“Planning is everything. The plan is nothing.” — Dwight Eisenhower
Former world boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson once said, when going into the boxing ring everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth. The best laid plans have a way of going wrong, as happened in the famous boxing match between then world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner.
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Wepner was a fierce fighter. He was known as the “Bayonne bleeder” because of his refusal to give up even when thoroughly beaten. He was knocked out many times in his career. At one time, he needed 72 stitches after being massacred by Sonny Liston, another heavyweight fighter who won the title in 1962.
After winning a number of fights and growing in confidence, Wepner challenged Muhammad Ali in 1964. He spent eight weeks training, longer than he had ever trained full-time before. The money on offer was more than he had ever earned and he was eager to grab it all. On March 24, the two men set for the ring. Wepner was asked by a reporter if he thought he could survive in the ring with the champion, to which Wepner allegedly answered, “I’ve been a survivor my whole life…if I survived the Marines, I can survive Ali.”
In the ninth round Wepner scored a knockdown. Wepner went to his corner and said to his manager, “Start the car. We’re going to the bank. We are millionaires.” To which Wepner’s manager replied, “You better turn around. He’s getting up and he looks pissed off.”
In the remaining rounds, Ali decisively out-boxed Wepner and opened up cuts above both Wepner’s eyes and broke his nose. Wepner was far behind on the scorecards when Ali knocked him down with 19 seconds left in the 15th round. The referee counted to seven before calling a technical knockout. The two months training and the wish to hold millions all went to waste.
In business today, SME owners invest heavily in drawing up spectacular business plans with the hope of building great and successful enterprises. Some even think beyond the borders, seeing their firms expanding into the continent and even globally. However, disappointment comes when the years pass with nothing growing as planned. Here are a few reasons why some of the best laid plans fail.
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Goals not clear enough
When you are standing on an empty street, you can see a clear path to a distant building that you want to go to. However, when the street is crowded, all you can see is the mass of people in front of you, blocking your sight of the distant building. This is what happens when your business plan does not clearly indicate goals or outcomes that you desire.
When starting or running a business, it is easy to lose sight of the destination and see only obstacles coming from all directions. But by simply looking up, looking ahead, the obstacles seem to become less daunting. With your eyes refocused, start planning as you go and start planning ahead. Learn to be flexible. Learn to anticipate; something with which your original plan offers no help. Look at current challenges as small glitches; see yourself five years from now, when they are over. You make your own future by the way you react to the situation you face now. Take time to fine-tune your goals and go over them every day, keeping your eye on the prize.
Low productivity and motivation
Entrepreneurs are known for their ambition and their drive to succeed. It is these two points that can turn someone without a cent to their name into a multi-millionaire. But along the way, determination to succeed and the ability to stay motivated even when the tide is turned against you, are vital to succeed in the business world. This motivation needs to extend to employees of your business or members of your team on a project. If they are not productive and motivated, the best idea in the world will not succeed.
Improper budgeting
Lack of real world budgeting is another important reason why business plans fail and why projects fail. You will not always be able to go to the bank for another loan to get your business or project off the ground. Eventually, your funding may dry up if you cannot get your idea going in the right direction. Research needs to be conducted ahead of time on the approximate cost of starting a business or a project and keeping it running through the first year and through growing pains. Funding sources need to be found ahead of time and eventualities need to be planned for before you get in too deep.
These three factors can sink a business despite having a spectacular business plan. So take time to analyze how you stand in the real world.
Until next time, keep on accelerating your growth.
Phillip Chichoni is a business development consultant who works with SMEs and entrepreneurs. His new book Business Survival Amidst Turbulence is now available. You may contact him by email, [email protected]. You can also visit his blog http://chichonip.wordpress.com
