Sticky Note Business Plan – Follow Up
Last week I talked about creating a sticky note business plan.
CONFESSION TIME.
I found that article two years ago and thought it was a great idea. I wrote a blog about it then. I saved the article. Found it in my pile last week and still liked the idea so I wrote another blog post about it.
But I NEVER ACTUALLY DID THE PROJECT…
Until this last weekend. See the picture of my sticky note plan.
Here's what I learned:
1. You need to think carefully about the six buckets. At first you might think: marketing, finance, operations, product development, people and technology. I changed my buckets a few times. I realized that some parts of my business were really all set and didn't need to be touched. However, other parts of my business needed to be divided into smaller buckets. When you look at my six categories – four are really "products."
2. It took me a while to get started with the post it notes but once I got going, I had post it notes all over the place. Create a color coded system – green for finance for example – so when you look at the plan you can see some themes emerging.
3. Once the notes were on the boards I realized that I needed more than one 30 second commercial – which meant a few more sticky notes.
4. I could put "write a 30 second commercial" as one all encompassing task but it really involves more than one: write the commercial, film the commercial, edit and upload the commercial, create an audio only version. So write one sticky note for each part of the bigger task.
5. As home based business owners we have to learn to delegate. This process is PERFECT for understanding what you need to do and what you can give to someone else to do! Someone famous once said "delegate everything but your genius!"
6. Ever find you have a one hour hole in your schedule (or 30 minutes). Walk over to the board and pull off a sticky note!
So that's what I've learned so far. It has been a great and clarifying experience and I highly recommend you take time to do more than just read the article. Roll up your sleeves, grab a stack of sticky notes and get busy!