How To Use Your Whole Mind to Create Your Ideal Business

Even though it’s early in 2011, it’s not too late to get your business off to a great start.  I’ve came up with a different way of doing business planning and thought I would share it with you.

I’ve created a worksheet to take you through business planning that makes it easy for you to keep your attention daily on your intention of growing your business.  If you stick with your plan, you will realize how easy it is to create your own emotional and financial freedom.

What if you are a subscriber but you don’t have a business?  Use this instead to create a life plan for yourself this year.

I want you to write this plan in present tense as if it’s already happened.  We are mixing a little of the Law of Attraction in with our business planning.

  • This plan will focus your ideas onto one sheet of paper
  • We will tap into both sides of your brain to help you achieve results.
  • You will have a tool to share with business insiders, family, or key employees, or to look at daily and make sure you are on task.

Let’s look at each area in a bit more detail before we get into creating your ideal business plan. The planning steps below will make it easy to fill out the one page plan at the end.

Whole Brain Planning

You are going to create your ideal business plan for this year and then plan backwards to plan how to get it done.   Knowing what your intention is and planning from the results you want to achieve is key.

We want you to tap into both sides of your brain to create this plan.  The left hemisphere of your brain is also known as the ego, storyteller, interpreter, and the analytical part of your brain.

The right brain is where your creativity lives.  This is the big picture and emotional side of your brain.  This is where you visualize what your company can grow into – the possibilities.   You want to do what you do out of the joy of doing it.

How to Start Planning:

Sit in a quiet place where you can spend time alone.  Think about what you want to create in your business and the opportunities you have in front of you with your ideal business future.  This is where we bring in your right brain.  This part of your brain is where creativity, big picture thinking, and imagination live.

How much money do you want to make in your business this year?

Put down the first $$ amount that comes into your mind.  Be open to this and don’t get into ‘how’ you will do it.  Allow yourself to go big and dream.  Remember this is your ideal business plan this year.

Feel the feeling as if it’s already a done deal

  • Feel the feelings you will have when you achieve your plan.
  • What do you yell when you have done it – what are your words?
  • We want to harness those feelings and emotions and bring them into your life every day to amp up your money vibe. Write down three feelings you will have when you realize you made the money you hoped to make this year.
  • See yourself in your mind’s eye having achieved this plan.
  • Spend at least 20 seconds experiencing those three feelings.

Look back, clean house, and eliminate what isn’t working.

I want you to analyze your business and decide what is working and if you want to expand it.  Then look at what is not working for you.

  • What will you continue to do?
  • What do you want to expand?
  • What is not serving you?
  • Where are you spending time doing tasks that you can either get rid of or delegate or hire someone to do for you?

Think strategically about yourself and your time.

How can you build products or services into your business that do not rely on you?  Are there new income streams or products you can create and sell?

Your Business Platform

What are your business values and beliefs?  These are the values you use to run your business.  These are guidelines for how you make decisions, how you engage with your customers, your employees, and your suppliers.  This is what creates the culture of your business.

This is where you get to decide what type of person you would hire or work with as a client.  You want to think about the type of employee or virtual assistant you want to have representing your business.  Who do you most want to work with?  Remember, you are creating your ideal company.  Who do you ideally want to work with?

How will you serve?

Think about your people – the people who are your clients, patients, or customers.  Take a moment and think of some recent comments you’ve received about how you’ve helped your people.

Your business is set up to serve others.  Your business is alive and it serves you.  You give your business its energy and life.  Now name three feelings you get when you think of your people and how you serve them.

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Your Business Vision

Buckle up.  I want you to dream big this year and there are no limits.   I want you to visualize what your business looks like a year from now, and then three years from now.

So relax, close your eyes.  Spend time imagining all that you can create this year.  See it as clearly as possible.

What images do you see in your mind’s eye at the end of 2011?  Write down a short paragraph of the story of your business this year.

Now write down what images you see and how you did this year.

You are the narrator of this story.  Write it in present tense.

As a PR expert, I always ask my clients, “What headline do you want to read?”  Always start with the end in mind.  This is how you create your life or your business.  Always know what your intention is.  Then you work backwards to plan how you will achieve it.

