Setting Sight

Are you busy, busy, busy?  Lots of action...but where are you going?

The Setting Sight section of The Bare Bones Biz Plan is all about answering this question: 

What do you want? 

Answer the question...and change the course of your life. 

Notice the "steps" above...Setting Sight, Building the Team, Making Money, Getting it Sold, Getting it Done and Making Sure.  These six "steps" represent the essential components of your business.

Creating business start up plan is like spinning six plates on six long sticks.  It's awkward getting the plates up on to the sticks.  You have to use a bit of energy and develop some balance to get the plates spinning.  You might get one plate going, and realize another is about to drop.  With persistence, you can get them all up and spinning. Then, running your business is a matter of noticing the condition of the plates...and giving a little push where it's needed. 

In the book, The Bare Bones Biz Plan, I suggest taking six weeks to build your business plan...and assemble your Plan Binder.  Focus on each component of your business for one week...and at the end of six weeks you will have a rock solid, yet flexible and dynamic, business plan.  Your Plan Binder will guide you and drive you to implementing the plan...and creating your dream business.

Setting Sight is the first and most important component of how to develop a business plan.  Setting Sight is all about "seeing" your company as a finished product.  What does it look like, sound like, feel like?  The clearer your Vision, the easier it is to build a Plan to make it happen.  The more compelling your Vision, the more motivated you'll be to implement the Plan. 

Use The Bare Bones Biz Plan! 

You may want to work through the Setting Sight exercises by yourself.  Or, you may want to involve one or two others who are involved, or who you intend to involve, in the business.  Ultimately, one person…YOU…will sign off on the direction of the company.  While a great business is the result of a team effort, it is born of one person's intention.  The direction of the company is YOUR responsibility. 

The first assignment is just for you.  Let's start with what you want....

Perfect Life Exercise

Yes, this website is all about planning a business.  However, the reality is that there is NO separation between business and the rest of your life.  There's no model business plan. Your business is about the aspect of your life, and needs to be aligned with your highest wants and purposes. You're starting a business plan, here we go...

What you want is the key to discovering your purpose in life.  Sure, you want more…or enough…or something different from what you now have.  Be more specific.  What exactly do you want? 

Write down your Perfect Life.  (You can use the form in the Setting Sight Suite)  Take a deep breath.  Let it out…and calm your mind.  Then, ask yourself, “What do I want?” and listen for the very first thoughts that come to mind.  Write them down without judgment.   Notice your feelings as you write the words on the Perfect Life form.  If it feels good, you are on the right track. 

Start with when you wake up…and move through each hour of the day.  Jot down thoughts, descriptions of what the Perfect Life would be like.  How would you spend it?  With whom?  Where?  Would you work?  What does your company look like?  How many people?  How much money?  How much time would you spend with your family?

For inspiration, you may want to go to a bookstore.  Visit the magazine rack.  Buy a dozen magazines specializing in the kinds of things and activities that inspire you.  Check out the travel section of the store.  Buy a book, or a map, about a place you want to visit or live.  You can also search the Internet and print out pictures and pages on things you want to have and things you want to do.  Pay attention to what inspires you, to what makes your heart beat faster. 

Take pictures of things or activities that inspire you.  If you see a garden, or a car, or a pair of shoes that pleases you, take a picture.  Clip inspiring articles from the newspaper.  Find brochures for your ideal home, office, vacation, software program, community service program, etc. Find pictures that capture what you want from relationships…personal and professional.  Discover words and images that stir you on a spiritual level.  With a glue stick, scissors and some blank paper, create pages that describe what you really want. 

Contemplate how a business fits into your Perfect Life.  What does it look like, smell like, feel like?  What kind of work do you do?  Who are your customers?  How much time would you spend in your business?  What hours would you work…ideally?  Write it down.  Find pictures that capture how you see this business.  Incorporate business elements into your Perfect Life. 

Write it all down.  Add the picture pages.  This is your Perfect Life.  Store your Perfect Life in your Bare Bones Biz Fitness Plan Binder under the Setting Sight tab. 

Spend up to an hour on this exercise.  You will come back to it, and you can add to it…or revise it…as your understanding of your wants and desires gains clarity.  This exercise may come easily to you.  Or, you may find this the most challenging work you have ever done.  Seek to find your authentic desires.  Honor that which you want because your unique gifts and talents are found there.  Relax in the understanding that, when you focus on these gifts and talents, you will find ways to share these gifts and talents.  Therein lies your purpose. 

When you are finished…read what you wrote and look over the pictures.  Then, give thanks that these things are manifesting for you.  Store this exercise in the Setting Sight section your Plan Binder. 

Refer to The Bare Bones Biz Plan for more help Setting Sight on your ideal business...and perfect life. 

"When you determine what you want, you have made the
most important decision of your life.  You have to know what you
want in order to attain it.”

 ~ Douglas Lurton

Building the Team