Start With A Win - Being Proactive with Your 2021 Business Planning

Episode Date: December 16, 2020

This episode of Start With A Win provides listeners with a framework for planning for 2021 while evaluating the crazy year that was 2020 and regrouping to start next year with a win. Your goal after this episode should be to write out a business plan for Q1 of 2021 that can replicate for the remaining quarters. Take the time to write it down now so you can be intentional with your goals and actions. Your 2021 plan should include these four aspects:Business plan – Walk through these three questions: “Who do you serve?”, “What is their biggest challenge?”, and “Does your product or service solve it?” Consider what business functions are working and which are not, evaluating what you might need to stop, start, or continue.  Remember to spend time working on your business rather than only working in your business.People plan – Whether you are a sole proprietor or you have a team around you, sit down and go through each position to gauge results and come up with a plan for what you need to stop, start, or continue. Perhaps like many businesses, you have had to pivot to a different model or structure due to COVID-19. Consider what changes may be needed long-term or short-term to accommodate safety protocols.Customer plan – Your customers' needs have most likely changed since your last business planning session. Listen to what they are saying through the feedback they are giving you directly or indirectly, and put together a plan for things you need to stop, start, or continue.Profit plan – There is no ROI in a goal, only ROI in action. Evaluate what adjustment you may need to make next year to fill in the gaps or make up some lost margins in 2020. If you need help to structure your thoughts regarding where you are now and where you need to go, head over to StartWithAWin.com to download our business plan format!Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Hey, Mark, how's your 2020 going so far? Oh, man. Good question for everybody, isn't it? It's a great question. Let's talk about that. All right. Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. And coming to you from across the screen here,

Adam Kanto, CEO of Remax in the virtual studio with producer Mark. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing so good. So good. Hey, I threw a deep question at you before we opened here and that's how's your 2020 going? So what do you say we talk about that today? I feel like 2020 is, you know, that saying hindsight's 2020. It's like someone from the future came back and tried to warn us, but we just misunderstood them. Yeah. Have you ever been driving down the road and you look in your rearview mirror and there's like a big crash behind you? Yeah. It kind of feels like that sometimes, doesn't it?

Yeah. It's like 2020 is like seeing that big crash behind you. Yeah. So, I mean, looking in the rearview mirror, I mean, granted, we're still, I feel like right now we're kind of weaving through the crash that's happening. And we're doing our very best as businesses, as people to navigate something we didn't expect. Because when you leave your house to drive somewhere, you don't expect to be in the middle of a crash, right? I mean, it's not a fun thing. It's, it's not an intention of yours, but the reality is 2020 was kind of a crash and, and more than anything it was changed. And so when, you know, when you take a look at, and I want to talk about business today,

business specifically, when you pull out your business plan, people listening, you do have a business plan, don't you? And people are, you know, this is where everybody's like, click, I'm turning this one off. Well, here we are, right? We're, we're in Q4 and, uh, it's 2021 is on the horizon. So now is the time that we're all kind of looking at like, all right, what, what's next? Exactly. But here's the reality, Mark. We have seen a lot of opportunities show up in 2020 as well as challenges. Wouldn't you agree? we haven't had a huge business decline, but a lot of our clients now need content and video for online, more Zoom stuff, different things like that. So we've just kind of shifted from what we were focusing on to kind of a little bit different thing.

Yeah. So I want to dive into that a little bit and let's do a little bit of a business flyby because we're going to be doing some business planning coming up here pretty soon. It's the end of the year. One of the top downloaded pieces is a business plan. So what I'd like for everybody to do also, we're going to put a button on startwithawin.com. And we'd like to know if you want a business plan format. So we'll put some of this into writing for you to help you out. So go to startwithawin.com, click on the business plan button, and producer Mark and team will put something on there to get your email address, and we'll shoot you over a PDF that has some

ideas for thinking about how your business plan should work. But ultimately, you're right, Mark, it's Q3 check-in. Q3 check-in. And what we want to do here is talk about what should you be considering in Q3 check-in. And ultimately, there are a couple steps, a couple foundational steps here, and then some direction that you can take. So what are those foundational steps? First of all... Wait, real quick, you said Q3 check-in. Yes. What does that mean? We're in Q4 and we're doing a Q3 check-in. Yeah. All right. How did you do up until now, buddy? Okay. All right. I'll tell you what, Mark, you're running out of time to get Q4 completed and make up some headway for what you lost in Q1, 2, and 3. Yes.