What do you most want to achieve this year in your business?  What is your key intention?

How much money did your business bring in this year?

What did you do to grow your business?

What new products or services did you create?

What excites you about creating this picture of your business in the future?  What lights your fire or your passion?

How many new people joined your tribe this year?

What social good did your business contribute to this year?

Did you hire employees, VAs, contractors?

Law of Attraction Meets Business Planning

Now write down the story of what your business did this year in present tense as if it’s already happened.

We are calling on the same part of your brain – your right brain – to act as if this has already happened.

Your brain can’t distinguish between what you imagine or what you really see.  So let’s take advantage of this and have you create the images in your mind and create new neural pathways in your brain to imagine that you really have it already done.

If you expand your thinking and open your mind to possibilities, you will begin to see opportunities to make your vision happen.  This is the way it works – the mind looks for evidence for everything you believe.  So if you dream it and believe it, you can do it.

Focus on no more than five short-term goals this year.

Write down up to five short-term goals that are doable this year.

Here are my goals for this year.

1.    I want to create an ebook this year.

2.    I want to offer two mastermind classes this year for women entrepreneurs – one in the spring and one in the fall.

3.    I want to have 10 women in my six-month business mentoring program.

4.    Grow my database list to 3000.

5.    Write my blog weekly and send out my newsletter two times a month.

Now write yours.

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Break these down into turtle steps (small) and put them into your calendar.

Which one feels the easiest to start? Start there and break it down in terms of time on your schedule. Right now we have less than 11 months left of 2011. Take each task and give yourself enough time (months and weeks) to get it down.

Create small rewards for yourself in achieving your monthly goals.  Martha Beck’s Four-Day Win says we can do anything for four days.  Give yourself a small reward at the end of four days, and at the end of the month, a slightly bigger reward that makes sense to you. We need rewards for this output!

I call my one-page business plan my “mantra attraction” and I have a picture pasted on the top that helps me feel the feelings that I will have once I achieve my year’s plan. It’s on my computer desktop minimized so I can pull it out daily and look at it.

Your Three-Year Business Vision

Now I want you to get into the creative zone again for this part. Make sure you are relaxed and sit in a quiet space. Just write whatever comes up. Remember – do not move into the ‘hows’ yet. Just put it out there. This is your right brain we are tapping here. This is all possible.

What does your business look like in three years?

How much revenue did you make?

How many people work with you – VAs, employees or contractors?

How many hours do you work each week?

How often are you blogging or sending out a newsletter?

Do you have a variety of revenue streams from products or new services?

Did you write a book?

How much time off do you take?

How many countries did you travel to?

Describe your business in as much detail as possible.

This will inform you about what major projects you will be doing in the next few years.  So take note of them and chart them into your plan.

Relax into your plan and feel the feelings you will feel when you accomplish all of this. Now you are ready. Use what you discovered to fill in the one year plan on the next page. This will give you a touchstone you can look at every day as you create your vision this year.

I would love to hear your comments or your questions.

If you like this, please share it with your friends – spread the word.  Thanks!

Your Ideal Business Plan for 2011

Write out your business vision as if it already happened.  Write down the story of your business and what you created this year.

What did you eliminate and how did you leverage your time?

How much money did you make this year?  Write it in present tense.

Example: I am making $___ a month and I’m on track to make $____ this year.

What three feelings will you feel when you make your business goals?

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What five short-term goals did you make to help you create this business success this year (keep it in present tense — as if it happened)?

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What new products and services did you create?  How much revenue will they bring in?

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Did you hire VAs, contractors, employees or freelancers?

Your Future Business Growth

Write down the story of your business three years from now.  What does it look like and how much revenue did you bring in.  Remember to keep it in present tense.

What are your three-year target goals?

Write down five long-term goals for your business that would help you create this ideal business in three years.

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  1. Thanks for this whole brain approach. So often we get mired down by the analytical side of our mind while forgetting the joy of our larger vision, the reason why we really want to “do” what we’re setting out to build. I love imagining the end goal already accomplished and working back from that. Thanks for inspiring us to be audacious and pragmatic in our approach!

    –Maura

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