Why to take time out from the doing for business planning
There was an old lumberjack known for his speed at cutting down trees. One day he was challenged by a younger, stronger lumberjack who knew he could beat the older guy in a head to head contest and earn glory for himself. So the young lumberjack challenged the old timer and the experienced lumberjack agreed.
The day for the contest arrived and the two competitors began to work. The younger lumberjack started in immediately and worked tirelessly all day without stopping cutting down tree after tree. While he was working, he noticed that the older lumberjack took a 15 minute break every hour. The younger man smiled as he continued to work, confident that he would be the victor this day!
Yet, at the end of the work day, when the cut trees were counted, the experienced lumberjack had felled nearly one third more trees than the younger man!
The young lumberjack was incredulous! How could the old guy have cut more trees than he did when he worked 25% less time than he had? It made no sense. So, he swallowed his pride and approached the older lumberjack, congratulated him on his victory and asked him the question.
“How did you beat me? How did you work less time and cut down more trees? I didn’t stop all day but you stopped every hour.”
The wise, older lumberjack smiled and told the youngster, “I stopped for 15 minutes every hour to sharpen my axe, and so the work that I did was more productive.”
Moral of the story
Just like the younger lumberjack, you can be lulled into a false sense of productivity by spending all of your time doing your business. But it is the wise business owner who takes the time to sharpen his axe, to create a business plan. Business planning guarantees you’ll have better profits in 2015 than you did in 2014.
Take a day to create your business plan for 2015. I can help you make one that’s straightforward, all on one page, and takes you only 1 day to prepare. It’ll cost you next to nothing to join me for a day on Jan. 9. Click here to register for my Growth Plan Workshop. You’ll get a short pre-work packet and all you have to do is drive to the Hilton Garden Inn at the Indianapolis Airport on Friday, Jan. 9. We’ll walk you through the rest and you’ll walk away with —
- A vision for your business in the next 10-30 years
- A 3-5 year plan, a 90-day plan, and a ready-to-implement weekly action plan
Who will you find at this session?
- Most of my coaching clients attend most sessions
- A few business owners who attend each quarter
- Some business owners who attend once a year in January
- A few first-timers.
Take a day to create your business plan for 2015. If you already have one, bring it and we’ll update it together. Whatever you do… don’t go into 2015 without doing some well-thought-out business planning.
Here’s to an inspired 2015 for you. Coach Roger
