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The idea to to have a plan so you can get going now...

Excerpted from Business Black Belt by Burke Franklin

The plan is what you follow...
until an extraordinary opportunity comes along.
- Burke Franklin, Founder & CEO: JIAN

What's the use of a plan if circumstances will change, new opportunities will arise, or you simply don't know what to expect? I've always had a resistance to planning, yet my company's most popular product is about business planning.

Many people out there probably wouldn't buy our product because they resist the planning process. They may not write a business plan because they don't want to plan at all; they want to "wing it." I think I know where this comes from. The plans I've seen have always been ones that seem to lock people in. I suspect many people think that plans tend toward rigidity, rather than provide a framework for action given what you know now, while allowing for extraordinary opportunities and bargains to come along the way.

Does the extraordinary opportunity further you toward your goals and is it the right thing to do, or does it take you off track, and waste money, time, and resources? Planning prepares you for this.

With the right kind of plan, we could say, "Here's this extraordinary opportunity. . . . In fact, we've even been planning for this opportunity, and here's where it fits in." That way, the opportunity can be put into context with our environment and resources. We won't start acting on it without having other necessary things in place to support it or forget another more critical priority and go off on a wild goose chase wasting time.

I'm afraid that most people think of planning this way: "OK, let's lock everything in place and don't mess with the plan. I want this to stay the way it is and this is what I know I can do." In a way, that is the purpose of planning, but at the same time, it's got to foster some creativity and opportunism.

Visionaries use plans to explain to everyone else what to do

I don't want to undermine the goals of the company already in place. As a visionary, I'm used to some resistance to my ideas so I must find ways around that resistance. When I'm involved in planning, I don't have to have a plan imposed on me that I don't like,and I know that we can always tweak it so it works.

If you had a system in place allowing you to plug in possible opportunities so everybody feels good about including them, then if somebody comes up with an extraordinary opportunity, you can see where it fits in. If there is no place for the idea, you can forget it with no hard feelings. The person who came up with it doesn't feel bad either. Having my ideas constantly rejected would be my reason for quitting, and I don't want people to quit. I want them to be able to incorporate their ideas and bring their extraordinary opportunities to the table.

I think that is the big reason BizPlan Builder is so popular, because it's the kind of dynamic plan that doesn't lock you in. To be more positive, it's the kind of plan that keeps you on track and maintains your business priorities while allowing you to take advantage of extraordinary opportunities.

Can you plan for opportunities you'll need?

I say yes, even though you cannot yet clearly define what the opportunity must look like. Not knowing will have you looking and shopping along the way so you will know it when you see it.

For example, we created our entire line of business software on the basis of word-processing and spreadsheet templates, or prewritten text and financial projections you can edit or adapt to your business and situation.

You simply use your own (familiar) software to make your changes. You don't have to learn any new programs, you can do something useful with the software you already own. This idea has worked wonderfully since early 1988. As the world changes, competitors emerge, and new technology becomes available, it is possible as well as desirable to improve this product model. Competitors felt that they could compete with us by adding the graphical software interface and making the process easier. Although they added little (usually their content was sadly lacking), their products appeared to be easier to use and more friendly.

So, we have built into our plan to incorporate a new Windows® technology and an intelligent template navigator system to make our products even better. Until technology we liked came along, we held off and shopped for years until we found it. We build these opportunities into our plans knowing that they will come along as we need them.

Why following a Budget can cost you

Let's look at this another way, because opportunities come along all the time. In fact, just because you've taken action and your machine is in motion, extraordinary opportunities will come along. This happens to us repeatedly in marketing. We get these extraordinary opportunities for promotional ideas, but some people say, "It's not in the budget and, therefore, we can't do it." I think that these ideas would make money and pay for themselves. To say we can't do them because it's not in the budget drives me crazy! You must enable yourself and your co-workers to seize these opportunities. If you (and they) are stuck to a strict budget, you'll try to rob one budget item to fit in another. You must analyze the opportunity on its own merits to determine the investment you're willing to make AND the expected revenue it will generate. (Remember to add the revenue to your sales forecast.)

A simple method is to set a percentage for each category. For example, 10 percent revenue from dealers can be used for dealer marketing programs. Our marketing VP is held accountable for keeping his dealer marketing expenses to 10 percent, but he can make his own decisions to fund programs he thinks will pay off. This way we focus more on ROI for each activity rather than hard budget dollars. So, build into your budget a line item for extraordinary opportunities, whether it's a plan or a budget. As time goes on, that fund will get bigger and bigger. You'll plan it bigger and bigger, because you'll see the extraordinary opportunities that come along. Then with the growth of the company and its sales, everybody's budget gets bigger.

Luck: When preparation meets opportunity

I think the biggest thing we all take for granted and sell ourselves short on is our ability to generate extraordinary opportunities. By virtue of the fact that you're there, you've taken action, you're on the path, and you've created the space for an opportunity to occur. Usually, we call it luck. Part of the preparation in building a business, like taking a trip, is getting part way down the path and seeing opportunities along the path; but you must first go down the path in order for them to appear. If you never make a plan, you won't take the first steps to getting on the path and making something happen which in turn creates the extraordinary opportunity.

The mind as a transceiver

In the study of quantum mechanics, scientists have discovered a tremendous amount of space between the neutrons, protons, and electrons that make up atoms. What holds these particles together is energy. Solid matter looks solid, but actually if you were to view it at the atomic level, there's a vast space between the particles it is composed of. (An amount if space akin to a few BBs suspended in a cathedral.) We underestimate how much energy we have in our minds to manipulate the energy between the particles. In other words, scientists are discovering that we can indeed influence matter with the energy from our minds! In fact, some of their experiments are influenced by the very thinking of the scientist! Like radios, our mental transceivers can be tuned to a station so we can hear music or news, opportunities, problems, solutions, etc. (i.e. messages from Nature, the Universe, Conversations With God...). If it's not tuned consciously, as if our radio is tuned between stations, then we hear just the static. On the other hand, we must send a clear signal to Nature specifying what we want. We must therefore clear our minds and focus-like tuning our transceivers-on what we want to happen. Then we can apply our energy toward the results we want.

Planning and goal-setting have proven effective and successful time and again. They are perfect examples to prove this point-this is a healthy exercise in tuning your mental power to generate what you want.

Business Black Belt Notes

• Plans are great for explaining what everyone should do.
• Plans must be flexible to allow for taking advantage of unforeseen opportunities.
• Set budgets using percentages rather than hard dollar figures.
• We create luck by taking action.
• Planning is like tuning your mental radio to a station so you can hear the music.
  And get the messages. Otherwise, you'll get just static.
• Planning helps you to transmit a clear signal requesting what you want.
  Otherwise, you'll get whatever you get.

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