Kevin W. McCarthy

The Professor of On-Purpose

kwmccarthy

What Is The Purpose of A Business Plan?

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Writing a business plan?

It is hard to argue against the idea of writing a business plan, yet experience tells me very few business owners actually write one.

Wrong choice! In this fast-paced dynamic business environment, a business purpose and plan have never been more needed. They’re essential to decisions and growth regardless of the business size.

The problem isn’t with the business plan, per se; it is the speed of the person creating the business plan which makes it irrelevant to the business. Most business owners aren’t skilled as business plan writers so their mythologies and misgivings are often unfounded in reality. Speed Use this ratio when business planning: 1% planning: 99% execution. Rinse and repeat!comes with experience and practice.

Too many times, I’ve heard business owners lament that they don’t have time to do a business plan. Hint: maybe the reason they don’t have time is because they’re not working from a plan. That’s more a comment about their limited skills, experience, and understanding or unwillingness to get help.

60-Minute or Less Simple Planning Method

Consider the old adage, “If you have only a day to cut down a tree with an ax, then invest time sharpening the ax before you begin.” Let me add: Continue to check and sharpen it throughout the day. A business plan is a sharp ax that you can take to the forest of business challenges you face and make progress faster, more affordable, and with less energy … sounds like profits to me!

Pull out a blank sheet of paper, go to a whiteboard or flip chart, or open an electronic file to capture your thoughts. Do the brain dump! Then sort it out into a more coherent and logical flow of actions steps. Assign people and dates and you’re ready to go!

A simple idea-clarifying informal business plan can often be done in less than 60 minutes. Practice the following method on smaller projects where the risk, scale, and scope aren’t so large. Practice the process on less demanding content and matters and you’ll be preparing for writing the business plan for the entire business.

Who Are You Fooling?

I’ve even been told by business owners, “A business plan isn’t relevant to my business.” There may be a good reason why business planning is often put aside, but dismissing it as irrelevant is risky business. While creating a business plan is something every entrepreneur or CEO is wise to do, they often don’t. It is a unique skill set that they don’t invest time in learning how to do. In their minds, it seems to be an exercise for the academics and not for people of action.

Reconsider what the pros do.

For example, your favorite NFL team has a plan for the franchise, the season, and a game plan and playbook going into every game for every week of the season for as long as they’re winning into the post-season. They’re professionals who have learned to crank out a “business plan” for every week. To get the results they seek they don’t have an option. Even then, games will be lost. Lessons learned and personnel trained to improve.

Action, even well-intended actions, without a purpose and a plan incrementally lower the trajectory of achievement.

Business planning, hey, it’s optional. That’s a dangerous mindset fraught with avoidable pitfalls. Running by the seat of one’s pants can become a way of life and business. Could this be part of the explanation why the failure rate of small businesses is so high?

Candidly, if taxes didn’t have to be paid, I wonder how many small business owners would have a financial and accounting system in place! Because the IRS likes to be paid and has means of enforcement to be paid, bookkeeping and accounting are done because outside consequences exist. Because business planning is “optional,” it is too easy to not get it done.

So what is the purpose of a business plan?

It helps to know that there are three broad types of business plans:

  1. Financing business plans are done to obtain financing from either investors or lenders. These business plans tend to be formal and time consuming because of the scrutiny of due diligence. Most business planning software leans in this direction.
  2. Functional business plans are more operational or oriented towards helping team members get on the same page to move the business forward. These blueprints for the business are informative and best used for internal use, direction, and communication.
  3. Strategic business plans are very useful, for example, for taking your business ideas and transforming them into a business model. These can be very informal—notes on a yellow pad or napkin—to PowerPoint presentations to more formally written documents.

Audience Matters

Who is going to be reading your business plan and why? Your need for a business plan really depends upon the audience for whom it is written.

  • Financing business plans are targeted toward outsiders to attract investment.
  • Functional business plans involve engaging the team. There is a certain amount of assumed inside knowledge.
  • Strategic plans are best written for the leader of the plan to gain insight and clarity. This enables the entrepreneur to capture thoughts and sort the various elements of a business into an orderly approach.

6a00e551c6499c883401a3fd37e903970b.png.jpgEach of these business plans has common elements that you’ll find layered in The Service Model™ (see graphic) from The On-Purpose Business Person.

Creating a business plan is something every entrepreneur should do, but you need to know why you are writing the business plan and the audience.

