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www.BareBonesBiz.com
877.629.7647
Bare Bones Biz Presents
The Bare Bones Biz Plan
www.BareBonesBiz.com
877.629.7647
The Bare Bones
Biz Plan
Six Weeks to an Extraordinary Business
ELLEN ROHR
Copyright © 2011 by Ellen Rohr
is book is intended as a reference volume only, and the material enclosed is de-
signed to help you make sound nancial decisions about your business, but it is not
intended as a substitute for professional, legal, or business advice.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, record-
ing, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writ-
ing from the publisher.
Bare Bones Business Books may be purchased for business or promotional use or
for special sales. For sales information or permissions to reprint the this text or the
material within, contact the publisher at:
Bare Bones Business Publishing
3120 S. Know It All Lane
Rogersville, MO 65472
877.629.7647
www.barebonesbiz.com
ISBN 13: 978-0-9845876-1-2
Printed in the U.S.A.
Contents
Welcome to The Bare Bones Biz Plan!...................................... 7
Why I Wrote This Book
Instructions for The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Week One: Setting Sight! ...............................................17
DAY 1 Monday’s Coaching Lession: What Do You Want?
DAY 2 Tuesday’s Coaching Lesson: What’s the Point and Who
Benets?
DAY 3 Wednesday’s Coaching Lesson: Focusing Your Vision And
Discovering Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
DAY 4 Thursdays Coaching Lession: Dening Your Values and
Setting Your Goals
DAY 5 Friday’s Coaching Lesson: The Executive Summary
Week Two: Building the Team ...........................................43
DAY 6 Monday’s Coaching Lession: The Clean-Up
DAY 7 Tuesday’s Coaching Lesson: Creating an Organization Chart
DAY 8 Wednesday’s Coaching Lesson: Who Does What? The Position
Descriptions
DAY 9 Thursday’s Coaching Lesson: Attracting the Right People
DAY 10 Friday’s Coaching Lesson: Shore Yourself Up With a Board of
Advisors
Week Three: Making Money! ............................................63
DAY 11 Monday’s Coaching Lesson: Getting to a Known Financial
Position
DAY 12 Tuesday’s Coaching Lesson: Bare Bones Budgeting Basics
> Part One
DAY 13 Wednesday’s Coaching Lesson: Bare Bones Budgeting Basics
> Part Two
DAY 14 Thursday’s Coaching Lesson: The Financial Quick Check
DAY 15 Friday’s Coaching Lesson: Open the Books — Bare Bones
Business Literacy for All
Week Four: Getting it Sold ..............................................87
DAY 16 Monday’s Coaching Lesson: Overcoming “Salesphobia”
DAY 17 Tuesday’s Coaching Lesson: Creating A Sales-Focused
Company
DAY 18 Wednesday’s Coaching Lesson: Sales Training Basics
DAY 19 Thursday’s Coaching Lesson: Bare Bones Marketing Basics –
Part One – Branding
DAY 20 Friday’s Coaching Lesson: Bare Bones Marketing Basics – Part
Two –The Marketing Process
Week Five: Getting It Done! ............................................109
DAY 21 Monday’s Coaching Lesson: The Tools For Getting It Done
DAY 22 Tuesday’s Coaching Lesson: Meeting Basics
DAY 23 Wednesday’s Coaching Lesson: Creating Your Procedures
DAY 24 Thursday’s Coaching Lesson: Bare Bones Training Basics
DAY 25 Friday’s Coaching Lesson: The Right People To Get It Done
Week Six: Making Sure ................................................129
DAY 26 Monday’s Coaching Lesson: The Power Of Clarity
DAY 27 Tuesday’s Coaching Lesson: Making It Right
DAY 28 Wednesday’s Coaching Lesson: Super-Thinking
DAY 29 Thursday’s Coaching Lesson: Make Sure Your Business Is
Serving You
DAY 30 Friday’s Coaching Lesson: Tell Your Story
Going Forward: The Maintenance Plan ..................................147
The Bare Bones Biz Plan!…Business Body-Building!
Special thanks to…
About Bare Bones Biz and Author Ellen Rohr
www.BareBonesBiz.com
877.629.7647
Welcome to the Bare
Bones Biz Plan!
Just getting started in business? Great! I’ll help you visualize your ideal busi-
ness and create a solid plan for making it happen. Good for you for planning
ahead.
However, most business owners jump head rst into business…then realize
that a plan would be a good idea.
Is that you? Are you in business already, but drowning in the day-to-day
problems? I can help you, too. is book can help x your most pressing prob-
lems…and cra a strategy for moving forward. Are you growing too fast…or
not fast enough? I have special tips for using this plan to create and handle fast,
protable growth.
e Bare Bones Biz Plan oers a simple strategy for creating a business plan
and using it to build an extraordinary business. All you need is yourself and a
three-ring binder. Commit to 60 minutes a day, ve days a week, over the course of
six weeks. I’ll help you create your Bare Bones Biz Plan Binder, a workable plan for
craing your Vision and making it happen.
Follow the steps in this easy-to-use book, and you will have your plan for
creating and expanding your business. You can become physically t with a
sound diet and exercise. e Bare Bones Biz Plan uses this time-tested approach
to help you become scally t. e Bare Bones Biz Plan works!
The Bare Bones Biz Plan is…
REAL! ALots of business books tell you WHAT to do. Like, “Be sure to
create a budget.” Or, “Look at your nancials.” (What does THAT mean?)
I tell you HOW and I show you…step by step.
STRAIGHTFORWARD! AIt’s about the money, honey! Bare Bones
Businesses are “open book” companies. You’ll learn how to keep score
in the game of business…and share that vital information with your
8 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
team. You’ll drag “the books” out of the dark and into the Plan Binder.
