of successful people in life; regardless, if it is combat, sports or business. Owners who acquire discipline in their lives experience not only personal development but professional growth and success. The discipline that an owner needs to acquire comes from due diligence, the desire to seek professional advice, and the determination to apply it.
“Knowledge is not power, applied knowledge is power.”
Eddie Everyman had been the top producer in his organization. He exceeded all the goals and was considered to be one of the top salespeople in the company. One day Eddie was complaining that he was not being paid in proportion to the revenue he was generating, so he decided he would leave and start his own business. Three years later Eddie Everyman, almost bankrupt, called his old boss and asked if he could return. He had realized that he was working harder, longer and making less money. He needed a steady income to provide for his family and achieve the American Dream.
The point of this story is that Eddie Everyman, like most entrepreneurs, think they can be successful business owners because they are really good at what they do. What they do not realize is that they are good at what they do because they are part of a idea that has been carefully thought out (a well-written business plan) and a system ( a performance compass) for monitoring and measuring the critical business activities of the plan so they stay “On-Course’ and succeed.
In order for a small business to grow and the owner sustain success, he/she must have a plan. And, they must implement the oldest cliché in the business world:
“Plan Your Work…and…Work your Plan”
Then use the Three R’s:
1. Revisit the plan (quarterly/ as needed basis)
2. Review the Business Activities (performance tracking)
3. Revise as needed (Changes to the business plan)
First Things First: If you want to be in business, you must fully understand what it means to be in business. You must realize that there is a world of difference between starting and growing a business versus having a hobby. A hobby is a leisure activity that allows one to escape from the stress of the day-to-day activities. A business requires the constant activity of monitoring and measuring the critical success factors that impact its growth and continued success.
Nick Callazzo has more than 30 years of experience consulting to banks, insurance companies and financial institutions as well as coaching executives to help them improve their personal and professional performance. In 1985, Mr. Callazzo founded Resource Specialists, a consulting group that focuses primarily on helping companies identify behaviors that impeded either organizational or personal success. A former U.S. Marine, Mr. Callazzo is currently working with FastTrac’s Entrepreneurial program for veterans in order to help them improve their business acumen and, possibly, their profit margins.
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