So I want you to take a look at everything through Q3. You haven't closed out Q4 yet. So ultimately, you should know your Q3 numbers. Yeah. Especially if you pay quarterly taxes and things like that. You should know where you're at. You should also know, and ultimately, your goals should not be annual. They should be quarterly.

Most businesses are like, I'm going to write my business plan for this year. No, write your business plan for the next 90 days. The next 90 days. So I want to review the past three quarters briefly because I'll tell you what, we started 2020 strong. I think everybody would admit to that. Oh, I was excited. I was stoked.

I mean, 2020, it sounded awesome too. I mean, what a cool mantra for business. It's 2020. You know, we need this like amazing music here. I got a little bit right here. Let's do this. It's 2020. And here we go planning our business.

Getting ready to take the field in the business environment. So does that work for you, Mark? How do you think? That's kind of how we started, right? That's right. Like let's get ready to rumble. It didn't work. Um, I mean, and then here's, here's kind of what 2020 ended up with in business. Um, so it's 2020. What are we doing in our business now? Where are my customers at? What's going on? How am I making my numbers? So yeah, let's get rid of that. So I mean, the reality is, aren't you glad I got a soundboard, buddy?

It makes things so much more fun. It's spontaneous. But we set some goals. Everybody. I mean, if you didn't write a business plan and you didn't set some goals, pull out a marker and write it on your desk in front of you. What are your goals for the next quarter for Q4? You know, so essentially the next like several weeks between now and the end of 2020. And what are you going to do the first quarter of 2021 and then put little X next to that and put four and that'll tell you what you're going to do for 2021 overall. But we're just going to break these down into smaller bite-sized pieces. It's like eating a pizza. You don't cram the whole thing in your mouth.

You eat it one piece at a time here. Okay. Yeah. Or an elephant, you know? Well, that's a big thing. And you know, I don't think elephant tastes all that good. So I'm going to stick with a pizza. I like pizza too. I like pizza. So how are you going to eat this pizza? Otherwise known as 2021. So what are your goals? Because really what we need to do is we need to deconstruct this. And I'm going to give you a few categories to take a look at. The first one, obviously, you've got your business plan. Business plan. And there are a couple of things you need to know. First of all, it's not what you sell. A business plan is not what you sell,

because you know what you sell. A business plan is who do you serve? So the first thing you need to think about in your business plan is not what you sell because you know what you sell. A business plan is who do you serve? So the first thing you need to think about in your business plan is who do you serve? Do you know who that is? Did you outline that in your business plan? And is it in front of you written on the wall? Do you have an avatar for your ideal customer? At Remax, we have this avatar deck with several ideal customers in them. And we've even named them. We've named them. And we've put a caricature to them. And we talk about their hobbies and what's their life like and stuff like that.

So who's your ideal customer avatar is what it's also known as in the sales space. Yeah. So who are you trying to serve to help and what is their biggest challenge? And then the next thing you need to think about is, does your product or service solve that challenge? I mean, ultimately that's what it boils down to. I mean,

if you don't have those three things, you don't have a business. Who do you, Who do you serve? What's their challenge? And does your product or service solve that challenge? And does our product or service solve it? Yeah. So like for, let's say you run a branding agency, like my friend.

Let's just say, you know. Not to call anybody out here, but, um, you know, you, you serve the business environment. You serve business leaders looking to create more time and more presence in their marketplace. Okay. Cause I mean, I, I run a business and if I spent all my time trying to do what you're a master in, it's a waste of time for me to do that. And, and I'm not as effective as you because you have the insight as to, okay, what do I say?

