I don’t use the word oxymoron every day, and that’s probably a good thing! While the concept of planning to be spontaneous sounds a bit odd, let’s see how these two concepts might work together in your business.
You know where you want your business to go. You know where you want to be in three years, five years, and beyond. And yet, you’ve got no plan. This raises many questions, including:
- How will you know which tactics have been successful, or not-so successful?
- How will you know what to repeat, what to tweak, and what to promise NEVER to do again?
- And, of course, what was the ROI?
- One of the questions I always ask, though, is How will you know when to do the sweet happy dance of success?
All of these questions also lead to another valuable question to ask yourself: What did you miss out on because you didn’t have a plan?
If you’ve got a plan – well, you actually need a number of plans: business plan, marketing plan, fundraising plan, event plan, etc. – AND you’re working the plan(s), and an unexpected opportunity knocks on your door, no problem – you assess your current situation and decide whether or not this opportunity is worth pursuing.
If you’ve got no plan, it’s really hard to determine whether this “opportunity” is actually (1) a worthwhile opportunity for you to pursue, or (2) just one more distraction that will help you continue to spin your wheels without moving forward.
Make a plan. Work the plan. Celebrate your results.
