Unfortunately many small business owners spend more time contemplating Thanksgiving dinner than planning and developing more effective operations.
“Why put your tail on the line day after day, without having an end-to-end process in place to generate leads, sell BIG, deliver the goods, provide killer follow-up and track performance?”
The answer is obvious. ... it’s more fun to plan Thanksgiving. I don’t know about you, but just thinking about this year’s Thanksgiving Feast is a motivator for me. With that in mind, let’s go to work and prepare a Thanksgiving System Build with a keen eye on creating a Performance Master-piece!
First things first, let’s do some planning. What’s the purpose for this meal? What’s our goal? Are we focused on creating an unforgettable holiday experience or maybe we just need to get the in-laws fed and back to the trailer park. Let’s build with a clear destination in mind. What are our concerns? What bottlenecks have we stumbled over in the past? After last years fiasco with the tequila and the fire department maybe we should take some extra precautions. Let’s focus on what we want the outcome(s) to be and what problems we need to solve and build accordingly. It’s also important for us to take a look in the checkbook and make sure we don’t go over the deep-end at WalMart!
Now let’s map the entire event. It’s helpful to envision a series of scenes. For this project .... how about Before-During & After our fabulous meal? As we develop each phase it’s important that we build with a new, creative eye focused on improvement and meeting our objectives. Let’s start by listing everything that must be done in each phase... three columns on the page, with plenty of extra lines for all the little things that jump out as you develop your new model. List all the menu items. We will not forget the turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and the Greek olives & feta cheese... remember this is my Thanksgiving System build... but what else needs to be on the list? How about items that were missing last year and might have been a real difference maker? After we create the lists.. let’s priorities the items... maybe some items are less important and we can eliminate or postpone them to create flexibility in the budget. Timelines are always critical... Holy Smokes... we should have invited Aunt Bertha two or three weeks ago and we just missed the deadline for ordering a do-it-yourself, fresh 30lb turkey at an incredible 80% discount from LiveTurkeys.com! Think it through... list each and every item that comes to mind... the devil is in the details and consistent focus is the birthplace for Business System creativity!
After planning, we need to select the right tools. What tools, supplies and ingredients will get the job done right? We need to take a hard look at our current tools and see what needs to be upgraded or replaced. This would be a great time to clean out the fridge leftovers from last year's Thanksgiving... a total turn-off when Aunt Bertha is looking for another cold Budweiser. After exploring the market and selecting new solutions, we might need to come back to the budget and make adjustments accordingly.
The final step will be to implement our new plan . Hopes and conversation aren’t going to put a sensational meal on the table... we now need to move forward with a series of Action Plans and a realistic Timeline focused on execution. We need to stay focused on accomplishing our original set of goals.
There, that wasn’t tough. Now we have a killer new system in place that will make this year’s Thanksgiving a huge success.
Bon Appetite & Have a Fantastic Thanksgiving!
“Why put your tail on the line day after day, without having an end-to-end process in place to generate leads, sell BIG, deliver the goods, provide killer follow-up and track performance?”
The answer is obvious. ... it’s more fun to plan Thanksgiving. I don’t know about you, but just thinking about this year’s Thanksgiving Feast is a motivator for me. With that in mind, let’s go to work and prepare a Thanksgiving System Build with a keen eye on creating a Performance Master-piece!
First things first, let’s do some planning. What’s the purpose for this meal? What’s our goal? Are we focused on creating an unforgettable holiday experience or maybe we just need to get the in-laws fed and back to the trailer park. Let’s build with a clear destination in mind. What are our concerns? What bottlenecks have we stumbled over in the past? After last years fiasco with the tequila and the fire department maybe we should take some extra precautions. Let’s focus on what we want the outcome(s) to be and what problems we need to solve and build accordingly. It’s also important for us to take a look in the checkbook and make sure we don’t go over the deep-end at WalMart!
Now let’s map the entire event. It’s helpful to envision a series of scenes. For this project .... how about Before-During & After our fabulous meal? As we develop each phase it’s important that we build with a new, creative eye focused on improvement and meeting our objectives. Let’s start by listing everything that must be done in each phase... three columns on the page, with plenty of extra lines for all the little things that jump out as you develop your new model. List all the menu items. We will not forget the turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and the Greek olives & feta cheese... remember this is my Thanksgiving System build... but what else needs to be on the list? How about items that were missing last year and might have been a real difference maker? After we create the lists.. let’s priorities the items... maybe some items are less important and we can eliminate or postpone them to create flexibility in the budget. Timelines are always critical... Holy Smokes... we should have invited Aunt Bertha two or three weeks ago and we just missed the deadline for ordering a do-it-yourself, fresh 30lb turkey at an incredible 80% discount from LiveTurkeys.com! Think it through... list each and every item that comes to mind... the devil is in the details and consistent focus is the birthplace for Business System creativity!
After planning, we need to select the right tools. What tools, supplies and ingredients will get the job done right? We need to take a hard look at our current tools and see what needs to be upgraded or replaced. This would be a great time to clean out the fridge leftovers from last year's Thanksgiving... a total turn-off when Aunt Bertha is looking for another cold Budweiser. After exploring the market and selecting new solutions, we might need to come back to the budget and make adjustments accordingly.
The final step will be to implement our new plan . Hopes and conversation aren’t going to put a sensational meal on the table... we now need to move forward with a series of Action Plans and a realistic Timeline focused on execution. We need to stay focused on accomplishing our original set of goals.
There, that wasn’t tough. Now we have a killer new system in place that will make this year’s Thanksgiving a huge success.
Bon Appetite & Have a Fantastic Thanksgiving!
