As I earnestly network to establish myself across the pond, I occasionally encounter folks puttering along without what I consider a necessity for achieving their objective: a plan. Don’t get me wrong; these are intelligent business people. Clearly this is not a cultural phenomenon for I witnessed this back home too. For whatever reason, each has neglected to define his or her raison d’être. Nor have they bothered to take an accurate bearing of their current situation. Therefore, they cannot critically assess the resources required (skills, money, time, location…) nor evaluate their risk tolerance (emotional, personal, financial obligations…) to determine if they can succeed. The head smacker is that they haven’t even asked some of the most basic questions to determine whether their business concept is viable. Yet when queried about their “plan” they respond with either, “I don’t have one” or, worse, “Oh, I don’t have time for that!”

I am not advocating that everyone have a formally drafted business plan, which is traditionally intended more for investors than for planning purposes. Neither is a trite mission or vision statement a substitute. You need to define the core purpose of your business. You also need to know the terrain, because while you may think your product or service is great, that is of no importance if the customer does not feel the same. Many businesses do not succeed because they are misaligned with customers’ perceptions and desires.

Working through the exercise of defining a business, its products or services and determining why a customer would want them, and want to purchase them from you rather than elsewhere, gauges the viability of your business. Completing marketing and operational plans forces one to take a bearing in the reality of the current situation. Being honest with finances will decide if you have the resources required and should indicate what it will take for the business to be profitable.

This is not a dead document that you shelve once you have filled in the blanks. No indeed, this is your map. You should navigate your business by it. Pull it out and review it every so often to check and see if you are on track. What has changed? Has something sidetracked you? Do you have the team or resources you need? Did you take an accurate bearing of the market? Is your unique selling proposition in agreement with what your customers think? You cannot possess this vital information without completing this examination.

It is this in-depth navel gazing that clarifies objectives, which are needed to determine your strategy. Let me ask you: would you set off for a trip without knowing where you are ultimately headed? How would you know if you have the necessary transportation, money and supplies to get there? How would you know if you even arrived? Then why would you attempt otherwise with a business venture and your personal and family’s well being at stake?

First you need a reason, a goal and purpose to your efforts. If you do not know exactly what it is that you want to accomplish, then you need to stop reading this and start working on either your business plan or your life goals, whichever is more appropriate in your situation. Since I am speaking primarily to small business people, your personal life is intrinsically linked to your business life.

It doesn’t matter whether you run a business or not, everyone should spend some time deciding what it is you really want to do with your life. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What brings you great joy? Are you financially stable? What are your current obligations? What is your risk tolerance? How good is your health? Are you just starting out, or is your career coming to a close? When life either smacks you down or presents incredible opportunities, are you in a position to make the best of it? These questions are basically the same for a business.

Next you have to take a hard look at your current situation. No sense heading off without knowing which direction to go in. Ask yourself: do you know who your customer is and what they want? How do you stand in relation to your competition? Do you know what impression your customer has of you? What emotional need do you fill with your product or service? Why buy from you? What are your obstacles?

Feeling one’s way through all the fuzzy aspects of daily life is difficult, even more so without a basic idea of exactly what it is you want and where you are at in your life or your business. A lifetime can be spent drifting aimlessly, filled with discontent or, worse, desperately longing, hampered by not finding out what it would take to get there and accepting that either you can or cannot. I constantly see people wasting valuable resources (time, money, energy…) spinning literally in circles. Concerned more about a logo or web site or social media than their core business. They are convinced that doing more marketing is the magic answer. Or thinking that with more capital or more customers everything will be hunky-dory.

Here’s Mom’s number one life lesson: Merely wanting or dreaming about something is not enough.

There are numerous overnight successes that took years of hard work, personal sacrifice and commitment to accomplish, and yes, being ready when the opportunity came to pounce on it like a hungry Labrador. All of us know someone who made personal sacrifices to achieve his or her goals that we, if given the chance, would be unwilling to make. And we all know what it is like to fail, too. Steve Jobs said his greatest successes came from his greatest failures.

Therein lies another of Mom’s life lessons: Life is not judged by success or failure; instead it is by the balance of your grief and sadness to your contentment and joy.

When she removed the outward symbol of what others judge as a “success” or “failure” from the equation and replaced it with my internal judgment of my overall well being, it put the control and responsibility of my life in my hands. Businesses have to do this too. Only for them it is a balance of profitability, integrity, community standing and corporate well being. A business can destroy itself by not focusing on its core purpose. Just as when an individual loses his or her way, so too can a business, by chasing after what others deem “success” or the next best thing.

I wonder if for many this necessary self-appraisal is too brutal a look in the mirror. It is so easy to place blame and therefore the responsibility of one’s happiness or success elsewhere. Or maybe for some the concept is too enormous to wrap one’s mind around.

My mom helped me with my first personal plan. Over the years my map has become a bit dog-eared, rerouted a few times, updated and adjusted as the terrain changed. After all, planning is a process. As I have matured I have mastered taking an accurate bearing. This bearing becomes my compass, pointing to the most viable course of action. Since I am self-employed my life plan is the foundation of my business plan. Importantly, my career it is not the sum total of my being.

We move around a great deal. I have found that location has a direct impact on my profitability. For example, while living in Florida I took a bearing to discover that my objectives would not work in that particular location. I had three choices: 1. Continue on struggling against reality. 2. Change my objectives to meet the reality of the situation and accept the financial and personal repercussions. 3. Move to a better situation. Without a well-defined plan I doubt I would have had the ability to clearly see the obstacles and opportunities before me. I know that in every situation I can find contentment and joy since I carry that within.

I wrote this because I firmly believe that everyone, including businesses, needs a plan to perform litmus tests of viability to make the judgments needed for success.

Do you have a plan? Click here for these questions as a word document worksheet to get started.

Please, share your thoughts, and any comments you may have.