Business planning is an extremely enjoyable, ongoing process for me -- now. But I remember when it was a struggle, a should, something I felt I had to do as a business owner, but that didnt give me much joy. I had spent years creating successful plans as a fund raising professional (quite easily, I might add), but for some reason, I felt a great deal of resistance within me when it came to creating a plan for my own business. That resistance ended up being complex and required a lot of clearing.
Part of my resistance to business planning was because I really loved working with the spiritual laws, and I didnt want to get caught up in some of the negative energies around business and money I witnessed in the material realm. And, of course, I associated business planning with these energies!
But, gradually, my polarized way of thinking changed. Reading this sentence in Sanaya Roman and Duane Packers book, Creating Money, assisted that transformation: It will take less of your energy to attract, save and create more money if you are in harmony with both the spiritual and man-made laws of money. And, if youre a business owner, one of the man-made laws of money is business planning. So I set out to develop a business planning model for myself that harmonized the physical and metaphysical laws of commerce.
A Manifestation Tool
Many wonderful dreams and business ideas never materialize because they have not been clearly envisaged and grounded. A written business plan enables you to get very clear about your vision for your business, to ground this vision in the physical world and to align/focus your energy as you act on your plan. Its a fabulous manifestation tool!
Inspired Business Planning integrates both the spiritual and man-made laws of business development together. Specifically, it:
- connects you to the higher purpose of your business;
- helps you clarify what you desire for your business;
- supports you in clearing any resistance to having what you desire for your business;
- anchors you in a consciousness of faith and love;
- gives you a space in which to receive guidance from your highest levels;
- translates that guidance into the action steps of your plan, as you discern what business-building strategies to use and structures to put in place that will allow you to receive what youre desiring; and
- quantifies the financial aspects of your business.
The Seven Steps to Inspired Business Planning
Inspired Business Planning is a continuous process that will help you develop your business naturally, utilizing both your intuitive and intellectual capacities in an integrative way. As you go through this process, youll notice that you feel more balanced and aligned, that the steps to build your business become clearer and youre more trusting and relaxed about the results. Youll experience much growth and expansion.
Inspired Business Planning is a seven-step process:
1) Determine the higher purpose of your business.
From a spiritual perspective, what function is your business meant to serve? Whats your role in the evolution of humanity and our planet, and how will your business allow you to fulfil this purpose?
2) Create key intentions for building your business.
Like clarifying the higher purpose of your business, intentions are part of the visioning aspect of your plan. They are the broader goals you establish that will help you fulfil your purpose. What are your intentions?
3) Identify specific objectives and targets you desire related to each intention.
Also part of visioning is defining objectives and specific targets you aim to achieve for each intention. Objectives are more narrowly-defined goals; targets can be both the quantifiable or unquantifiable results you desire. What are your objectives and targets?
4) Tap into your guidance system to determine the action steps associated with each intention and corresponding objective(s) and target(s).
Spending time quieting your mind through meditation or other techniques and thinking/receiving ideas from your highest levels will lead you to the action steps of your plan. What action steps are you guided to take?
5) Clarify your financial inflow and outflow.
How much will it cost you to operate your business, create your offerings and get them out to the world? What level of revenue are you open to receiving on a monthly and/or yearly basis? How will you price your offerings to match that revenue level?
6) Clear resistance that may come up as you create and implement your plan.
Resistance is a belief, thought and accompanying feeling that disallows your natural state of well-being. The intention of building a prosperous, fulfilling business can bring up any number of fearful, resistant thoughts and feelings. These can prevent you from creating a business plan in the first place or from taking the actions your plan describes. What resistant beliefs, thoughts and feelings do you have about creating and implementing your business plan? How can you release this resistance?
7) Operate from love and faith by using prayer, visualizations and affirmations.
When you operate from love and faith, your actions are more joyful and inspired and you more easily attract clients and customers. Prayer, visualizations and affirmations are powerful tools that will anchor you in a state of love, trust and surrender. What prayers, visualizations and affirmations will support you as you build your business?
The real gifts of Inspired Business Planning are in the process of creating the plan and implementing it, without being rigidly attached to the plan or its outcomes. So its helpful to remain flexible and allow your plan to change and evolve as you gain more knowledge, guidance, perspective and clarity. Also important is keeping your inner focus on higher essence states such as joy, generosity and gratitude. As Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer say in Creating Money, the process of getting there is the quality of being there.
Copyright 2008 Mary C. Davis
Of course, we were watching it as we were babysitting a four year-old for some friends. There was a line in the video that said something about how great it was to wear diapers and be free, except that diapers slow you down.
Is your business being slowed down by staying in diapers?