BUSINESS BUILDING! As you ll in the pages in the Plan Binder, you can share A
them with your banker, your employees, your spouse, or potential investors to
gather nancial and emotional support.
Each week you’ll handle one of the six main areas of business and build your Bare Bones
Business Plan Binder: Setting Sight, Building the Team, Making Money, Getting it Sold,
Getting it Done and Making Sure.
I’ll share success stories and give examples of what not to do! I’ll include forms, tools
and checklists for making business easy and protable. And I’ll help you get and stay or-
ganized. Each week’s lesson will build on the week before.
It’s all about achieving freedom. Freedom from stress and worry. Financial freedom.
e Bare Bones Biz Plan can help you achieve true freedom...Help you be free to live the
life you want to live.
Note: For more help building your business, check out www.BareBonesBiz.com.
All you need are six weeks and a three-ring binder to build an
extraordinary business!
The Bare Bones Biz Team
info@barebonesbiz.com
www.barebonesbiz.com
877.629.7647
417.753.3685 fax
3120 S. Know It All Lane
Rogersville, MO 65742
I wish you love, peace and lots of money!
Welcome To The Bare Bones Biz Plan A 9
Why I Wrote This Book
With hope in your heart, you hang out your shingle and become a business owner.
(Author Michael Gerber calls this an “entrepreneurial seizure.”) en, the day-
to-day burdens of running the business take over. Errands, bills, phone calls, and of
course, the actual work. Inside each small business owner is the unspoken question,
“What am I doing?”
Or you long to start a business and free yourself from the limitations of a corporate
job that doesn’t match your needs or wants or reect your values. But you wonder,
“Where do I start?”
It’s no wonder you are frustrated. Business basics are just not taught—even in busi-
ness school or by well-meaning business-book authors. Most business education fo-
cuses on philosophy and platitudes instead of meat-and-potatoes HOW TO.
I aim to change that. Picture a world transformed by sane and protable small busi-
nesses. Business literacy is empowering and equalizing. Do what you love, make lots
of money, spread it around, energize other people and projects… What a wonderful
economic vision!
However, if business owners don’t get protable, they will have traded in their cor-
porate salaries, benets and pensions for a nightmare of debt and endless working
hours.
Going out of business is not the worst thing that can happen. Staying in a losing
business is much worse. How terrible to be afraid to close the doors because bank-
ruptcy will come knocking. How saddening to have talked your spouse into extending
the second mortgage to keep your dream alive, then realizing you aren’t going to be
able to make the payment…again.
I don’t want that to happen to you.
My Mission: Achieving Freedom. Your own extraordinary business is a path to
peace, prosperity and freedom across the universe.
Together, we can create honorable, protable free trade. We can promote World Peace.
at’s what your extraordinary business can do.
at’s why I wrote this book and created www.barebonesbiz.com. I’ve helped lots of
folks move from out-of-luck to big bucks by assembling a Binder just like the one in
this plan. e key is to cra the Vision and the Plan…then USE them to help you stay
on track. e Bare Bones Biz Plan is simple, real, portable…essential to your success.
It’s all about helping you make a living doing what you love and aecting the planet in
a powerful, positive way.
10 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
All you need are Six Weeks and a Three-Ring Binder to build a better business!
Today you start on a grand adventure. You are going to build a business…one that works.
One that makes money. One that enhances your life. You are going to build a business that
only YOU can build, reecting your unique gis, talents, dreams and ambitions.
So…Ready, Set…Let’s GO!
Welcome To The Bare Bones Biz Plan A 11
Instructions for The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Over the next six weeks, this book will take you through the process of creating your
business plan. e process is called e Bare Bones Biz Plan. e end result is a three-
ring Binder, your Bare Bones Biz Plan Binder, and in it will be YOUR customized plan
for creating and growing a protable, successful business. Over the next six weeks, we are
going to get your business whipped into shape!
This book addresses one main area of your business each week for six weeks.
Week One: ASetting Sight – What does it look like when you’re done? How will you
know when you’ve “made it”?
Week Two A: Building the Team – Who does what? Why, how and when? Put
together an unstoppable team.
Week Three: A Making Money – Bare-Bones Basics will help you build a budget,
keep score and bring in big bucks.
Week Four: AGetting it Sold – Sell without insulting your soul.
Week Five A: Getting it Done – Use my sure-re systems for delivering on your
promises.
Week Six: AMaking Sure – Are you on the right track? Are you delivering what
people want? Implement my no-hassle quality assurance systems.
Each week, you’ll nd a coaching lesson plus ve assignments—one each for Monday
through Friday. Can you spend an hour a day on your business? Sure! But don’t beat your-
self up if you miss a day or if you take longer to complete the assignments. Set your own
pace. Commit to at least one focused hour every day. Do the exercises quickly, and trust
your initial thoughts and ideas. Every eort you make to improve your business–and your
life–will create positive results. Just keep moving forward!
Skim through each week ahead of time. Block out the time needed to do the exercises
in your Day Planner or other calendar. Some exercises require help from team members.
Plan ahead accordingly. (I have good suggestions for helping you get organized in the
Getting it Done section.)
Each week wraps up with an easy weekend assignment that helps you “soak in” what
you have learned and apply it. What works, works in all areas of your life. As your business
improves, so will other aspects of your life.
I’ll provide sample forms. For examples, I’ll use See More Blinds and Window Coverings,
Inc., a company that provides beautiful window coverings for its customers’ delight and
privacy. Owner Ted and his team will demonstrate how to use some of the forms.
12 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Here’s what you’ll need to build your Bare Bones Biz Plan Binder…
A two-inch, three-ring Binder A
A set of Binder tabs…the kind with eight tabs that you can customize with your A
computer
A computer. If you don’t have one, borrow one or use one at a local school or A
library.
