If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail

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One good strategy to think about, or one good philosophy to implement when looking at a business, is to make sure that you plan. It’s the old adage of…

"if you fail to plan, you plan to fail"

It's related to starting out in business without having a clear cut plan about what you want to achieve, what it is your goals are, what it is your vision is, and what it is your mission is. And putting together different goals and different target milestones. And then putting together a strategy, a plan on how you want to achieve those goals, how you want to achieve your mission, and how you want to achieve your vision.

A lot of people get started in business and they get started because they like something, for example, they like cooking. So, they open a restaurant. Or they like owning a home, so they start investing in real estate. Or they're technically savvy, so they start looking at how to, to create a business online.

But most people don't really have a plan. So, what happens is they just started going off in different directions. They have no idea what they want to achieve. They have sort of a long term or a big goal in mind. They want to make money, or they want to be successful, but they don't have any milestones.

For example, in real estate, I want to own 10 properties within a year. I want to own a hundred properties within three years. I want to focus on fix and flips. I want to focus on wholesaling, I want to own 20 rental properties.

Once you have those goals, then you say, okay, so how do I do that? What kind of plan I have to make: I have to contact 20 realtors this week. I have to talk to 20 mortgage agents this week. I have to apply or have to research a hundred listings. I have to make 10 offers.

So, these are all activities associated with your goals and associated with your vision, your mission, which all put together, is a plan. It's just like that when starting out in any other business.

Big companies like McDonald's or companies like Google… every year they come up with plans. They come up with three-year, four-year, and five-year plans… maybe not five-year plans anymore because every industry is changing so fast that it's hard to plan out that length of time. That being said, they usually have long-term plans like that and then they just revise them every year.

A plan should include what your accomplishments will be, what your milestones are going to be, and what your financials are going to be. What will your prospectus look like? Meaning what are your profits, what are your target profits? What is your target income? What are your target expenses?

So… when starting out a business or when starting out in anything, make sure you have a plan. As I said, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.