I remember when your business was -this- big. (pinch cheek)
Children grow up quickly, but businesses grow up even faster. Your business will grow out of diapers in far less than four years- much less than a year, usually.
Growth means a lot of things: more freedom, greater ability, and... greater responsibility. Responsiblity is a wonderful thing, because it means that you are interacting with your environment.
Babies have no sense of a difference between them and the world. They have no sense of anyone else's needs, just their own. They also just lay there and stare around. Sometimes they crawl.
As they grow, they begin to get a sense of themselves as an individual. And, as that sense of themselves grows, they slowly learn that others have needs too. And, they begin to interact with other kids and adults, playing, talking, soon helping with the chores. Eventually they grow up and are able to take care of themselves and others.
The freedom of underwear
The big bear said it took a couple of things to outgrow your diapers. The first was listening to your own body.
Are you listening to your business, and what it's needing? It may seem strange, but sometimes it takes awhile to associate pain in the stomach with the need to go to the bathroom.
In the same way, you need to listen to what your business is telling you. And, taking the time to know what it really means. For instance, does the chronically empty bank account really mean that you don't have enough clients? Or does it mean that you are leaking money? Or both?
Or could it mean that your business is ready to go beyond simply working with individual clients, and needs other sources of income?
Brown bear also says it takes planning
It takes planning to get to the bathroom in time. I'm trying to avoid being gross here, but I'm guessing that anyone who has felt like their business is going down the toilet, can relate.
You have to be willing to look into the future,and think about how different pieces of your business relate to each other, to the world, and to your heart, in order to make your progress into the future as graceful as possible.
How to know when you're ready
Baby toys are meant for exploration, engaging the senses, and very simple tasks, like shaking a rattle to make noise. You aren't attached to particular results, but allowing yourself to be delighted by what is present. As one folk band, The Bills, puts it: "I've got nowhere to go and all day to get there."
But, perhaps you're starting to dream of more complex outcomes than winning one more client or sale. If you're wanting your business to become something stable that you can depend on, then planning is something you're probably ready for.
This doesn't mean that playtime is over. It just means that the game gets more engaging, and calls on more of you to be present. Like the difference between rattling a rattle, and riding a bicycle, and then packing up the bicycle to go on a several day road trip along the coast.
When you start to contemplate how wonderful an adventurous bike trip can be, suddenly the convenience of diapers doesn't seem so exciting any more.
Okay, so you're ready to plan. How do you get started, without overwhelming yourself?
Keys to Business Adventure Planning
? Scale your intentions to your age.
For a five year-old, six months represents 10% of his life, but for a fifty year-old, it's 1%. If your business is relatively new, and you don't have a history of successful planning, don't come up with a five, ten or twenty-year plan.
Six months, maybe a year. Think about what you'd like to see happen in that time, and use your heart to see if it feels like too little, too much, or just right. As you get used to that, you can stretch your planning out into years and even decades.
? Pick business areas that need the most help.
In order to see those outcomes six or twelve months from now, your business will need some help. What kind of help?
Your business has several areas, or parts to it. Here are a few of the most common:
- Product/service delivery - Caring for customers - Marketing - Financial systems/cash flow - Office systems - Support structures
Either on your own, or through getting support from someone who knows, come up with a list of projects, as many as you can think of, that will help develop your business along the path you see it travelling.
But pick no more than three to focus on at one time, and let the others lag. It's easy to overwhelm yourself by trying to get to everything at once.
If you try to do too much, things are going to fall through the cracks. Instead, take control and choose which things you are going to let lie fallow, and just focus on three things at a time.
As you complete each project, then you can move on to the next one.
? Don't worry if you make a mess.
Robert Burns, an eighteenth century Scottish poet put it well: "The best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft a-gley." If you can't guess, 'gang aft a-gley' means, well, it might've been helpful if you'd had a diaper at hand...
Don't expect plans to describe the future. Your plans are merely meant to help bring focus, attention and care on a part of your business that is needing support. Follow your plan, and if things gang aft a-gley, well then, clean it up, and keep going.
Your business is ageing even as you read this. Blink twice and it will already be in grade school. Take the time to look six or twelve months out, let your heart and your head together pick the first three supportive projects, and get to work.
Both Ben Needles & Mark Silver are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Ben Needles has sinced written about articles on various topics from Business Credit Cards, Anger Control and Business Credit Cards. About the Author (text)Entrepreneur, Coach and Prosperity Guide Mary C. Davis helps spiritually-oriented wellness professionals build prosperous, fulfilling businesses. Get tips on how to build your wellness business, with ease and jo. Ben Needles's top article generates over 550000 views. to your Favourites.
Mark Silver has sinced written about articles on various topics from Modelling, Sales and Negotiation and Business Plan. Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in busines. Mark Silver's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.