And I am here to help every step of the way. I have downloadable, customizable forms,
checklists and programs that support this book and can help you create your plan. Check
out the Buy Stu page at www.barebonesbiz.com.
If you are contemplating more than one business idea, create a Plan Binder for each
one. e process will help you decide which one to energize and which to ignore (or en-
ergize later).
The Binder Tabs
As you set up your Plan Binder, you have tabs for the six areas of your business: Setting
Sight, Building the Team, Making Money, Getting it Sold, Getting it Done, and Making
Sure.
Work your way through e Bare Bones Biz Plan. Day by day, week by week, you will
learn how to build each area of your business. Store your work in each section under the
corresponding Binder tab.
e two additional tabs are for the Master To-Do List and your Journal.
The Master To-Do List
You are going to have lots of great ideas for your business, but you can’t do everything all
at once. You will learn to prioritize your ideas and focus your energy on the things that
will have the most impact on your business success. e Master To-Do List is where you
store those ideas. I have it organized into sections that correspond to the six areas of your
business: Setting Sight, Building the Team, Making Money, Getting it Sold, Getting it Done
and Making Sure.
When you have a good idea (or a team member does) or you think of something that
needs to be done, a “to do”…jot it down on the Master To-Do List. Find the Master To-Do
List form at the end of this section. You can also use a simple, single subject spiral note-
book for your Master To-Do List. (at’s what I use.)
The Journal
is is where you write down the story of your business. You can use the Word document
and type out your thoughts. Or print up a few blank Journal pages and store them in the
Journal section of your Plan Binder. en use those pages to write down your…
Welcome To The Bare Bones Biz Plan A 13
Thoughts A
Feelings A
Frustrations A
Wins, losses A
Problems, discovered solutions A
Milestones A
Burning questions A
What happened, why? A
What didn’t happen, why not? A
Prayers, moments of epiphany A
Date your entries. You will learn wonderful lessons from e Bare Bones Biz Plan…and
from conceiving and creating your business plan. Keeping a Journal will help you to re-
member those lessons and give you a nice way to pass the lessons along.
Building the Plan Binder
Aer you read each day’s coaching lesson, copy the forms and checklists from the book
and complete the exercises. Or visit www.barebonesbiz.com and download the forms
and checklists. Customize them. Print them. And put the customized pages in your Plan
Binder…in the appropriate sections, divided by the Binder Tabs.
is is how you create your Bare Bones Biz Plan Binder, your business plan for discov-
ering your entrepreneurial dream and turning it into reality.
If you like, you can build an electronic version of your Bare Bones Biz Plan Binder on
your computer.
Still, a two-inch, three-ring Binder is a wonderful thing. I recommend printing your
pages and inserting them in your Plan Binder, using the tabs to keep the sections orga-
nized. When you update a le, rip out the old version and insert the new one. e Plan
Binder is portable. It’s easy to access the information you want in the Plan Binder. You’re
more likely to use e Bare Bones Biz Plan in Binder form. Also, it is easier for you to show
someone your plan in the Plan Binder than on the computer screen.
Build a Better Business…in Six Weeks
At the end of six weeks, you’ll have your Bare Bones Biz Plan Binder–your living, breath-
ing plan for making your business dreams come true. And your business will be glowing
with the results of the time and energy you invest in this Biz program. Just like physical
tness, the process requires an ongoing eort. e Bare Bones Biz Plan will give your busi-
ness a jump-start. e Maintenance Plan at the end of the book will help you keep the
momentum going.
14 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Commit!
Decide now that you will honor your dreams and allow yourself to be
successful. “I commit to learning and doing. I choose to spend at least one
hour a day, ve days a week, for six weeks, thinking about and working on
my business. I promise to complete The Bare Bones Biz Plan to the best of my
ability. I promise to discover my highest purpose and claim it.”
Signed:
Date:
www.BareBonesBiz.com The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 15
Master To-Do List Sample Document
Updated
This list is the storage place for all ideas, to do’s and projects that are as yet
unassigned. If any team member has an idea for bettering any aspect of the company,
store it here in the appropriate division. This way, all good ideas are in one spot,
waiting to be assigned and accomplished.
SETTING SIGHT
MAKING MONEY
BUILDING THE TEAM
GETTING IT SOLD
GETTING IT DONE
MAKING SURE
16 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan www.BareBonesBiz.com
JournalSample Document
Updated
Keep a Journal of your journey. You will learn valuable lessons along the path of
building your business. You’ll need to vent your frustrations. You’ll want to remember
the funny things that happen. Here’s the place to write down the story of your
adventure. Use as many pages as you need.
Don’t judge anything you write, just write. This is for your eyes only, unless you choose
to share all or part of it. As you become more and more successful, these entries may
become more valuable to someone else who wants to travel the better-business road.
www.BareBonesBiz.com
877.629.7647
Week
One:
Setting
Sight!
18 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
The Bare Bones Biz Plan will show you how to build a successful busi-
ness. And if your business falls short of your wildest dreams, there
are only two possible reasons:
You are neglecting to do the Bare Bones Basics that make all 1.
the dierence to your success.
You are not clear on what you want. 2.
We are living in a Renaissance age. is is a shining period of opportu-
nity, creation and invention.
