Here are Five Reasons for Using an Action Plan by Melvin Feller

Melvin Feller

Every successful entrepreneur knows that going from point A to point B needs a plan or a clear direction.  The path to a profitable business requires planning. You would not drive across this great country from California to New York without a map or GPS.  So, why would anyone attempt to build a business without a plan, or, launch a publicity campaign without a plan, or even produce an event without a plan?

We all know the high failure rate of startups. A rare business is still around after five years and even rarer after 10 years. Why is that? Based on our experience of working with many entrepreneurs, small business owners and non-profits over the last 30 years, I believe it is because of lack of planning. 

Whether it is a financial plan or marketing plan or action plan, it seems that many entrepreneurs fall short in the planning section. They have great ideas, great passion, and even great follow-through, but may not necessarily understand the right action-steps to take at the right time because they have no “blueprint” to guide them to success.

Here are Five Reasons for Using an Action Plan:

Conveys clarity to your vision.

When you put your idea to a plan, it forces you to think it through before you spend a lot of time and effort going down the wrong path.  The challenge for many entrepreneurs is that they immediately go from idea to action and skip the planning phase. An action plan helps bring structure and organization to your idea and thoughts.  When you add structure and organization to your thoughts and ideas, it makes them cohesive. Cohesive ideas and thoughts are a lot easier to work with and bring clarity to your vision than scattered ideas and thoughts.

Turns your awareness into a certainty.

Action plans help you identify the necessary steps you need to put in place to pursue your vision. It turns the dreamer into a methodical doer versus an aimless action-taker. You have heard the analogy, ‘Throw it at a wall and see what sticks.’ There is a time and place for that mentality. It has been referred as, ‘I’ve got a lot of time and cash to burn.’  I am not completely knocking that school of thought, because in some instances that strategy works. Twitter is a perfect example. The Twitter folks were working on a different product when Twitter began to get traction and take off. Therefore, they dropped the other project and pursued Twitter. Unfortunately, most small businesses do not have the luxury of VC funding and Angel investors.

Supports your tracking of who is accountable for what by when.

Action plans are beneficial because they can help keep track of who will be taking action on what by when. Think of it as an accountability system. Action plans are helpful in identifying timelines, deadlines, and specific details on the actual steps you will be taking. If you have a team you are collaborating with, things can quickly become messy and confusing.  By tracking the results of the action allows you to gauge the level of accomplishment.  If you are not meeting your goals, then you can quickly acclimate your strategy because you are tracking and measuring the results of yourself or your team members.

Understanding how you are going to take action surges.

Action plans bring abstract ideas into concrete and practical methods of how to accomplish the task.  For example, it forces you to think through how you are actually going to land that big client you have been thinking about for some time. An action plan can help you lay the groundwork for securing that client by identifying how you are going to do it. Each How To may have as few as one action step or as many as ten or more depending on how complex and time consuming they are. In addition, when you plan, it allows you to think about possible obstacles and hurdles that you may not have considered otherwise.

You will do the right thing at the right time.

Action plans help you inaugurate priorities. They are great for helping you comprehend what steps to take first, second, third and so on. I have seen so many entrepreneurs waste a lot of time and money focusing on the wrong things at the right time or the right things at the wrong time. Action plans help you inaugurate the critical steps that you need to take in the right order. It is about doing the right thing at the right time. It is about sequencing. For example, no sense in investing in a big office space when just getting started if you do not have the sales coming in. Get the sales first and then pour the money back into the business as it grows to justify that office space.

This might sometimes feel like a ordinary and boring task, as the development takes effort and the verification takes time, but when game day comes along, you will see the great benefit of having an action plan.