I’ve seen far too many start-up organizations buy business planning software and invest months writing it. The process of doing their market research, developing cash flow statements, defining their organizational chart, etc. is useful, but is the marginal return on investment worth it? Sometimes you just need to get started and prove your concept in order to improve your business model.

Practically, it is rarely as valuable as the benefit of having a simple business plan and getting started. There’s nothing quite like opening the doors on a small scale and learning from the market. This said, if you have only one part of a business plan to get right—put together your business marketing plan.

Planning is not about perfection.

Rather it is about anticipating pitfalls and avoiding them, as well as leveraging opportunities to the max. Plans are meant to save us time, money, and energy. Always consider the ROI (return on investment) for your planning process.

Over the years, I’ve told my clients to use this ratio when business planning: 1% planning:99% execution. Rinse and repeat!

On-Purpose Business Tip: The Service Model from The On-Purpose Business Person provides a simple business plan template to provoke thoughtful inquiry and usefulness.

Are You A Purpose Driven Person?

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Today, let’s explore the difference between being purpose driven and purpose called.

Let’s start by defining our terms.

What does it mean to be driven?

Mules and horses are driven by the coachman or whip, as he’s called. For many of us it is too easy to get on a track at work and in life, lean into the yoke, and just keep pushing forward day after day trusting that in the end, it all works out for the best. Is this a healthy way to live?

One day we will reflect and look back over days, years, or decades of being a driven person. We’ve been pushed from behind, compelled to do something that may not be the right fit for us. Often we’re motivated by influences outside of ourselves. Such extrinsic motivation works for a while but it is hard to sustain.

To be called is to answer to a higher power.

It is ours to respond to the calling or ignore it. Most of us think of clergy as having a calling. In fact, every person has a calling, a purpose, a design and gifting that is uniquely fitted into a neat package called YOU!

Purpose CalledWe are not purpose driven. We are purpose called.

Instead of being driven, what if you were leaning into your calling? It may be the same load, but we’re choosing to accept the burden differently.

Here’s a secret about your calling.

You have to be still and listen. It is a calling, not a shout or a holler or a scream. It is subtle, gentle, a small still voice in the wilderness that is never demanding or pushy.

Implied in being called, is being called by name. In a manner of speaking, your 2-word purpose is your spiritual name. So when you hear or recognize it, you know you’re being called and you can answer it.

God calls us by name.

Purpose is one’s identity or name that God uses to call us. We then offer a response of yes or no. When we say yes to our purpose, we are being on-purpose or answering our call.

Here’s a great article on the difference between a job, career, and vocation from Fast Company magazine founder, Alan M. Webber. I remember reading this article in 1998 and nodding my head in agreement.

Watch today’s On-Purpose Minute. You may find it alarmingly disturbing to your “well-ordered life.” Perhaps you’ll find it amazingly comforting as you pursue a calling that seemingly defies logic and reason to everyone except you.

Have you heard about Type A Personalities? These men and women have traits in their personalities that thrive on stress, pressure, multitasking, and … (drum roll) premature death due to heart attacks, high blood pressure, and other stress-induced diseases. Being a driven person and exhibiting Type A behaviors are related but it need not be a death sentence.

Are you ready to begin the cure from being purpose driven?

Here it is: it has nothing to do with your personality—Theory A, B, X, or Y. It has to do with your worldview. You’ve adopted or adapted to a driven personality style.

The cure is to recognize that you are called, not driven. Your purpose forms the words of your identity by which you are called and, once known, you are better capable of recognizing and appropriately responding to your call.

Please let me hear from you. Share your story in the comments section below and you’ll be putting voice to your thoughts and desires. More importantly, others will read your post and glean insights and better self-awareness. You can make a difference this way that can alter the course of another person for good.

Be On-Purpose (called, not driven)!

Kevin

P.S. I’m often asked what I think about Pastor Rick Warren’s best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, which came out many years after the original release of The On-Purpose Person. First, no he didn’t “steal” my stuff. I get that question all the time. Second, we use purpose differently. He uses purpose to describe what are really the five missions of the church. He hasn’t asked me to re-title the book, but if asked, it would more properly be named “The Mission-Driven Life.”

Sales Prospecting or Farming?

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Sales prospecting and farming represent two modes of selling.

Be clear about which one works and works for you.

Over the years, clients have engaged On-Purpose Partners to assess and design their sales architecture, often with sales prospecting or farmingOn-Purpose® being foundational content. Such engagements demand a blend of

  • strategy
  • psychology
  • marketing
  • selling
  • curriculum development
  • business
  • and more

One of the first design decisions to assess is if the client’s business, mindset, and preference is for building a prospecting or a farming sales approach.