“Never at any time in the past have man’s opportunities been
so abundant as they are today. We hear people say that all the
opportunities that are worth anything have been found and
used. is is not so. Opportunities are born in the brain. As the
brainpower increases opportunities increase, and the most casual
survey of the world’s intellectual record will prove that the tide of
human thought is on the rise. Never before has education been so
widely diused as it is today; and never before has it been so proud
and comprehensive. Never before has invention been so prolic
and so wonderfully fruitful. Never before has art and science been
so fecund, and never before has the world had so many capable
minds at work delving so deeply to nd out and apply the basic
laws of Nature for the betterment of human life. e man who
criticizes and nds fault with the opportunities of today is blind to
the advancement and progress going on around him.”
is is as true today as it was in 1916, when business author Albert
J. Hall made the observation in his powerful book, Why Men Fail. You
are not at the mercy of the economy, or the environment, or your fam-
ily, or your boss…or any other external force. You are responsible for
your success. And now is the best time to claim it.
To succeed, you will need to take responsibility for your choices and
your actions. From this point forward, you are forbidden to lay blame
on anyone or anything for your failures so far and for the mistakes you
are bound to make.
Quit whining. Acknowledge your fears and resolve to be successful
anyway. You have only ONE problem. e problem is YOU. You keep
Day ONE
Monday’s Coaching Lession: What Do You Want?
“When you determine what
you want, you have made the
most important decision of your
life. You have to know what
you want in order to attain it.”
~ Douglas Lurton
Week One: Setting Sight A 19
getting in your own way. e cool thing is that you can change that. You can transform
yourself and your business. You are entitled to success. It’s up to you to resolve the two
issues that are keeping you from being a winner in business…and in life. The Bare Bones
Biz Plan can help you do that.
is week, you will assemble the Setting Sight section of your Plan Binder. You may
want to work through the Setting Sight exercises by yourself. Or you may want to in-
clude one or two others who are involved or whom you intend to involve in the business.
Ultimately, one person…YOU…will sign o on the direction of the company. While a
great business is the result of a team eort, it is born of one person’s intention. e direc-
tion of the company is YOUR responsibility.
e rst assignment is just for you. Today’s assignment is to determine what you want,
determine what your purpose is and how your business can help you manifest that.
Let’s start with what you want…
Perfect Life Exercise
Yes, this is a book for planning a business. However, the reality is that there is NO separa-
tion between business and the rest of your life. Your business is an aspect of your life and
needs to align with your highest wants and purposes.
What you want is the key to discovering your purpose in life. Sure, you want more…
or enough…or something dierent from what you now have. But be more specic. What
exactly do you want?
Write down your Perfect Life. Take a deep breath. Let it out…and calm your mind.
en ask yourself, “What do I want?” and listen for the very rst thoughts that come to
mind. Write them down without judgment. Notice your feelings as you write the words
on the Perfect Life form. If it feels good, you are on the right track.
Use the page in this book titled “Perfect Life.” Or you can create a Word® document. You
can also nd forms and spreadsheets in the Buy Stu page at www.BareBonesBiz.com. Start
with when you wake up, and move through each hour of the day. Jot down thoughts and
descriptions of what the Perfect Life would be like. How would you spend it? With whom?
Where? Would you work? What does your company look like? How many people? How
much money would you make? How much time would you spend with your family?
Contemplate how a business ts into your Perfect Life. What does it look like, smell
like, feel like? What kind of work do you do? Who are your customers? How much time
would you spend in your business? What hours would you work, ideally? Write it down.
Find pictures that capture how you see this business. Incorporate business elements into
your Perfect Life.
Write it all down. Add the picture pages. is is your Perfect Life. Store your Perfect
Life in your Bare Bones Biz Plan Binder under the Setting Sight tab.
20 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Spend up to an hour on this exercise today. You will come back
to it, and you can add to it or revise it as your understanding of your
wants and desires gains clarity. is exercise may come easily to
you, or you may nd this the most challenging work you have ever
done. Seek to nd your authentic desires. Honor that which you
want, because your unique gis and talents are found there. Relax
in the understanding that when you focus on these gis and talents,
you will nd ways to share them. erein lies your purpose.
When you are nished, read what you wrote and look over the
pictures. en give thanks that these things are manifesting for
you.
Find Inspiration Anywhere
For inspiration for your Perfect Life exercise, you may want to go to
a bookstore. Visit the magazine rack. Buy a dozen magazines spe-
cializing in the kinds of things and activities that inspire you. Check
out the travel section of the store. Buy a book about a place you
want to visit or a map of a place you want to live. You can also search
the Internet and print out pictures and pages of things you want to
have and things you want to do. Pay attention to what inspires you,
to what makes your heart beat faster.
Take pictures of things or activities that inspire you. If you see a
garden, or a car, or a pair of shoes that pleases you, take a picture.
Clip inspiring articles from the newspaper. Find brochures for your
ideal home, oce, vacation, soware program, community service
program, etc. Find pictures that capture what you want from rela-
tionships, personal and professional. Discover words and images
that stir you on a spiritual level. With a glue stick, scissors and some
blank paper, create pages that describe what you really want.
List of Spiritual
Resources
This is a deeply spiritual
exercise. You might need
some spiritual guidance. Enjoy
reading and learning from
these books…
The Power of Intention A by Dr.
Wayne Dyer
The Way to Happiness A by L.
Ron Hubbard
The Day that Turns Your Life A
Around by Jim Rohn
The One-Minute Millionaire A
by Mark Victor Hansen and
Robert G. Allen
Creating Auence A by
Deepak Chopra
Mastery A by George Leonard
The Bible A
The Law of Attraction Aby
Esther and Jerry Hicks
The Power of Now A by
Eckhart Tolle
www.BareBonesBiz.com The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 21
Perfect Life Exercise Sample Document
Updated
Be specic: Who, what, where, when, how? Use numbers, dollars, percentages, names,
places. Incorporate all aspects of your life…spiritual, family and relationships, nancial,
professional, lifestyle. Use ALL FIVE SENSES! Have fun…DREAM…and write down your
Perfect Life.
I wake up...
...and then I go to sleep.
