Make Time for Business Plan Fitness

Buzz Delano

Principal Consultant, Delano Associates

Recently there’s a new message about fitness coming at us from food, pharma and gov entities.  I’m all in so long as it is understood that fitness is an individual choice. More natural foods, a balanced diet, exercise and overall personal wellness will help everyone.  When it comes to your business, fitness is key.  Fitness for how you plan your business. 

By nature of our specialized profession of residential home technology, everyone is a “small business” by official economic standards as defined by the SBA as having fewer than 500 employees.

Our industry’s small businesses are more so fewer than 50 employees and have little spare time to “work on” their business as “working in” the business demands a lion’s share of time.  Not unusual but surely a challenge and one that if overcome, will lead to a better business.

I have had executive management roles in business planning for manufacturers and therefore have experienced a range of approach, completion and follow through. Each is tough to do but essential.  In a way, this thinking contributed to my development of Delano Associates and the company logo which you see at the top of this article. The Delano brand represents three key elements for starting, evolving and repositioning a business or project. 

Vision, Strategy and Execution.

It’s about knowing what you want to achieve, figuring out how to get it done and doing it. This applies across the board for any business.

For residential home technology integrators, a business plan is a must.  Many of you don’t. Perhaps your business is good, and you are pleased with the results.  Such a world does exist.  However, if you would be willing to build a new lane to work in, you can start a business plan process that will make your business better. Making the time is your first challenge. 

Here's an idea. Today, not tomorrow because, well you know, tomorrow s procrastination. Today, mark 30 to 60 minutes on your calendar for alone thinking time and making some notes about starting a business plan. If you have a good notes app, use that and have some structure so it is efficient for you to return to and develop further.  Or just jot some random notes, thoughts and questions about your business on a legal pad or in a word doc. Get something from your head to paper or screen.

Do this every day for 30 to 60 minutes whenever you are usually at your peak for creative, dimensional thinking.  For many folks, that’s early in the morning. So, wake 30 or 60 minutes early to do this. There’s your newfound time. After you have been taking 30 to 60 minutes every day, at some point you will want to bring others from your business into your thinking. Tell them what you have been doing and why. Have an open discussion about the need for a business plan.  Let your people ask questions and make suggestions. At this point, anything goes. You’ll need them to be bought in eventually so listen to them now and together, refine their ideas together as the plan forms.

Now, let’s say you are just a few years in business, have 6 or 7 employees, are stretched and have no time follow through on a business plan. Once again, take the 30-to-60-minute daily plunge to think it through.  Here’s another idea to form a business plan that is based initially on current workload, rather than the whole business on an annualized view. That will come later.

Start by reviewing the current project files and see what’s happening.  Before you embark on a journey, you must know your starting point. All your current jobs must be in some form of organized documentation. Someone must own the job file documentation. Ownership of key business actions is essential for good results. As owner, it is ok for you to oversee that “owner” but by developing them as a process and results owner, you are already helping your business plan.  Who’s got this at your business? If it is you, it is time to stop and think about that. 

Evaluate the project hours needed to complete each of against the intended schedule. Now, take these hours and divided them out by a typical man-hour work week, Divide this number by the number of man hours.  Now you have a target date when each project will complete. Example: the project is estimated to require 200 total man hours to complete. If your onsite techs are billing 6 hours daily that's 30 hours weekly and concludes that the project will complete in 3.3 weeks with two onsite techs billing time. Can you keep your inside team such as the project manager current with the project progress while taking time to work with you, sales and accounting on the business plan? You must figure this out.

Will your CPA and/or banking officer be involved with your business planning? Probably a good idea. You will need to make time to meet with them too. 

My point here is that one way or another, you need to carve out time to work on your business plan without disrupting your business’ current workload. And of course, you and sales will be taking time to develop and sell new projects.

So, time management is a key element of business planning, especially when you start your first business plan.   

Unless you are wearing all the hats, try to do this with your sales leader, lead installer, project manager and accounting person.  By virtue of their roles, they are likely to be those most knowledgeable of your business.  Discuss your plan to get cracking on a business plan.  Get some input from them and ask for their commitment to help.

Your business plan needs to have structure, accountability, reality, challenge, success and contingencies included in it.  Your business plan must be a living document, revisited regularly for best results.

Make it part of your regular team meetings.  Have someone read part of it out loud at each meeting and have a roundtable talk about that aspect. When something in the plan is working, it's a motivator.  When something is not working or being overlooked, it is an opportunity to improve. 

Make the time to improve your business with a plan.  Now.