Peleg's Corner: To Make It Happen, Write It Down

When you're a sole proprietor or running a small business, it's easy to get used to "winging it." After all, that's one of the reasons why you're an entrepreneur: to enjoy the flexibility you can't when you're constantly being held accountable to a corporate structure and its paperwork practices.

But there is one habit you can and should adopt from the corporate world: the business plan. Besides coming in handy sometimes (loan officers will often judge you by the weight of your plan!), there's a magic that happens when you get something out of your head and onto the page. You're getting that intention out there and clarifying it, but beyond that, it just seems to help. (Like I said, magic!)

It doesn't have to be some 50-page document; every year, I sit down and write three or four pages about what I'd like to happen with my business over the next year.

Of course, you don't have to wait for a calendar year to change over. Think about where you're at right now, and one thing you'd like to accomplish over the next few months—something achievable in that frame of time. Then get that idea out of your head and on the page. And see what happens!

So...what would you like to do with your business now? In three months? In a year?

Have you written it down yet?