22 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Whether you are just starting your business or you are in business
already, you need to ask…and answer…these questions:
Does your business serve you? A
Does it move you toward your Perfect Life? A
What’s the point? A
Why should this business exist? A
Who benets from this business? A
Today’s rst exercise is to cra a Mission Statement…a brief expla-
nation of WHY your business exists. en you’ll dene your Target
Market…those who can benet by doing business with you.
Why should this business exist?
If the WHY is big enough, it will give you the courage and strength to
follow through with your business plan. It will also provide support for
Building the Team, Making Money, Getting it Sold, Getting it Done and
Making Sure. Your Mission Statement is the cornerstone of your busi-
ness.
Tom Chappell of Tom’s Of Maine started his natural grooming-prod-
ucts company in 1970. e Mission: To form a company that would be
kind to man and nature. Since then, he and his wife Kate have grown
the company to nearly $30 million in annual sales. Tom’s top prod-
ucts: natural toothpastes and phosphate-free soaps. In 1986, Tom had
a mid-life crisis. Having made a fortune selling soap and toothpaste,
he was looking for more meaning. He enrolled in Harvard University’s
Harvard Divinity School, where he studied scriptures and philosophy.
His spiritual awakening? A new Mission: To make the business a min-
istry. e Mission evolved.
Note that prots are essential to Tom’s ministry. Ten percent of pre-
tax prots go to good causes selected by his employees. So the more
prot they make, the more they can contribute.
Day TWO
Tuesday’s Coaching Lesson: What’s the Point and Who Benets?
“Everything you want is out
there waiting for you to ask.
Everything you want also
wants you. But you have
to take action to get it.”
~ Jack Caneld
Week One: Setting Sight A 23
Mission Statement Exercise
Now it’s your turn. Find inspiration in your Perfect Life exercise. Also consider the BIG
IDEA or moment of epiphany that may have caused you to start your business.
Spend time thinking about WHY you are in business. Too oen, the day-to-day de-
mands on our time and energy keep us from thinking about the things that really matter.
When you are thinking, it doesn’t look like you are doing anything! Rest assured that
thinking is the highest-level work you can do.
Ask these questions, think, and write down your thoughts…
Why should my business exist? A
What excites me about it? A
How does my company impact people, communities, countries, and the planet? A
What would be lost without my business? A
What would be gained without my business? A
What inspired me to start my business? A
What’s the point? A
Distill the thoughts you have written until you can summarize your Mission Statement in
eight seconds or less. Keep it simple and focused. Read your Mission Statement out loud
several times a day and commit it to memory.
Don’t worry about coming up with the right Mission Statement. Trust that by asking
these questions, you will discover your Mission. The Bare Bones Biz Plan is a exible,
living, growing plan. As you grow and change, you can come back to this page and revise
and rene your Mission. Put down what rings true for you now.
Your next exercise is to determine who will benet from your Mission.
Target Market Exercise
Whom will you serve? Your business must deliver products, services and/or information
to someone interested in paying for those things. Who is that? Use these questions to
come up with a prole of your Target Market.
Male or female, or does it matter? A
Where do they live? A
What things do they buy? A
How much money do they make? A
What are their families like? A
What are their homes like? A
24 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
What challenges do they face? A
What do they do for work? A
What do they do for fun? A
What do they value? A
Do they care about your Mission? A
What dierence does your Mission make to them? A
How many people like this are there? A
What needs or wants do they have in common? A
What links them? A
Where are they? A
Where do they shop? A
Are there other businesses or organizations that A
could help you reach these people?
Spend time answering these questions. en distill these answers into a brief description
of your Target Market.
Tip You might want to name your Target Market or Target Markets. Consider a customer
who has become a “raving fan” of your company. Adopt that name to refer to your Target
Market, and to help you identify potential new customers.
The Name Game
Mission, Vision, Market and other terms that you nd here have been dened in dierent ways
in dictionaries and business books. As you work through e Bare Bones Biz Plan and build your
Plan Binder, I will do my best to dene the terms I use as I use them. Other experts, books and
resources may use these words dierently or use other tools to help you through the Setting
Sight process. There is more than one way to skin a cat! Jerey Abrahams, author of The Mission
Statement Book: 301 Corporate Mission Statements from America’s Top Companies, says, “…the
term ‘mission statement’ includes a broad range of approaches and titles by a wide variety
of companies. Some companies put their vision or values before their mission, if they have
one. Simply by shaping a ‘statement,’ these companies are stating or implying their corporate
mission.”
Week One: Setting Sight A 25
Target Market Examples
At Bare Bones Biz, my Target Market is…
The small oce, home oce (SOHO) business
owner who…
employs 25 or fewer employees A
is internet savvy A
is in need of basic business tools, products A
and systems
other businesses that also serve that business A
owner.
e Wackenhut Corporation provides security services. Wackenhut’s Target Market is
government, industrial and business organizations worldwide. Simple.
Washington Gas is a utility company in the District of Columbia. Washington Gas’
Target Market is the more than 700,000 residential and small commercial customers in the
Washington, D.C., metropolitan and surrounding areas. Specic!
Write down the description of your Target Market on the form called Setting Sight –
Mission, Target Market. Put it in your Plan Binder.
You may want to keep the pages of notes that contain the more detailed descriptions of
your Mission and your Target Market. As you work through these exercises, you can add
to your Plan Binder. The Bare Bones Biz Plan will provide structure and discipline to
your business-planning eorts. And it’s exible. Add pages as you want and need them.
Just three-hole punch them and put them in the appropriate section.
is plan will repeatedly encourage you to reduce and distill your thoughts to the Bare
Bones Basics. e clearer you are in your thinking, the simpler your plan, the more likely
you will be to succeed.