How do I say it? Where do I say it? So, you know, who do you serve? You serve a business leader looking to increase their brand. I mean, hello, brand Viva. Brand life. There you go. And their presence in their marketplace.

So what is my biggest challenge? I don't have time to do that and I don't have the expertise to do that. So what is my biggest challenge? I don't have time to do that and I don't have the expertise to do that. And do you solve that challenge? Yes, you bring the time and the expertise to that in order to accomplish that challenge. So, I mean, ultimately that's what it boils down to. So that's, you know, strategically,

that's what you do, simply put. And then you got to hold that up and go, is that what we've been doing in 2020? Or do you feel like you've been playing defense? Right. So this is where we get into this start, stop, continue thing. You need to ask yourself in order to achieve those things, do I need to start anything? Do I need to stop anything? And I do, do I need to continue anything? So what do you start doing? Oh, we're not making phone calls. Oh, then start doing that.

Stop. What are you doing too much? Oh, we're spending a lot of time on social media and we're not getting results. Then stop doing that or make the adjustments. Continue. Oh, we're putting out videos and people are noticing those. Then continue doing that.

Right. So when it comes to just simply put meeting those three things, what do you need to start, stop and continue? This is a good, good, small framework for looking at, have I been doing those things the last three quarters and does the rest of Q4 need to contain those things and do those get built into 2021? It's a good way of, of dissecting that. Yeah, I think it's just so important. Because even for me, I feel like there's just so many times where I get so caught into working in the business that I don't have time to work on the business. And I don't have time to measure the things that I'm doing. And so, I mean, yeah, I mean, just an encouragement to everybody out there who's listening. If you don't make the time to focus on these things,

you'll never have the time. That's the perfect statement because when you look at start, stop, continue, you need to start focusing on those things if you're not hitting those things. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, Mark, I don't, I can't say that you're not hitting those things. Cause I get, you know, like Sunday afternoon, I get text message. Hey, here's some, you know, here's a couple of scripts for some podcasts. Here's this, here's, and I, and I'm a customer of yours. You're like, I'm serving my customer base. And as you know, I've also sent you people, you know, as customers.

So, you know, there's, there's this portion of that where I'm like, all right, I think it's safe to say that Mark is doing these things and he needs to be doing, but I mean, only you would know if there are things that you need to stop doing and other things mechanically in your business, you need to continue doing. And generally what we need to stop doing is we convince ourselves that what we're doing is making results and it's not. So a lot of times it has to do with people go, I'm prospecting and what they're doing is they're thumb surfing on social media instead. And that gets down to a deeper level of the tactical operations of the organization. But ultimately, you know, we've hit this top part of the umbrella with the strategic plan. And what do you need with the strategic plan?

Do you start, stop, continue? Let's talk about the people now. Because everybody needs to take and reflect on what is my people plan. You might hold up the mirror and go, I'm the people in this business. If you're a one person show. Or you might hold up the mirror and see all these people standing behind you in the business and go, wow, I've got all these employees. Are they doing what they need to be doing, how they need to be doing in order to serve that customer that we've identified? So you take a look at that and you go, all right,

people plan and look at each position and go start, stop, continue. And what are the results of what their activities are driving right now? Now, I would also say what needs to change? Because we always, if we start, stop, continue, could identify changes. But ultimately, what happens is if we don't call it change and understand that we're resolving ourselves to making some changes, change is letting go of some previous actions and introducing new. Letting go of previous philosophy and introducing new. We have to be willing to let go of things that don't work and discipline ourselves to remove those from our actions and our activities. Otherwise, they waste time. Because that's one thing we have very little of is time

when running a business. Yeah. And I think being able to pivot, I heard recently two different stories of originally Hershey's made caramels and they realized that they were making caramels, but more people preferred chocolate. And so they shifted their industry from caramel making to Hershey Kisses and became wildly successful. And same thing with Heinz. They were making vinegar as their main product and deliverable, but then they realized that this ketchup thing was something that people really desired and they pivot pivot from vinegar to ketchup and found wild success. Well, here's another good one for you, Mark, when you look at that. And some businesses had to pivot in order to survive during COVID. So I was talking to a business leader yesterday on the phone, and we were talking about a business we're both familiar with who makes window coverings. So the, the, the multicellular, like the honeycomb window coverings and COVID hit. And they're like, we can't go into people's houses to sell window coverings. What do we do? So what they did was they looked in their

