What kind of business plan do you have?
 

How far into the future do you look as far as business decisions go?

plan?

Fucked if I know, I flunked business economics

Grim likes hairy bears

We use a tool called The Balanced Scorecard to plan 1, 3 and 5 year goals. They are living documents, so that the goals and objectives aswell as working plans can be altered daily - however, we only have about monthly meetings to review how we're tracking according to the scorecard. The 3 and 5 year goals are also altered during any situation that causes a large fluctuatation in year-end goals.

i try to forecast all my moves.

Not always possible in the changing climate of the net. However being prepared for a variety of situations is deemed wise.

I still carry a piece of paper i wrote my aspirations on when i graduated, life goals you can call them.


Many highly succesful people do this sort fo thing. Arnold S planned out his whole life when he was about 18. He has accomplished eerythinghe ever set out to.

It's great to have long term goals, but if you can't react immediately to changing trends in the industry you might as well close shop now.

The people that will be in this game in the long run are the innovators and the people who see the trends coming before they arrive. Change is not an easy thing but if you expect to survive you must adapt to changes. I see too many people out there living in the past in this industry and they are not willing to take a chance as they are too set in their ways.

DH

6 months to 5 years... depends on the product line.

nice post :)

Business plan shmizness plan! Just get a dart board and some post it notes...You will do fine!

A Harvard Prof. Interviewed his class ten years after they finished school. 3 out of some 30 students acheived their goals. They had a plan writen down years before!

I am currently working in the 6 months to a year plan. With a 5 year vision.


How did you put this into practice? By book, lecture or websites? I did some quick looking around and it looks like something I would like to learn about.

I guess i know what I'l will be doin tonight.

But in my first ever ynot inteview they asked me where i would bein fives years and I replies a new city and workin on video.

Well here i am doin what I said I would.

If you don't make a well researched plan for your business(s), you are on a highway not knowing where you are going, nor knowing what lies ahead.

Mine are usually 1 inch thick and go about 36 months looking forward.

They are living documents also and modified accordingly.

Right now, I'm busy with 2 things :

=1= Creating a mutated form of Bird Flu, tested on CN volunteers.

=2= Filling in patent forms for my "AntiBird Vaccin" invention.

i keep all my ideas and plans, plots on looseleaf and in a folder titled "Why The World Turned On Me"

every thought about new ideas, and things to do are jotted down in a log.

I change modify, etc and that way I can take out pages and replace them etc. constantly evolving and changing.

<img src=http://www.fletchxxx.com/images/turnonme.jpg border="1">

Why The World Turned On Me

i apologize that i did not answer the question with a statement.

every idea that pops into my head i write it down in my green folder listed above, then in a few days i will return to my idea(to let me brain reboot) and see if the concept still makes sense to me, and what possible angles i can run with it.

then if the idea passes my test it makes its way into my business(that i have created in my head) and forms some type of a function in that business.

after that i look into what i am doing now and try to calculate how much more of what i am doing now will fund that project and how reassure that i move from step A to step B. my business(the one in my mind) consists of 20 fields, all of which are life long goals of mine, just associated some type of way. i force myself to look up at my goals, and i hate to look up to anyone or anything. so in essence, i am competing with my goals:thumbsup

I have a b-plan for the next 10 years, everyday I revise it. I know it will change a lot but I like to have a starting point. Its starts out very detailed and gets a little more sloppy as the months go on but it helps a lot.

I've got an unhealthy fascination with excel. I actually get EXCITED when I've got some numbers that need some crunching

You are one smart mofo. :glugglug

Ooh, a numbers cruncher. Tell me if this happens to you.

You start a new project and get some amazing figures. You get to crunching numbers on what you should make from it as you get bigger and the results are simply amazing. You start duplicating what you did or getting more in depth with it but your numbers only go up slightly. You do twice as much for 10% extra.

Maybe it's just me. :winkwink:

My long range plan is retirement, in comfort, of course.

But, plans have to change according to the trends or the predicted trends or the ideas which wake me up in the middle of the night.

So, the plan is written down; but, not with permanent ink, as all plans have to be modified....

make $ then buy guns..then get compound in the sticks..then fight off Gov and The Man with an elite unit of mexican midgets...thats basically the plan in a nutshell

heheheh.. yeah theres always a ceiling and several "slowing" features of whatever angle you've got that won't be obvious in pure mathematical projection. sucks eh? :)

the other thing is no matter how sane you want to make your numbers you're still tempted to plug in some nice ones so you can fantasize about the potential money heheh.

I don't count on them anymore. I learned that when I was a kid. Now I take the projections, divide it by 10 or 20, and hope if I start flinging shit 5 or 10% will actually stick. :1orglaugh

yeah lol you can't count on them at all. you've gotta take what you think is reasonable and then turn it to make the projection look UGLY.. if it's still profitable then.. cool.. move forward..

I have my business plan stored in my brain, and everything more is just a waste of time in this biz, cause it's much more important to be flexible and to have the possibility to adapt to chages faster than anybody else.

If you're in some slower acting business that it's for sure a good thing to write a book about your plans, but in this biz you could write a new one every few months.

My business plan is kind of run by the moment. If someone approaches me with an idea I'd enjoy programming for, or if I come up with an idea I'd have fun researching and putting together, I run with it.

I doubt I'll ever be rich, and that's not my real agenda. I'll probably be a "student" my whole life. I earn enough to live and put some away for my retirement, to pay for my medical coverage, bills and food and a little for entertainment.

I'm sure one day I'll work on an all defining project that will change my life, but until then I'm just going to keep doing what I enjoy - programming, researching and helping others be successful.