How to Install the Small Business Flight Plan
Okay, now that we know what we have to do to clarify our mission and Guiding Principles, ramp up our marketing, close more sales, optimize our product offering, streamline our productivity, and manage our cash flow, how do we actually implement the entire playbook?
In the final chapter we will look at the various ways you can implement the Small Business Flight Plan. Regardless of whether you are a B2B business, B2C, nonprofit, solo-preneur, start-up, growth company, or $100-million success story, the Small Business Flight Plan can work for you.
Growing a small business can be an exhilarating journey. It can also be a burden and, quite frankly, a financial disaster that causes misery for years to come. There are many factors that determine the difference, of course, but once you have a good product people actually want and are able to get it to market, much of the rest of the journey amounts to simple business building. I say simple because we make it far more complicated than it needs to be.
The six steps that will help you implement your Small Business Flight Plan will not solve every problem you have as a small-business leader, but they will solve most of them. In fact, the flight plan will preempt the causes of most small-business catastrophes.
Feel free to nuance the steps. I know plenty of small-business owners who added core values to their Guiding Principles or who hold their Leadership Meetings daily rather than weekly, for example. Certainly if you implement the frameworks and playbooks as they are designed, you will have success, but you know your business much better than I do and you will know intuitively where you need to make custom adjustments. That said, if you encounter problems, ask yourself honestly if implementing the steps as they are presented might solve those problems.
Feel Free to Take It Slow
Feel free to take your time implementing your Small Business Flight Plan. If you try to do everything at once, you might get overwhelmed. But if you implement each step one after another and only move on when the previous step feels solidly embedded in your operations, you can transform your entire small business in under a year.
You do not have to implement the flight plan in the order we’ve listed the steps. In fact, if you’re having cash flow issues, you might start with Step Six and open the five checking accounts that will give you better optics into how your money flows. After that, you might install Step Three so you can close a few big sales and get some money moving through those accounts. Then, when the business is stabilized, you can go back and install Step One and work on from there. If it helps, we’ve built an assessment at MyBusinessReport.com that will allow you to analyze the six parts of your business and issue a report detailing where your business needs the most work.
Three Ways to Implement the Small Business Flight Plan
There are three ways to implement the Small Business Flight Plan. The first is to use this book and do it yourself. You truly have everything you need in this book to get going. If you have the audio book, give it a listen as you commute or as you work out in the morning. If you’ve printed out your Small Business Flight Plan, look it over as you learn so the process itself will become more and more simple to execute.
If you learn better by watching video, each of the steps has a corresponding on-demand course at BusinessMadeSimple.com. The fee to subscribe to the platform is ridiculously low and it will walk you through the entire process. The platform also includes a digital Flight Plan allowing you to archive all past worksheets. You can run your small business from one online source.
You can also hire a coach to take you through the process. We’ve certified coaches all over the world to help small-business owners transform their small businesses. Many of our coaches host small groups so you may be able to implement your flight plan with friends. I actually attend a monthly small group myself because I’ve gotten so much value from other small-business owners who share best practices and encouragement. You can find a listing of our trained and certified Business Made Simple Coaches at HireACoach.com.
Growing a Small Business Can Be Fun and Rewarding
I’ve known more than a few small-business owners who, honestly, would be much better off working for somebody else. The anxiety that can be caused by the fluctuating tides of halt and progress can be mind numbing, not to mention the financial insecurity that often comes with the journey. My hope is that the Small Business Flight Plan does more than help you build your small business; my hope is it makes you a better mother or father, a better husband, a better wife, and a better friend. Nobody is made whole by financial security, but if they know how to handle success, they can be made more present. My wife and I don’t fight about finances very often because we run the Small Business Cash Flow Made Simple Playbook. We don’t fight about where the business is going because we have created our Guiding Principles. We don’t worry about waste because we run the Management and Productivity Made Simple Playbook. I don’t worry about cash flow shortages because I know I can close sales by inviting customers into a story. I don’t worry about wasting money on marketing because our message has been made clear.
I love my small business. I love that I have an incredible team who come alive doing their jobs. I love that I get to play my part, creating content and perfecting our frameworks. I love that Betsy and I are starting to build a financial legacy our daughter will someday enjoy. Of course, we all dream about having a small business that sets us free. What I never expected, though, was to have so much fun getting here. Even though my business is doing well, I sort of miss the adventurous days trying to figure out everything in this book. I know it’s a lot, but don’t forget, it’s fun. Standing around on the top of a mountain is great, but getting there is where all the memories happen.
As small-business leaders, you and I are America’s leading employers. More people work for small businesses than the top ten American corporations combined. That means if you and I professionalize our operations, the teams that work with us have more security, better benefits, more clarity about why their work matters, and, if we’re successful, more pay. I say all this to emphasize that the work you’re doing to build your business is important. The quality of people’s lives, including yours, improves as we do the work.
Here’s to the success of your small business. If there is anything else I can do to help you, please let me know. Until then, have a safe flight.
Small business owners everywhere are accepting the challenge to double their small business revenue by creating their Flight Plans together in our community. We’d love to have you join the community at SmallBusinessFlightSchool.com.