Sarah Lakhani Consulting

Where Brand and Business Come Together This is the space where ambitious women come to bring clarity to their ideas, structure to their growth, and meaning to the businesses they’re building.

business planning

Decision Making: Your Greatest Asset

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Decision making is one of the hardest things that you, as a business owner and founder will have to do.  Hands down.  Why?  Because it always feels so permanent.  In this article, I’m going to cover three types of decisions: (1) Your overall business proposition (2) Your business direction and (3) Your mindset. 

Why Decisions Matter

Before we explore the three types of decisions, let’s take a moment to examine why this is an important topic.  Whether you’re in corporate or running your own business, whether you’re a small, medium, large or global business, the same reason applies.  Trying to move a business forward without being able to make decisions is highly unlikely to happen.  Basically, you just can’t move forward if you’re unable to make decisions.  

If you think about places you’ve worked at where your boss, manager or the president of the company were unable to make decisions, I’m sure you’ll find that the people within the teams reporting into them were always confused about what the right thing to do was, always doing something then changing course, and always busy working but producing a low result for the business.  And here’s the thing – it’s not the team’s fault.  Unless everyone knows what they’re meant to be working towards, it’s just always going to be this way.  Sometimes, the results can still be great – because of luck.  But most of the time, they just won’t be.    

The Impact of Decisions

So now what about the decisions you need to make (and could be struggling with) in your business?  How do they affect your business?  Whether you’re a solopreneur or have a team, not making the decisions you need to make will invariably slow you down by either stopping work from progressing or progressing it in multiple directions.  If you don’t have a team, this could manifest as doing and re-doing work such as changing your business purpose, your target audience or your services.  It could also result in changing your priorities every time you think you’ve made that decision, and therefore impacting the activities you’re currently focused on.  Eventually, this will lead to burnout and more than that – to that undesirable feeling of failure.  And if you have a team and are unable to make business decisions to guide them, you will cause them to spend their time in ways that won’t result in the ROI you need to make their hire a good investment.  But it wouldn’t be their fault!

How to make decisions

Decision making is a difficult skill.  It’s scary.  It feels permanent.  It feels like all eyes are on you, and any error in your decision will make you as the leader look bad.  But actually, none of that is true.  The first thing to know about making decisions is that any decision is better than no decision.  So even if you do make a decision that doesn’t produce the outcome you want, it’s still better than not having made that decision in the first place.  Why?  Because now you know that the direction you went in wasn’t the best for your business.  If you hadn’t made a decision, you wouldn’t know that.  You wouldn’t know anything, in fact.  Secondly, having made a decision also helps you and your team feel better because you have clarity.  You know what you’re working on.  You know what direction you’re heading in.  You know what you need to do and why you’re doing it.  Lastly, it demonstrates strong leadership skills.  One of the things people look up to leaders for is their ability to make decisions.  As a business owner, you need to be able to own that space within your business.  To help you, let’s look at three major types of decisions business owners need to make.

Decision Making Scenario #1: Your Business Proposition

In this scenario, the type of decision you’re making impacts the business at a fundamental level.  What is your business?  Who do you serve and how do you serve them?  What are your products and services?  How do they get delivered?  How do you make money?  Essentially, this is figuring out your business model.  Perhaps you have a ton of ideas about how you want to serve your customers.  Or perhaps you don’t.  Maybe you know exactly who your customers are.  But then again, maybe you don’t.  At the early stages of your business or when you’re going through a major change, pivot or adding a new line of products/services, you’ll find yourself in this scenario.  There are several decisions that need to be made here, but altogether, they’re your business model.  Most people I work with come to me with this piece of their business unanswered and we work on it together.  

To be able to make a decision on this, there are three major components that need to be considered: what your customers want and need, what your competitors currently provide and what you can do to stand out in the market.  Once you’ve collected the information across these areas, you’ll be in a position to create some options for your business model, and then pick the one that resonates most with you.  Don’t just go for the easy one, or the one that feels safest.  Go for the one that excites you – the one that gives you butterflies in your stomach and goosebumps on your skin.

Decision Making Scenario #2: Your Business Direction

This decision is the output of the earlier decision (on your business proposition or your business model).  Once you’ve decided what you want to do, you need to figure out how you’re going to get there.  This is where a business plan or a roadmap will come into play.  Knowing where you want to go and what you want to do is a prerequisite.  If you’re not sure about that, then figure that out first.  Once you have that, you can start crafting your plan or roadmap.

