Plan Or Not to Plan?

I just couldn't sleep last night having so many ideas running through my head so I decided to stay up writing down my thoughts. I formulated a 2 month plan of how to implement these ideas and I am very proud of what I have laid down as a foundation. So you must be wondering what I wrote down? I can't quite tell you in detail of what the grand plan is but I will give you details on the strategy I used and how it can be applied to any business.

Brainstorming Your Thoughts On Paper

The first thing I always do when I get ideas is to write them down. I would grab a large sheet of paper, something like the butcher's paper or A2 size. Then in the middle of the page I would write down the name of my business and then start jotting down my ideas around them. It doesn't have to be in any sequential order as long as you can get your ideas down on paper and I wouldn't worry about how neat it is.

Once I have written down all my ideas, I will start to circle the ones that I think would be profitable for the business and then choose and prioritise 5 of the ideas. Why only 5, when I may have like 20+ ideas written down? Most of the time by having too many ideas can be overwhelming so I choose 5 to start researching and doing due diligence on. By taking baby steps it helps me to focus on the tasks leading to the big picture. I will come back to the other ideas once these ideas have been implemented.

Connecting The Ideas To Formulate A Plan

The fun part is now connecting the dots just like the ones you see in a puzzle book. Let me show you how I do it. Once you have the 5 ideas prioritised from 1 to 5 then you are able to use this to start doing your research and gathering the information required to turn your idea into reality. Start with the first one and in my case my first idea was to gather subscribers to the blog and ask them to sign up for my weekly Hot Business tips. Most readers on the Internet don't just subscribe unless there is an appealing Free gift. Therefore coming up with this eBook that you can get here and giving it away for Free is one of the ways of asking a reader to subscribe. I have spent hours creating this eBook to provide value to my audience and hopefully they will come back to this website because they see the information I offer useful and practical. In turn I can build an audience of subscribers who will be able to take the information I provide for FREE and apply it to their business.

So you ask, where do I get the information to write this eBook and what information to include that will provide value to your audience? The first thing is to know what target market you are speaking to. Then research what they want and write about it with your opinions and your story. Most people don't want to read about facts but want to relate to your story and how you did it.

Therefore take your first idea and begin researching what you need to turn it into reality and remember to take baby steps to achieve your goal. Once you've implemented your first idea then move onto the next one and so forth.

Planning to Win

At the end of the day when you have written down your ideas, prioritised, researched and taken action to turn this idea into reality, we want to see results. In this case we are talking about the bottom line, which is MONEY. So when you do your research you need to definite a clear dollar value of how much the idea will result in. That way you have a set goal allowing you to lay a path of "how to" achieve this result. As in my example of gathering subscribers, I have a goal to introduce 10,000 subscribers by December 2009. Through a group of selected subscribers I will offer an opportunity to be part of my coaching program and this program will generate $100,000. As you can see I have a defined goal from the idea I prioritised and this is how we plan to win!