warehouse and they're like, we have all this material. They instantly started making face masks out of the window covering material and selling those. I mean, it's a nice window covering. It really made a nice face mask. And people were like, whoa, that's way better than those blue things you buy at the pharmacy. So there was this instant understanding of start, stop, continue. Now what they need to do also is they need to build in a phase out plan to understand, okay, now we can get back into people's houses. How do we transition our manufacturing and our supply chain back to what we need to be doing in order to increase our

profit margins? Or maybe their profit margins were ridiculously good and they stay with a mask department as well. So it's an interesting look at where's your business at? Where's it's been? Where does it need to go for the rest of 2020 and into 2021 by doing a check-in right now? And a lot of people get up in the morning and they're like, hey, it's Monday. Okay. Hit the ground running. Friday hits and they're like, hey, weekend starts tomorrow. I'm good. And they look back and they didn't do this. And then another week and another week. And next thing you know, a quarter's gone. Next thing you know, half the year's gone.

And then the year's gone. And you're like, whoa. And your CPA who's looking at your taxes is going, I thought you were going to make some money this year. And you're thinking, oh, I'm losing money this year. Yeah. And your taxes are going to hurt you and all the rest of this stuff when it comes to that. So, I mean, reality is this is reality. Let's face it and figure out what do we need to start, stop, continue and what are our people doing and

what should they be doing? So we have a people plan. What about a customer plan? What do your customers need? Have their challenges changed? Have we analyzed that? And here's the one thing that's changed about your customers. The way they talk. The way they talk. We've heard words used by our customers that we have never heard them use before. Like safety. Like cleanliness. Like health.

Everybody's leading with some certain words. They may have to do with the social environment or diversity and inclusion or kindness or whatever it might be. I mean, you know, obviously we started the year right before COVID started as we were ramping that up. It was a lot of first responder talk. Everybody was like, you know, really, really gung-ho on first responders. And then we got into COVID. Everybody went gung-ho on first responders. And then we got into COVID. Everybody went gung-ho on COVID. And we got into some social equality talk and things like that throughout the year. What are your customers looking for when it comes to their attention to build their business?

Now, for you, you're the voice of a lot of your customers. So how do you become their voice and say the things that need to be said in the way that they need to be said without polarizing people? So there are certain ways to look at that. So it's interesting. You've got your customer plan after your people plan, and then you have your profit plan. How do those things play together? What have we adjusted this year, and what are the margins at that we need to be making profit in, in order for our company to be where our goals are. Because there's no ROI on a goal. There's no return on investment in a goal. There's an ROI on action. Right. Yeah. You can have all the goals you want, but if you don't

take action, you're not going to see any results. Exactly. Exactly. So that was kind of exhausting, wasn't it, Mark? Yeah. We got a lot of plans to make. But ultimately what it boils down to is you can just take a few pieces of paper. You got your business plan, which is what we talked about there. And the start, stop, continue. Get your people planned. And the start, stop, continue. Get your customer planned. And the start-stop continue. Get your customer planned, and the start-stop continue. And get your profit planned. And you can look at those things

and figure out where you're at right now and where do we need to go for 2021, what tweaks and adjustments we need to make, and we will be talking to you soon about getting set up for the future. That's right. Yeah, and hey, as Adam said earlier, head over to startwithawin.com

and put your email address in and we will send you a business plan that will help you figure out where you are and what you need to start, stop and continue. Kind of give you a framework around that. And again, guys, thanks so much for listening. We really appreciate you guys tuning in every week and being a part of our win nation. If you have a start with a win story or want to leave us a message, go ahead and do that at 888-581-4430. Don't forget to

subscribe to Adam and follow him on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter. And yeah, we appreciate you guys. And until next time, remember, start with a win.