The way I like to do this is to break down my goal into 5 strategic areas: Sales, marketing, product, operations and finance.  I then identify what I need across each of those and then break that down into smaller goals.  Once that’s done, I can see the roadmap more clearly and it becomes easier to map out the step by step actions I need to take to make it all happen.  I follow this structure with my clients.  We first get their business model clarified – who they serve, how they serve them, how they deliver the products/services that serve them and how they make money doing that.  And then depending on their strengths, their preferences and what feels good – expansive, stretching but still in line with their values – we identify the steps required to get there, starting from the goals and working backwards.  

Decision Making Scenario #3: Your Mindset

This last decision is the most powerful one.  In order to get anything done in your business, whether it’s deciding to make an investment or deciding that you will fill up your program or sell out your stock, it all starts with the decision.  Why?  Because what you set your mind to is what you’ll eventually manifest in your physical reality.  This isn’t something we grew up realizing, nor is it something we’re taught in our corporate careers.  But the world of entrepreneurship is abundant with this knowledge.  And here’s how it plays out:  If you decide that you will get something, you will unconsciously act and do the things required to make that a reality.  It may seem farfetched, but it’s not.  You will show up, deliver, add value, work towards, and anything else to make that decision come true – if you truly believe it.  But when you don’t make that decision, it leads to an inconsistent set of actions on your behalf.  You just won’t show up in the same way.  

So how can you decide and change your mindset?  It takes practice.  It takes being understanding and curious as to why your mindset isn’t decisive or positive.  You can explore why you choose to see things in a negative or inconclusive manner.  And then, you absolutely need to practice making those decisions.  Decide that you will post on social media today.  Decide that you will meet a perfect client.  Decide that your content is being devoured by all your ideal customers.  Decide that your product will land in front of your target audience.  Decide those things first and see the magic happen.

Decision Making and You

In the end, only you can take control and start making decisions.  Eventually, you might be able to outsource some of these decisions, but when you’re in the early stages of starting and growing your business, it’s important that you shape it the way you want it to be.  Start small, make decisions that are easy, and then grow from there.  And with each decision, you want to ask yourself:  Does this excite me?  Does it give me butterflies in my stomach?  Does it scare me a little but also get me really pumped?  Does it give me goosebumps?  Remember, the direction you’ll head in with your business is dependent on these decisions.  And so you want your decisions to be expansive and push you without causing you to burn out.  You’ve got this. 

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Plan versus Action

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Somewhere along your business journey, I’m sure that either you or someone around you has brought up the question of spending time putting a plan together versus taking action and figuring things out along the way.  It seems to be a dichotomy.  But it’s not.  In the question of plan versus action, the truth is simple: there should be a continuous ebb and flow between planning and taking action. 

Entrepreneurs are known for taking quick action, versus traditional corporates where planning, exploring different strategies and ensuring perfection before moving forward is the norm.  But neither extreme is the right way forward.

As entrepreneurs, we often come across the advice to “take messy action”.  And yes, taking action early on is absolutely necessary.  You learn by doing, not by thinking.  You validate your business idea, your product/service, your offer, your marketing, your branding and messaging – all of it – by taking action and gathering feedback.  But that’s not to say that you should take action without thinking things through.  

What goes into planning?

Planning is the first step in your business.  When I talk about planning, I don’t mean to immediately jump into a business plan.  Nor do I mean anything detailed like a content plan.    Initial planning is about getting clarity on your business idea.  Initial planning is getting clear on your vision, the problem you’re solving, how you’re going to solve it, the solution you’re providing, who your ideal customers are, and how you’re going to monetize your idea.  It involves a lot of research and results in capturing your business idea in the structure or framework of a business model.  Again, this won’t be as detailed as after you’ve taken action, but what it does is it allows you to be able to articulate your product or service and create prototypes or beta versions to test and gather feedback on.  

What goes into action?

Once you have your business idea, you absolutely should start testing it.  If you have a product, gather feedback on it by offering some free samples, or a discounted initial price.  If you have a service, begin a beta phase, again either free or at a discounted initial price.  In this phase, you are testing your product or service, gathering as much information and feedback about it, and deciding on the changes you will make to it.  Your changes will include adding, removing, upgrading and downgrading elements of your product or service.  At this point, you will also gather important information on the messaging you will later on use in your marketing.  Once you have made the changes, depending on how big they are, you can either test again or move into your launch.  