You might want to name your Target Market or Target Markets. Consider TIP►
a customer who has become a “raving fan” of your company. Adopt that
name to refer to your Target Market, and to help you identify potential new
customers.
26 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document www.BareBonesBiz.com
Mission Statement, Target Market
Updated
Your Mission Statement is WHY you are in business. What’s the point?
YOUR COMPANY’S MISSION STATEMENT:
Your Target Market is made up of the people you intend to serve.
YOUR COMPANY’S TARGET MARKET:
Week One: Setting Sight A 27
“Plan or be planned for.”
~Jim Abrams
Day THREE
Wednesday’s Coaching Lesson: Focusing Your Vision And
Discovering Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Today, you’ll create your Vision Statement. How will you know that
you have made it in your business? What is the ultimate goal? at’s
your Vision.
Business expert Michael Gerber oers another way to express this.
He asks, “What does your business look like when it’s done?”
Like the Perfect Life, Mission Statement and Target Market exer-
cises, the Vision Statement exercise is designed to make you THINK
about your life and your business is is your most important work.
Determine WHY you are in business, WHOM you will serve and
WHAT you intend to accomplish. ese pages in your business plan
will guide you and help you make good decisions. Your Vision is the
point on the horizon toward which you are sailing.
Now, let’s cra your Vision Statement. How will you know when you
have made it? What will it look like when it’s done?
Here’s a story to inspire you…
Ernest Shackleton was an adventurer. e early 1900s was a time of
fantastic discovery and accomplishment: Everest, the North and South
Poles… Shackleton set his sights on another rst: A transcontinental
trek across Antarctica, passing over the South Pole en route.
e Endurance set sail from England in August of 1914 and reached
South Georgia Island, just o Cape Horn, South America. e
Vision, the ultimate Goal: Be the rst men to cross the continent of
Antarctica.
Leaving the island behind, Shackleton and his crew of 27 men set o
for Antarctica, not imagining that it would be nearly 18 months before
they would again set foot on land.
Shackleton’s plan was sound. But weather rarely heeds a sound plan.
at winter, the weather was particularly harsh. On January 19, 1915,
with land only one day’s sail away, the ship became locked in the ice.
One crewmember described the ship in his journal as being “frozen, like
“If you don’t know where you are going,
you’ll end up somewhere else.”
~ Yogi Berra
28 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
an almond in the middle of a chocolate bar.” e swirl of the Weddell
Sea spun the ice and the imprisoned ship clockwise and farther from
land. On October 15, 1915, the sturdy Endurance was crushed by the
ice and disappeared into the sea below.
Consider Shackleton’s dilemma. He and his crew were oating in
the middle of the sea on chunks of ice. at night, Shackleton wrote
in his journal, “I pray God I can manage to get the whole party safe to
civilization.”
Shackleton Craed a New Vision: e Whole Party Safe to
Civilization.
Notice the words he used in his journal. He didn’t whine or bemoan
the fact that the situation took a dramatic turn for the worse. He took
full responsibility for the entire crew.
e men oated for six months. Imagine the constant darkness, the
hunger, and, underfoot, the shiing, creaking, breaking ice oes. ey
slogged about, ankle-deep in slushy ice during the day. At night, ragged
reindeer hides served as their sleeping bags. ey ate all their provi-
sions, and then they survived on seal meat and the esh of their be-
loved sled dogs. Sea leopards saw the men as food and stalked them
from underneath the translucent ice.
All the while, Shackleton served well as their leader and never aban-
doned his Vision. Shackleton did get every man to civilization. e res-
cue boat arrived on August 30, 1916, two years aer The Endurance le
England. at anyone survived is a miracle. Yet all 28 of them returned
to civilization.
The problem with TIP►
thinking is that it doesn’t
look like you are doing
anything. In our action
focused world, that can
be a hurdle you are well
served to overcome.
Of the two, thinking
trumps action. Clear
thought leads to inspired,
purposeful action.
Vision Statement Exercise
What’s your Vision for your company? What is your ultimate Goal? e
“senior” goal? How will you know when your business is done? What
will it look like? Spend some time thinking and writing.
Vision Statement Examples
Microsoft’s Vision is: A computer on every desk and in every A
home.
Wendy’s, the fast food chain, has this Vision: To be the A
customer’s restaurant of choice and the employer of choice.
Hotel business Marriott International has this Vision: To be the A
world’s leading provider of hospitality services.
Distill your Vision into a concise statement and record it on the form
Week One: Setting Sight A 29
called Setting Sight – Vision, USP, Elevator Speeches (see page 29).
Now, let’s discover your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and explore a succinct way
to communicate that to the world… in particular, your Target Market.
USP and Elevator Speech Exercise
e rst part of this exercise is to answer this question, what makes your company dier-
ent and better than others that aim to satisfy the same customer needs or deliver a similar
product or service? is is called your Unique Selling Proposition, your USP. You may
complete this exercise alone or with help from your employees.
Note that unless you are WalMart, avoid settling on a USP that identies you as the
low-cost provider. at is a brutal USP, because you lose your advantage every time a
competing company lowers its price. Instead, focus on what makes you smarter, faster,
kinder, cleaner, better-smelling, more convenient, less confusing, easier to work with,
more committed, more fun, uniquely qualied to serve your customers.
As with all of the Setting Sight exercises, this one requires high-level thinking. is
exercise is dicult. It is so much easier to coast through life without asking big questions
like this. You may not want to discover that your business is rudderless and unfocused.
Relax. You can do this. What makes you dierent and better? Write your answer on the
form called Setting Sight – Vision, USP, Elevator Speeches (see page 27).
Next, work the USP into a short, attention-getting statement. It’s called an Elevator
Speech.