Many other company decisions and investments hinge on this simple differentiation.

As a keynote speaker to sales organizations at conferences and conventions, I’ve learned to psych out their leanings early. Whether it be an insurance, real estate, or direct sales organization, there are similarities and differences in their cultures and approaches; yet these two generalized worldviews on selling remain staples of the selling process.

Corporate executives set the tone but often a product or service defines the sales approach. Generally, if a company is in manufacturing or is technology oriented, they tend to favor the prospecting approach mentioned in this On-Purpose Business Minute. Customers are part of the “human resources” supply chain of logistics and transactions. Here people are deployed to meet business objectives by digging out customers.

Company executives who favor the farming approach, however, tend to focus more on cultivating relationships.

This longer-term view of people sees a long tail of repeat sales and referrals in the context of the lifelong value of a customer. It affects commitment and investment in planning, people, operations and, ultimately, customer service standards and training.

Salespeople as farmers or prospectors are typically engaged in very similar activities of making sales calls, gathering information, preparing presentations, and closing deals. Astute salespeople readily assess the best approach for a particular book of business. If you find yourself scratching your head wondering what the higher-ups are thinking, then there is a good chance they are (or you are) oblivious to the culture they’re creating in the field. They’re prospecting for immediate nuggets of sales while you’re growing a crop of relationships and caring for a soil of the relationship … or vice versa.

Be aware of which approach is best suited to the company, customers, and, frankly, your personal style that plays into your definition of success.

Years ago, a friend came to me ready to pull his hair out by the roots. He loved where he worked as an admissions representative at a private vocational college. The problem was he is a farmer and he was being measured as a prospector. Every phone call, email, and piece of mail was measured and accrued to his measurement system.

Together we designed a simple tool to engage student candidates into a conversation instead of an information session. At great risk to his metrics, his call volume went down, his mailings decreased, and his number of “contacts” declined. The first month, his boss was all over him for non-performance. However, by the second month, his admissions soared to the number 3 spot of all reps—an achievement he had never before attained. Within 3 months, he was leading all reps and out-distancing them. Soon two reps approached him and asked what he was doing differently. Within a month all three of them held the top 3 positions.

They had discovered farming versus prospecting!

This story isn’t to propose that prospecting is bad. On the contrary, it is to say that the culture and the sales culture didn’t match and the results were impoverished by comparison to a proper match.

By the way, the story gets even better. In time, the leadership altered the system to reflect a farming approach that was people-centric. Under the “prospecting” approach, student turnover (withdrawals from the college) was very high. With the “farming” approach, admitted students tended to stay in place. This was an unexpected bonus, but an intuitive result.

The point of this On-Purpose Business Minute for the executives, VPs of Marketing & Sales, and Sales Managers is to assess your industry, company, and culture. Decide which approach is best suited to creating the customer experience you wish to deliver. Armed with this information, evaluate your company language, alignment, and operations to see if you’re on-purpose or not.

Sales prospecting or farming? Now you’re a bit more informed to make wiser decisions.

Be On-Purpose!
Kevin

Are You Thinking?

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How often do you really stop and think?

There are many benefits to taking a few minutes to simply ponder your task, project, or life.

The concept of being on-purpose is to act with more intention by being mindful of who you really are.

To know who we are deep down in the heart of our hearts requires thought and demands decisions more easily put off than addressed. But, of all that happens in the world, the one person we can’t ignore or put off is ourself. Sooner or later we will confront the person who has assumed our true identity because we weren’t willing, didn’t have the tools, or didn’t have the guidance to truly think about our lives in more robust terms.

This On-Purpose Minute invites you to simply think. So right after watching this … invest a few minutes to think about whatever comes to mind where your thinking could truly advance your agenda.

Need some help with thinking about your life?

Contact me at kwmccarthy@on-purpose.com and let’s begin the process of thinking about your life so you, too, can be an on-purpose person in creation.

 

#UNPLUG: This article in Fast Company Magazine speaks about the benefits of getting away from our electronics—you know, the one you’re reading this on!

Arthritis of the Mind

From the keen mind of my friend Mel Kauffman …

William James said, “People don’t think, they just rearrange their thoughts.”