The cycle between the two

Often, we’ll find that there is a cycle back and forth between the two, particularly when the product or service being created is highly innovative.  So you’ll do some planning, then move into action, and then go back into planning, then back into action, etc.  The reason this happens is because in each cycle, you’ll make changes that are larger compared to if the product or service had already existed in the market.  You might, however, still want to go through a second round of planning and action, even if your product or service exists, depending on what it is and how many changes you’re making. 

How much time to spend in planning before moving into action

The question of plan versus action is not black and white.  It’s a balancing act that you need to figure out for yourself, your business and your product/service.  And there are several things that will drive where that point of balance is for you.  On top of the questions I suggest below, it’s important to factor in what makes you comfortable.  If you prefer to spend a bit more time in planning, then do it! It’s your business and your decision.  But always check back to make sure you’re not procrastinating because of a hidden fear driven by a mindset block or a limiting belief.  

How innovative is your idea?

The more you’re pushing boundaries, the more you’ll want to get out and test your idea.  This might be a bit counter-intuitive, but the reason behind it is that it’s going to be very difficult to find existing data on a product or service that doesn’t exist.  So if your product or service doesn’t currently exist in the market, then you’ll need to generate that data yourself.  That is why the more innovative your idea is, the more quickly you’ll move onto action.  And in this case, your action will consist of prototyping, testing, collecting feedback, making changes as needed and then re-launching.  And the faster you can get through these, the more quickly you’ll have a product or service that you can sell.  

How many similar businesses are out there (who have already validated your idea)?

If, on the other hand, your product or service exists in some form in the market today (and makes money!), then you will probably spend more time on collecting information that will shape your specific business, your product/service and your offer.  And the reason for that is because data exists.  So instead of having to go out and generate data and feedback yourself, you can easily leverage the information that is already out there.  And you 100% should!   

How much is it going to cost to create or set up?

Another factor to consider is how much your new business venture is going to cost you, not just in terms of money, but also in terms of time, resources, and other lost opportunities.  If the cost is high, then you’ll most likely want to make sure you have a solid understanding of your customer needs, struggles, likes and dislikes (with regards to your product or service), the value you are providing and how it’s going to solve the problem that your customer has.  This is, of course, dependent on whether information exists for you to tap into.    

How much time do you have to spend on research and planning before you absolutely must begin bringing in revenue?

Lastly, your planning phase can be stretched out if you already have an existing income stream, are not in a hurry, and would prefer not to hustle and push yourself to get your business idea implemented quickly.  I love to see people spend an allocate amount of time to building their business (or a new revenue stream within their existing business) while still working a 9-to-5 job or delivering their existing products and services.  The great thing about this is that you don’t stress yourself out, you don’t allow yourself to get overwhelmed and you don’t burn out.  The flipside, however, is allowing yourself to take too long or never getting it off the ground.  

Plan versus Action

Once you have an idea of where your business idea stands and how much time you should spend on planning before moving into action, you’ll need to figure out just what the planning stage entails and also, what the action stage entails.  So it’s time for you to decide – plan versus action?  How much time should you spend in each phase to generate the highest benefit for you and your business?    

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Building Your Business Vision

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Building your business vision is the best investment you can make right now.  Knowing where you want to go with your business will help shape everything else that follows.  

It will provide clarity that will shape your mission, your values, your brand strategy, your business strategy, your customer strategy and customer experience, your sales and your marketing strategies, your product and service development… quite literally everything in your business.  

So perhaps you’ve come across the VMV acronym before – Vision, Mission and Values.  And it’s quite likely that you’ve been told how important it is to build your business vision.  But the value is in whether you’ve actually done it.  

Let’s take a little bit of time out today to identify the ways that your vision affects your business – positively, if done right, negatively, if not done at all (or done in a less-than-desired way).  

First things first…

What is a business vision?

Your business vision is your North Star.  It is the final destination you want to eventually get to.  It is the reason you created your business, the deep reason – your why.  

And it is this deep reason or “why” that gives you fulfillment.  

Most business visions are so aspirational that they might never be achieved, and that’s ok.  It’s good to be aspirational.  But your vision doesn’t have to be so aspirational that you’ll forever be striving to achieve it.  It can be something more achievable.  But it is important that your vision be something that inspires you.

Here are some examples of how you can shape your vision statement: 

  • To eradicate [something you work towards getting rid of, e.g. hunger]
  • To increase / create more [something that you work towards increasing, e.g. female CEOs or founders]
  • To be the best at [whatever it is you do/provide/create/produce/make available]
  • To bring [something] to [type of location / people]

Why is a vision so important?

Your vision is the guiding light, the destination, the ultimate goal of your business.  

