Hey y’all!
The following is pulled from an email newsletter I sent out about business planning. It’s relevant so I didn’t want it getting lost in the abyss of old and forgotten messages. Hence, I’m posting the juicy bits here to the blog.
Also, you’re always invited to join the email list and get helpful content about small biz topics.
There’s an established model called Plan Do Check Act (PDCA). It was developed by the esteemed Dr. Deming who was a management consultant (among many other things) in the 1950s. Yup, this framework’s got some sticking power because it’s understandable and actionable.
I have my own riff on PDCA: Learn Assess Plan Do Check (LAPDC). It’s less linear and more of a continuous cycle. I’ve chunked out the steps slightly differently.
Why?
Well, I feel like before you can effectively and efficiently Plan or Do, you need to Learn (where you are currently and what resources you have available to you) and Assess (where you want to go and how you might get there).
This leans in heavily to another management concept, the 80/20 Rule (aka Pareto Principal). Applied in this context, I’m suggesting that up-front info gathering and knowledge acquisition can make you more productive and thoughtful in your biz.
Said another way, you may be able to do more better with less.
For example, a biz that doesn’t prep and plan well may expect its customer satisfaction ratio to look like this:
Whereas if you take a LAPDC-like approach, you may be able to flip the script and have a customer satisfaction ratio that looks more like this:
Following these planning and management models can really organize and simplify your biz planning.
