610: Four Steps To A Powerful 2023 Business Plan

If you are comparing your 2022 to 2020 and 2021 you may want to pause.

Standing here at the early sunset hours of 2022 we are feeling a very real metaphor.

It goes like this.

During 2020 and 2021 many of our businesses were barreling down the business highway at 90 mph winding hot at 10,000 RPMs.

Today, it already feels like a massive slowdown, and it has been.  Let’s not lose perspective, though… instead of going from 90 mph to 0…we are now riding down the highway at a more sustainable, more comfortable pace of 70 mph, and the good news is that we are only running at 5,000 RPMs.

In other words, it is taking far less effort to go just a little bit slower and start to get some breathing room. 

The problem is that our human minds have grown accustomed to the speed, breathlessness, chaos, and cash flow of the past two years and we don’t know how to mentally or emotionally throttle our expectations, let alone our spending habits.

New norms have emerged over the past two years; pricing volatility, material, and logistics inconsistencies, marketing and sales simplicities, and probably the most noticeable internally is that your employees want more money for the same roles and while demanding more flexibility and meaning.  Employees want their business life to fuel their personal lives, and not the other way around.  

Historically, business owners have tried to solve headaches by shooting one particular shiny bullet…sales, sales, sales.

If we could just get more work then we would have more cash to pay higher fees, higher premiums, higher wages, higher demands, and higher expectations.  

That is an infinite and empty treadmill leading to the same destination over and over.  

I am going to walk you through the four steps you need to take to navigate your business in 2023 in a powerful way.  

The first step in building your business plan for 2023 is making time to fill out your Vision Story.

In 2023, where vision is not written down, people will indeed scatter, and that scattering of people will further scatter your mind and thoughts into a web of frustration.

Instead, follow the ancient Jewish wisdom that says, “write the vision down so that those who read it may run.”

Vision is clarifying and vision is separating.  When you cast vision you know who is bought in and who is not.  Some will run towards your vision and some away from your vision.

You will be tempted to scoot on past writing your vision down and instead make up some silly excuse in your head that either, “I don’t need this” or “oh yeah, we’ve got something like that”.  

We’ve made crafting your vision simple.  

Seven categories to begin working through, and you will likely need to make about an hour or so of time for this powerful and important exercise.  Notice I said the word exercise… it’s work and it’s healthy.

Term/Time Family/Freedom Financial Product/Service Team Client Culture

The second necessary tool in your 2023 business planning toolkit is the sobering Delegation Roadmap.

Andrew Carnegie said, "No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit."

John Maxwell said, “If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.”

Discovering delegation will make time for what matters most in three ways: 

It Empowers others to put out the fires It transfers your authority to them It multiplies your effort

The moment that you stop delegating, or choose to not delegate and empower is the moment that you have chosen to have a job instead of owning a business.

The third necessary tool in your 2023 business planning toolkit is the non-negotiable Weekly Schedule.

You feel busy but not productive because you have little to no boundaries.

I recently heard Lance Golinghorst articulate that we all have access to three major scarce resources: time, energy, and attention.

Attention is indivisible.  It is well-researched that multitasking doesn’t work.  As I am writing and reading this, I should not be brushing my teeth or checking my bank balance.

Energy is renewable (I can generate more energy), and transferable (I can give you energy and you can give me energy).

The real wake-up call is in regard to our time.  Time is non-renewable (we cannot make more of it), and it is not transferable (you cannot give yours to me).

You go into each week with a defined, finite allotment of time.  Either you put boundaries throughout your day roping off all of the tasks and responsibilities, or we will do it for you.  

If you do it, it allows you to maximize your scarce resources of time, energy, and attention.  If we do it for you, then we will devour your time, energy, and attention.

You can make excuses as to why it won’t work in the specific role you are in.  We love you, but your role is not a special unicorn or snowflake.  Own your role by owning the boundaries for your role and then share those boundaries with us so we can support you.

Finally, for a robust 2023 business plan, you will benefit from building and implementing a Culture Calendar.  

The culture of your business is not happenstance...it is not an accident, and no luck is required.

The culture of your business is a DIRECT RESULT of the ingredients that you allow to enter the mash bill.

If you allow the ingredients of unpredictability, inconsistency, minimal communication, lack of process, lack of mission, gossip, and no values in decision-making, then the result will be a business that has notes of unpredictability, lack of process, and the like.

If, however, you allow only the ingredients of consistent communication, accountability, humor, reinforced process, and clarity in vision, mission, and values, then the result will be a business that has notes of the same.

Again, the four tools that will change the game for you and your team in 2023.

Vision Story Delegation Roadmap Weekly Schedule Culture Calendar

Our mission is to help liberate business owners, like you, from chaos to make time for the things that matter most.  Working 70 hours a week is NOT what matters most…empowering others to live into their narrow brilliance IS what matters most.

Remember, when you choose to implement, you are choosing to cut the chaos and make time for what matters most.

Joe Calloway said it, “vision without implementation is hallucination.”