Consider TIP►
the market
leaders in any
industry. Very
rarely are they
the “low cost”
providers.
Avoid the
“low cost”
USP. Be willing
to charge
what you
must to make
good on an
extraordinary
USP.
The Elevator Speech
Real Estate Sales Trainer Bernard Zick taught me how to create an Elevator Speech. e
term “Elevator Speech” is inspired by the time spent with a stranger in an elevator. During
the time it takes to get from one oor to the next, what could you say that would cause a
person to perceive a need…and understand that you are the one to solve it?
Bernie’s Elevator Speech format goes like this:
“You know how…?” Hit them with their problem/challenge/heart’s desire. A
“What we do is…” Fix it. Tell them what you do to solve that problem/help A
overcome that challenge/deliver their heart’s desire. Include your USP.
Be creative! is format is exible and designed to help you get started on your Elevator
Speech. You’ll know you have a winning Elevator Speech when the response is, “at’s
interesting! Tell me more.”
Elevator Speech Examples
Dentists Howard and Mary Beth Shayne use this Elevator Speech:
30 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
“You know how a visit to the dentist can be a stressful event? At Foxgrape Dentistry,
we specialize in pain-free smile brightening.”
Benjamin Franklin Plumbing promises customers on-time service and gives money back
if the plumber shows up late. Here’s the Elevator Speech:
“Have you ever waited around for a service company to show up? Frustrating, isn’t
it? I work for Benjamin Franklin, the Punctual Plumber. If there’s a delay, it’s you
we pay.”
A woman at a local business association meeting greeted me with:
“Hi, I’m Kay of Kay’s Landscaping. I’ll care for your yard as if it were my own. And
mine is beautiful.”
Elevator Speeches are useful! It’s great to have a snappy reply to the standard question, “So
what do you do?”
Note how these exercises “dovetail” with
each other. Feel free to return to a previous
exercise and edit it as you rene your
thoughts in a new exercise.
www.BareBonesBiz.com The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 31
Vision, USP, Elevator Speeches Sample Document
Updated:
Your Vision is your senior Goal. As author Michael Gerber says, “What does it look like
when your company is done?”
YOUR COMPANY’S VISION STATEMENT:
What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)? What makes you dierent and better?
YOUR COMPANY’S USP:
Your Elevator Speech is a brief response to the question, “What do you do?”,
highlighting your company’s USP.
YOUR COMPANY’S ELEVATOR SPEECH:
32 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Today’s rst assignment is for you to create a list of Values. Values are
“senior” policies that override all others, which you will always do
(or never do).
Values Exercise
Start by creating a personal list of your core Values. It may be helpful to
categorize them into the dierent areas of your life: spiritual, physical,
family, community. An example of a spiritual Value is “I meditate dai-
ly,” or “I attend church every Sunday.” An example of a physical Value
is “I eat an apple a day.” Keep this list of Values short and focused on
the few things that, if always done or never done, will positively impact
your life.
Next, assemble a list of core Values for your company. If you are just
starting your business, ask a trusted friend or prospective employee
to help you with this exercise. If your business is up and running, you
would be well served to have your team help you with this exercise.
Most people wake up each day with the intention of doing the right
thing. Spend some time with your employees discussing the behaviors
that you will hold as your Values, your standards of performance. Ask
and answer the question, “What will we always do (or never do) as a
company?” is is a powerful, upliing exercise.
Examples of Company Values
Here are a few of our Values at Bare Bones Biz, Inc.:
We have fun at work. A
We demonstrate our integrity in everything we do. A
We operate from a written and known plan. A
We promote and develop leadership, freedom, A
respect, love, peace, creativity, accountability,
humor, opportunity and prosperity.
At Anheuser-Busch, their list of Values includes: A
Teamwork and open, honest communication A
Creating a safe, productive and rewarding work environment A
Day FOUR
Thursday’s Coaching Lession: Dening Your Values and Setting Your Goals
“Any time you sincerely want
to make a change, the rst
thing you must do is raise your
standards. When people ask
me what really changed my life
eight years ago, I tell them that
absolutely the most important
thing was changing what I
demanded of myself. I wrote
down all the things I would
no longer accept in my life, all
the things I would no longer
tolerate, and all the things
that I aspired to becoming.”
~Tony Robbins
Week One: Setting Sight A 33
Promoting the responsible consumption of our products A
Preserving and protecting the environment and supporting communities where A
we do business
Note how these Values can impact decision-making for these companies’ owners and
employees. As you work through The Bare Bones Biz Plan, you will learn how to write
Procedures for each aspect of the business. However, you can’t foresee every possible situ-
ation that you or your employees may encounter. Your company Values will provide guid-
ance in those situations that just aren’t in the book. For instance, although its Values list
is not so detailed as to explicitly exclude sponsorship of a beer-chugging contest at the
University of St. Louis, it is absolutely implied by the third – and possibly the fourth! –
Value on the list.
Use the form called Setting Sight – Values (on the next page) and write down your list
of Values for your company. Check to ensure that the company Values complement and
support your personal Values. Put the form in your Plan Binder in the Setting Sight section.
I don’t buy the expression “It’s not TIP►
personal; it’s just business.” Your life is an
integration of your personal, spiritual,
physical, professional and nancial
values. Integrity is developed by acting
in accordance with your core values in all
areas of your life.
34 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document
Setting Sight Sample Document – Values
Updated
Your Values are your most important policies…what you will always do or never do.
YOUR PERSONAL VALUES:YOUR COMPANY’S VALUES:
Week One: Setting Sight A 35
Goal-Setting Exercise
Next up: Goals. Goals are “to have” statements. Goals are what you
want to have from your company. Goals are measurable and achiev-
able. Goals should be written down with a date attached to them. Goals
are the milestones in the pursuit of your Mission and your Vision.
