Over the next several weeks, your business may be given permission to re-engage. This does not simply mean turning on the lights, firing up the computer, and standing by. I encourage you to take the time you have right now to draft a twelve week plan that will take you from the day your business is allowed to re-start and goes forward each day for the ensuing twelve weeks. Within that period of time, there is little or no room for a bad week; therefore every day needs to be accounted for. The purpose of this plan is to make sure that in re-starting your business you are focused on three critical activities, and you know what is required to make these activities successful – in other words, what activities will you assign to yourself and your team with weekly accountability? Was everything you planned for during that week accomplished? What were the results? There is no excuse for re-starting your business without a twelve week plan . . . none. As your twelve week plan proceeds, you will need to create a second twelve week plan around Week 9. Maybe you have never written a plan, and this is a new way of thinking and operating. Maybe you have never followed a plan. But these unusual circumstances in which we are living require detailed planning of every day until such time as the business has returned to some degree of normalcy. Normalcy in this case means customers, products being sold, profits, cash flow, engaging employees and retraining if necessary, and little or no time for distraction.