Without a vision, the biggest issue you’ll almost certainly face is that your efforts won’t be aligned.  What does that mean?  It means you’ll be doing things that move you in some direction, but not necessarily towards where you want to be.  And different things will move you in different directions, so your cumulative efforts will be scattered, not stacked.  Why is that an issue?  Other than not getting closer to your goal, unaligned action means you’ll be busy all the time, but you won’t see the desired outcome from your effort.  That in turn can – and most likely will – lead to becoming unmotivated and burnt out.  

How does articulating a vision help?

  1. It helps you identify your mission.  Once you have a business vision in mind – the destination, the ultimate goal of your business – you can identify your mission.  Your mission is the “how” to your vision.  If your vision is to help 1,000,000 women start their own businesses, then the “how” describes what your business will be doing to achieve that vision.  Perhaps it’s by having a membership-based community that supports and provides frameworks, information and guidance to women starting their businesses.  
  2. It helps frame your brand strategy… and your business strategy… and your sales strategy… and your marketing strategy… and your product or service development… and your customer strategy… you get the point.  The reason why it has such an impact on everything that follows is because your vision describes your destination.  And all the other strategies that you build into your business (like your brand strategy, your business strategy etc) are designed in such a way to get you to that destination, to that vision.  [Little side note here: Do you see how not having a vision can result in each of these critically important strategies then veering off their own path?  Without a common destination in mind, you could end up creating a brand strategy that takes you one way, and a marketing strategy that takes you another way, and a business strategy that doesn’t align with either.]
  3. It reduces anxiety, stress, burnout, and all the other feelings associated with overworking and not seeing the results you want to see.  Why?  Because your actions will be aligned.  Because your strategies will be aligned.  Because your efforts will be created in such a way that they drive you towards your vision.  And on that note…
  4. It creates fulfillment.  Because seeing how you’re making a positive impact on the thing that drives you is fulfilling.  And…
  5. Seeing your ultimate goal get positively impacted through your actions is the thing that will keep you going through the tough times.  Because there will be tough times; there always are.  But knowing what you’re working towards and seeing how you can and do make a difference is a big motivator.  It’s the biggest motivator, in fact.  

So, Sarah – what’s your vision?

I was hoping you’d ask!

There is a reason I work with entrepreneurs.  I want to help build more heart-based and values-based businesses.  I want to see more entrepreneurs and small businesses succeed.  I want to create that movement, that ripple effect. 

Also, I find that entrepreneurs and small businesses deliver their products and services with heart, with a lot of care, with genuine appreciation for their customers.  I want to create more of that.

And lastly, I want to give back and help others give back to non-profit businesses.  And I find that a lot of entrepreneurs and small businesses do that.  And they do it, again, from the heart.  

So, having introduced my background thoughts, this is my vision: 

My vision is to create a world where people are successful doing the things they love, delivering from their hearts and making the world a better place.  

And now it’s your turn

If you don’t already have a vision, create one.  Dig deep.  Find out why you do the thing you do in your business. 

And ask yourself: what impact do I want to have on the world?  

What is a Business Plan?

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You’ve got your business idea.  It might even already be an up and running business.  But you’ve reached a point where you realize one of the following:

  1. You (and your team) are spending time on so many things.  In fact, you’re very busy.  But you’re not really getting any closer to where you want to be… 
  2. Your business doesn’t seem to have direction.  Or actually, your business has a new direction every day!  It’s getting confusing, frustrating and very tiring for yourself and your team.
  3. You just don’t know where to start.  You know where you want to be, and you can articulate that well, and paint that future picture in such a way that everyone you speak to gets excited about it, too.  But how do you get there? 

If any of the above scenarios resonate with you, then there’s one thing you need: a business plan.  

And by the time you get to the end of this article, you’ll understand exactly what a business plan is, and hopefully be one step closer to creating one!

Key takeaways

Everyone needs a business plan.

A business plan is a document that outlines what your business will produce or deliver, and how it will do it.  

You can also develop a second, more detailed, part to your business plan which provides you with an action plan outlining all the steps you need to take to get you from where you are today to where you want to be.

Most entrepreneurs struggle with getting their businesses set up successfully because:

  1. They haven’t thought through all the strategic elements of their business, so their business idea may not necessarily be competitive, or even something that customers need (and will purchase).  
  2. There is so much to do that they get overwhelmed and do nothing. 
  3. They start working on and spending time on things that aren’t necessarily going to get them to where they want to be.  This is when people are busy but not smart about what they’re busy doing.  It happens a lot, and it’s discouraging, to say the least, when you’ve spent your days working, working, and working some more, but your goals are still so far away.  

