A good plan is one that is simple, to the point, and useful in your everyday tasks to build your business.

The other day, I shared Step 1 in creating a simple, effective plan: Have a clear vision.

Today, let’s talk about HOW you will do your vision. This maybe the most important step that most people ignore. This is the step that allows you to attract the best customers, hire the best team, and create the most profitable, inspirational and fun partnerships for promotional support, masterminding and business development.

Step 2 – Have clarity about HOW you will do your work.

This is all about your values–what motivates you and gets you up in the morning everyday. These values are also the connection point to your team–what is important to you better be important to them or it will be a short-lived relationship.

With your clients, these values difference between a client who leaves you exhausted and feeling taken advantage of, or a client who leaves you feeling like you are on fire.

Your values are the reasons people resonate with you, like and trust you, and are willing to invest their hard-earned money with you to help them.

So be clear about your values. List them and then explain succinctly why each is important. This list should be 3-5 items long. That’s it.

Each descriptive sentence should be packed with power words that further describe the experience you are creating for everyone involved-including yourself.

Here is an example:

How we will accomplish our mission:

Ø Impact: Your mission and your message are important in this world and in our lives. We believe that through systems, strategic analysis, positioning and effective messaging, you will impact this world and your purpose will serve.

Ø Integrity: We work to create integrity in your business so that it has a foundation to support the mission. The systems & methods build for your business will create sustainability and long-term support.

Ø Service: With generosity and commitment to you and your business, we partner to serve your mission and your message.

ACTION STEP:

Make a list of your top values. I like to use a large white board where I can “dump” all the values that feel important. Then I sort them into groups. From here I select the top 3, identify my primary value and use the other words to help describe what I do.

This step may take some time, especially if you are doing it alone. Make your list and then come back and revisit your work. Make sure that this is YOUR true self and not some voice that is telling you what is important to you.

Once this step is completed, we will be ready to start working on our goals. Stay tuned for Step 3 – Goal Setting!