Here’s a cool technique I recently learned to make writing business plans easier, called Break It Down. It clarifies the tasks needed to execute your plan and the order you need to do them. In fact, you can adapt it to any project where you can’t keep all the parts in your head at once.
Kudos goes to the Frank Team for teaching this at their ACTIVATE workshop.
Begin by getting your team together to brainstorm all the tasks that lie ahead - shout them out as you think of them and write each task on its own card. It doesn’t matter what order you write them down, what matters is that you think of as many tasks as you can.
For instance your list might start like this: register the company, design the logo, obtain legal advice, set up the website, talk to potential customers to validate the idea, write a customer support policy etc.
When you’re done, write each milestone below on a separate card. (Your list of milestones might vary.)
- Idea
- Research
- Resources
- Design
- Develop
- Register
- Project
- Service
- Make
- Sell
- Growth
Line the milestone cards across the top of a table/white board/wall, and place the task cards underneath the most suitable milestone. For extra points, try to logically order the tasks underneath each milestone. Having everyone in a group agree in this step is easier said than done!
There you have it. You now have a visual plan that outlines the milestones ahead and a the tasks needed to reach each milestone.