This is why spending time up-front to think through your idea and create a business plan will go a long way in ensuring your success!

What is a business plan?

Business Plan Definition: A business plan is a document that outlines what your business will produce or deliver (also known as what “value” it will provide), and how it will fulfill that goal.  

I like to think of business plans as two parts.  You will always need the first part, whether for yourself or for pitching to investors or potential business partners.  But the second part is what proves to be extremely useful when you’re feeling either stuck or overwhelmed – i.e., when you just don’t know where to start, or when you’re so busy but not getting anywhere.    

The basics of what a business plan is: 

You will always need to make sure that your business plan clarifies your thinking, outlines your medium-high level plans for your business, and, if needed, can be used if you’re looking for investors or partners.  I’ve outlined what needs to be included in a business plan below.  

The extra part in a business plan that really helps you towards making your dream a success: 

I’ve found that a business plan which also goes into detail with all the little steps – the action items – that you will need to accomplish to get to your end goal is something that almost ALL entrepreneurs need.  It gives you clarity on what you should be working on, how you’re actually going to make things happen, and provides you with a clear roadmap that you can cross items off (or add items to) as you go along.  And we all know crossing items off a list gives you that much needed accomplishment boost every now and again, doesn’t it?   

So to summarize, a business plan always covers the medium to high level plans for your business (i.e. what you want to accomplish, why it’s a great idea and how you’ll do it).  But, if you’re like most people, you’ll want to take it a step further and break down the “how” into action items that you can use to make sure that everything you (and your team, if you have one) are working on is getting you closer to that goal you want to achieve.  

What does a business plan include?

A business plan includes several important pieces of information, such as your business objective, your product/service description, a market analysis, a clear idea of who you’ll be targeting (your Ideal Customer Avatar) and your plans and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) across some strategic pillars: Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Financials, People/Team, Operations.  Lastly, your business plan should include an assessment of potential risks, and what you could do should any of them arise.  

In short, your business plan should give someone reading it a really good idea of what you do (or want to do), why you think it would work, and how you’re going to make it all happen.  

Now that we know what a business plan is and what it includes, let’s look at why you might need one.

Why do you need a business plan?

There are two reasons why you need a business plan.  

The first reason is to help you get clarity on your business and your strategy.  This will help you articulate what your business will deliver, why it’s a great business idea, what your position within the market will be, what your competitive advantage and USPs (Unique Selling Propositions) are, and how you will deliver that product or service across several areas such as Sales, Marketing, Product, Operations, Financial and People (your strategic pillars – which may be a little different from these, depending on your specific business needs).   

A business plan is also absolutely needed if you’re planning to go to investors for funding or are looking for someone to partner up with.  This is the one document investors or VCs will expect – across the board.  So if you’re planning on getting funding, it’s time to start working on your business plan!  

But, business plans are also needed to give you clarity.  And when I say you, I mean you, specifically!  So even if you’re planning on being a solopreneur, and you don’t need any funding, it’s always a really good idea to put a business plan together so that you can get really clear on your business proposition.  

And that clarity will prove to be useful across so many of your business areas such as your sales strategies, marketing strategies and copy, business operations and setup, supplier and partner choices, and more.  By going through the business planning process, you’ll get really clear on what your business will deliver, to whom, and why it’s a great idea.  

By going through this process, you’ll uncover risks you might have missed, opportunities you hadn’t seen, and get visibility into exactly what you need to do to achieve your goal.  

And lastly, when you take your business plan a step further and create a detailed action plan out of it, you will be mapping out all the action items that need to be done to get you from today to your end goal.  You’ll be able to view which action items are a priority, which ones are dependent on other action items, and which activities you spend time on today that don’t contribute to your goal at all. 

How to write a business plan

It may seem complex at first, but trust me on this – a good template and thoughtful prompts, probing questions and experienced guidance will make it easier.  If you’re anything like me, you’ll even find it fun!

Action: Write your business plan

If you haven’t yet written a business plan and would like the clarity that it brings, there’s no time like the present to get started!  My suggestion is to create the outline first, then start filling the sections in with the information you already know.  You can then research, think, decide and refine as needed.  Good luck!

If this topic is something that interests you, you’re going to want to sign up to my free Strategy & Business Planning webinar.  It’s going to be a live webinar in which I’ll explain the differences between strategy and business planning and take you through both.  This webinar will equip you with the foundation you need to set your business up for success so you definitely don’t want to miss it.