Arthritis of the Mind

Too many people I know have arthritis of the mind. It hurts when they think. Too many people have their minds frozen in mediocrity. It hurts when it defrosts. Most people are opinion parrots. They parrot the opinion of others. That does not seem to pain their brain. Arthritis of the brain is contagious. You catch it from your parents. You catch it from your peers. For many, an original thought is an anomaly. Someone asked Abe Lincoln why he read so much. His response was a light bulb moment for me. He said, “My brain itches and I have to scratch it.” Mark Twain lamented, “We should take our brain out once in a while and jump on it. It gets all caked-up.” William James was so insightful when he wrote, “Most people don’t think, they just rearrange their thoughts.” Thinking is like a muscle. The more you flex it, the more it expands. As brain–pain dissipates, original thoughts begin to appear. Why not leave a legacy of original thoughts?

Mel Kaufmann

melvinkaufmann@gmail.com

What’s The Deal With Social Media Marketing?

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Watch today’s On-Purpose Business Minute then invest 18 more minutes to watch the Coca-Cola Content 2020 videos posted below. In them you’ll see this On-Purpose concept put into action and then some and then some more. It is mind-blowing to see how Coke has moved from selling caffeinated sugar water to a global cause and conversation around its brands.

Perhaps you can use this On-Purpose Business Minute to create a conversation with your team or ad agency or social media expert to assess the strategic implications to your business. What are your impressions — guesstimates on what it has cost you to write, create, and produce marketing efforts that aren’t based in your purpose and strategy? What other lessons, insights, or feelings has this On-Purpose Business Minute stirred in you?

Frequently I’m asked, “What is strategy or strategic plan?”

Coca-Cola illustrates that question from the point of view of a world-class brand. These videos, while technically sophisticated in thought, bring strategy to life in a visually appealing and rapid manner. It may seem “liquid” but it is thick! Don’t let it intimidate you. Instead, allow it to inspire you.

(FYI — it is purely coincidental that I happened to use a whiteboard for this On-Purpose Business Minute. Coca-Cola and I have different production budgets! Ha, an understatement!)

Part 1 of 2 (7:28 Minutes)

Part 2 of 2 (10:18 minutes)

Only business people call Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the like, “social media.” Media is a broad term in marketing that is associated with print, radio, TV, electronic, and now, social media. While the rest of the world is busy socializing, we business folks are figuring out a way to engage in their conversation a la Seth Godin’s brilliant Permission Marketing approach.

Let’s think of media as merely a channel or means to get out a message.

For example, I’m in the business of getting out the On-Purpose® message. I leverage media to help me spread the word.

Far too many business people are struggling with making sense of this new media opportunity.

The problem is their focus is in the wrong place, yet again. It is a classic case of fire, ready, aim. The technology isn’t the key—it is the means. The true challenge is the strategy.

There’s a well-defined “chain of strategic command” that is too often overlooked with costly consequences. Social media is simply that latest victim of a busted chain and dangling tactical activities.

Put it in perspective. Invest in your core strategy and then bring it to life tactically.

Activity in the absence of strategy is simply wishful thinking and lazy business leadership.

Feeling convicted yet?

Am I Irritating The Living Hell Out of You?

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Typically when someone is irritating the living hell out of us, this bothersome behavior provokes the fight or flight impulse. While the expression is often used, what if there really is more than meets the idiom?

How many of us find ourselves or someone close to us caught in a living hell within our body, mind, spirit, and financial condition?

There’s nothing worse than this sense of hopelessness except resignation to the hopelessness and denial.

On-Purpose® is about awakening us to face our “living hell” by getting to the core of our being which by definition is good, pure, and whole—our purpose. Here is the keyhole to the escape hatch into being true to ourselves.

Choose hope!

Putting a name on our situation strengthens us to face it more directly, boldly, and successfully.

Why not experience the promise of “on earth as it is in heaven” on-purpose? Yes, I hope tshareasimage(5)his message irritates the living hell out of you … and you’ll thank me for it.

Escape Your Living Hell

On a highly selective basis, I’m looking to mentor and develop quality people who want to build a true business as a coach. This will mean learning, ongoing dialogue and development, determination, and a long-term commitment to stay the course. You’ll be helping your clients get to a healthier place in their lives in the most robust sense of well-being. For you this means work, learning to engage clients, and growing as a leader on-purpose.

Interested? Email me why you think this sounds like you. I’m conducting interviews to work with 3 people.

Is Your Leadership Being Choked?

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As leaders, we’re prone to move from one task to the next with mental speed and insightful clarity.

