The next level of success requires a one-page business plan

Financial advisors sell planning every day and yet most do not have a concise blueprint for their own business. To move to Top of Table and beyond, it’s essential to become more disciplined in all aspects of your business.

Making smart choices begins with a plan

The next level of success is never an accident — it always starts with a plan! It requires the next level of focus, clarity, creativity, learning, best practices and leadership. And that next level of discipline will require making better choices and acting on those choices consistently, with conviction, commitment and excellence.

You don’t get to the top of Mount Everest by wandering around. You need a solid business plan that defines where you go from here and what works for you.

One of the best parts of this is that anyone can write a business plan. I frequently joke that if you can text, you can write a business plan. It only needs to be one page, or 29 short sentences that are clear, actionable and able to be understood by all members of your team.

Why have a plan in writing?

It’s simple. The No. 1 reason to have a concisely written plan is that it makes it possible for people to help you. And no one becomes successful alone.

There are many people who want to help you take your business to the next level of success, but if your plan is not in writing, you have to verbalize it. That’s inefficient and highly ineffective. It takes too long to verbalize your plan. And I promise you, you will never say the same thing twice and you will forget to share the most important aspects of your plan.

When your plan is on one page, it can be read in less than five minutes. A well-crafted and refined plan reflects your best thinking. When people read your plan, they can quickly understand what you are building, why you are building it and how you will build it. And they will understand your short- and long-term goals. Having your plan in writing makes it easy and efficient for others to give you feedback.

Once you have your plan in writing, you can ask your trusted peers, colleagues, field leaders, teammates, coach and mentors for 30 minutes of their time. You can say, “I would like your feedback on my one-page plan. You can read it in five minutes, and then I would welcome your feedback, suggestions and questions.”

Having your plan in writing communicates that you take your business seriously. The people who can be the most helpful in taking your business to the next level will do the same.

Jim Horan was an experienced Fortune 500 executive, successful entrepreneur, business owner, professional speaker and bestselling author from Berkeley, California. This blog post was excerpted from his 2017 MDRT Annual Meeting workshop, “One-page business plan for top producers.” It’s also available in audio.

Learn more about choices and mindsets that create top producers with MDRT member-exclusive content

• Boost your income by removing pain points — Find out what concept took Adrian George, CFP, TEP, to Court of the Table and then Top of the Table.
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• A conversation: The journey to success — Listen in to MDRT Past President Tony Gordon and Alessandro M. Forte, FCII, FPFS, discuss how they get to Top of the Table year after year.