Distractions, busyness, and just plain old bad habits have a way of gradually yet persistently working their way into our lives. Pretty soon we’re enslaved in activities and relationships that take us off-purpose.

In today’s On-Purpose Business Minute, I share a metaphor and lessons learned from a day of hard, back-breaking yard work and getting my hands dirty. As you can see, my mind was also hard at work.

As leaders, it is important that we get to the root of matters.

Paying attention to the details while still seeing the big picture isn’t always easy. Even if you’re not very good at both, at least be aware of the importance of both to avoid getting blind-sided. Surround yourself with complementary talent and trusted advisors so you grasp a greater perspective and insight into an important matter. This will free you to do more of what you do best more profitably.

No sense getting lost in the bushes and choked out of the beauty of how your business can bloom and grow.

Need some help with getting to the roots of your leadership? At On-Purpose Partners, we offer 1:1 executive and personal leadership coaching. Learn more here.

How Do You Build Your Confidence?

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Pointer: I make reference to The Service Model™ in this On-Purpose Minute. Here is a link to review, purchase, and download a copy. Click Here for Your Copy.

—————————–

Look at the kid in the front row, fourth from the left! Yep, the one with the rolled-up pants (room to grow) and checkered jacket. That’s yours truly in Mrs. (Lois) Johnson’s Kindergarten in Bethel Park, PA! My guess is the photo was taken in 1960 and I’m five years old. I was one of the youngest kids in this class.

Mrs. Johnson Kindergarten

I was blessed with a very happy childhood. I don’t look really happy on the day of this photograph. Come to think of it, none of the boys look too thrilled to be this close to girls (yuck!) and under such tight control with our hands in our laps!

In reviewing my report card from those days, I read “Kevin is young and lacks confidence.” Fortunately, my parents decided to hold me back a year so I could grow in confidence. Yes, I repeated kindergarten! My parents’ wisdom set me on a more positive trajectory for life. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Odd that I still remember those words and that label “Kevin … lacks confidence.” It used to really bug me that I was a person who lacked confidence. As I’ve matured, I realize how wrong my understanding of that statement was. Mrs. Johnson was offering feedback to my parents so they could make informed decisions to remedy the matter rather than labeling me. I’m the one who mistakenly “owned” the label. Five- and six-year-old minds do things like that. Sadly, so do 25-, 35-, 45- … year-old minds, too!

Each of us lacks confidence at the start of anything new. Confidence can apply to a skill or aptitude but not to the very nature or soul of a person—that’s just too destructive.

Have you bought a lie that you lack confidence or some other such nonsense? Don’t!

Let’s rephrase the statement and shift your perspective. You just haven’t yet found the bedrock of your beliefs and faith upon which to grow in confidence! I promise you that this solid ground for the soul exists in you. Like innate leadership, you have a place where you are designed and destined to be confident. It is a birthright that you may need to claim (or reclaim). Keep looking!

Look into the eyes of that little boy on the first row then and today in the video. As a person, does he lack confidence today? I’ve been a speaker in arenas in front of thousands. I’ve been on TV and radio broadcasts throughout the USA and Canada. People without confidence don’t do that.

How Do You Build Your Confidence?

There’s the question I’m placing before you. I’ve found the readers of this blog are a bright bunch of people. Please share your insights, comments, or quotes in the Comments section below. Let’s help one another become more confident as leaders of our lives.

Quotes About Confidence

Readers of The On-Purpose Person and The On-Purpose Business Person know that I start each chapter with a quotation. For this post, I turned to my book of quotations about confidence specifically. These quotations will stimulate your thinking:

“I had no vision of the scope of what I would start. But I had confidence that as long as we did our work well and were good to our customers, there would be no limit to us.”

    Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart (1918–1992)

“To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in, and scramble through as well as we can.”

    Sydney Smith, Anglican Clergyman and writer (1771–1845)

“Fortunate is the person who has developed the self-control to steer a straight course toward his objective in life, without being swayed from his purpose by either commendation or condemnation.”

    Napoleon Hill, Author, Think and Grow Rich

“Calm self-confidence is as far from conceit as the desire to earn a decent living is remote from greed.”

    Channing Pollack, U.S. Magician and Hollywood Actor (1926–2006)

“Confidence is the feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.”

     Cicero, Roman philosopher, 1st Century B.C.

 

I leave you with one parting On-Purpose Proverb:

“Awareness of one’s lack of confidence indicates that your heart and your head are still talking. They just need to get the rest of the body moving so the next lesson can be learned more readily.”