Look over your Plan Binder. Review your Mission and your Vision.
Now set a timer for 20 minutes and start writing! Write down any ideas,
to do’s and projects that will move you closer to your Mission and your
Vision. Don’t judge, just write. If you get stuck, say a prayer asking for
help and keep going. Aim for at least 101 ideas.
When the 20 minutes are up, go through the list. Identify 20 items
that will have the most impact on achieving your Vision and fullling
your Mission.
Craft those items into Goal statements:
To have
by .
is list must include growth and protability Goals. Don’t buy into
the myth, do what you love and the money will follow. at is not so.
Confront your money hang-ups. Money is not at odds with living life at
the highest spiritual level. Money is just a medium for exchanging en-
ergy. Understand that money is the lifeblood of your business. Without
it, you’ll be out of business and lose a wonderful way to be of service.
Put your Goals to the test. Are they achievable and measurable?
Have you committed to the due date? Use numbers, dollars, percent-
ages and hours to clarify your Goals.
101 Goals
Mark Victor Hansen,
coauthor of the Chicken
Soup for the Soul book
series, encouraged me
to write down 101 goals.
He taught me that some
goals will come to fruition
quickly, just by writing
them down. Once a goal
is achieved, it ceases to
motivate you. So a long
list makes sure you have
lots of great things to
create and manifest.
Examples of Goals
Poor examples…Thumbs down.
To have more money. (Not specic enough. How much?) A
To help mankind. (By doing what? By when?) A
To have more time with my family. (How much time?) A
Good examples…Thumbs up!
To earn net prots of 15% in 2012. A
To contribute 10% of prots to Habitat for Humanity every A
month.
36 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
To spend no more than three weeks per month, 40 hours per week, actively A
involved in the business. This schedule starts January 2012.
Find the form called Setting Sight – Goals on the next page. You’ll notice that this form
references the Top Projects list. We’ll introduce that list in the Getting it Done section of
The Bare Bones Biz Plan. For today, just write down your Goals and organize them
according to priority. Determine which Goals you will accomplish this year (short term)
and which you will accomplish in the next 2 to 5 years.
You will have ideas, to do’s and projects le over… items that you do not intend to act
on right now. Write them down in your Master To-Do List. You can store them there, safe
and sound. As you accomplish the Goals on your Goals list, you will replace them with
new Goals. You can look through your Master To-Do List for the next ideas you intend
to energize.
Do you struggle with Goal-setting? Are you afraid that you will list a Goal and then fail
to make it happen? Are you afraid of failure? As author Susan Jeries says, “Feel the fear
and do it anyway.”
Here’s the good news: ere are no Goal police who come and take you away if you
don’t reach your Goals. And you’ll learn basic systems for accomplishing your Goals as
you work through The Bare Bones Biz Plan, particularly in the Getting it Done section.
Again, you can’t do anything wrong here! List your Goals and we will work together to
accomplish them.
Written Goals are powerful. Commit your Goals to writing and notice the whole uni-
verse conspiring to make them come true. Albert Einstein said, “e most important de-
cision we will ever make is whether we believe in a friendly universe or a hostile universe.”
Why not decide friendly? e universe will support you.
Put the Goals page in your Plan Binder in the Setting Sight section.
Make goal setting fun and easy
If you don’t hit your goal, the “Goal Police” don’t come and
take your children. There are no horrible consequences. You
get to play again...tomorrow, next week or next year. Lighten
up and keep Goal Setting in a positive perspective.
www.BareBonesBiz.com The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 37
Goals Sample Document
Updated
LIST AND PRIORITIZE THIS YEAR’S GOALS. GOALS WITH “A” PRIORITY SHOULD BE
REFLECTED ON THE TOP PROJECT LIST. (SEE TOP PROJECT LIST IN GETTING IT DONE.)
A 1
A 2
A 3
A 4
A 5
A 6
A 7
A 8
A 9
A 10
B
B
B
B
BEYOND THIS YEAR’S GOALS – 2 TO 5 YEARS
38 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Business is pretty simple. You are capable of learning what you need
to know about business. And you are capable of doing it.
is week you have spent time THINKING and writing about what
you want to be, to do and to have. Well done! Don’t worry about doing
these exercises right. You can’t do them wrong! Just do them. As you
progress through e Bare Bones Biz Plan, you will have opportunities
to review, revise and redo your Setting Sight pages. You will continue to
ask and answer the basic questions on these forms. e exercises in the
Setting Sight section of e Bare Bones Biz Plan can be challenging. Let
that inspire you! You are creating a wonderful business built on sound,
basic business fundamentals. Congratulations!
Executive Summary Exercise
Today’s assignment is to wrap up the Setting Sight assignments in a one-
page summary of your business. is is called the Executive Summary.
On one page, answer these vital questions:
What do you do? (Elevator Speech) A
Why? (Mission) A
For whom? (Target Market) A
What are your Goals? (Vision, Goals) A
How do you make money? (You’ll update this section after A
Week Three - Making Money)
Who else does this? (Describe your competition) A
What makes you better? (USP) A
e Executive Summary is a standard component of all business plans.
e format is exible. e work you have done throughout this week
has prepared you for this exercise. Review the previous exercises. Read
through the pages in the Setting Sight section of your Plan Binder. Find
and correct any inconsistencies. Can you see how your business is be-
ginning to take shape?
Let’s suppose you are an admirer of Warren Buet, one of the world’s
Day FIVE
Friday’s Coaching Lesson: The Executive Summary
“You’ll never get it wrong and
you’ll never get it done.”
~Esther Hicks, speaking
for Abraham
Week One: Setting Sight A 39
smartest and most successful businesspeople. Imagine that you meet him at a seminar, a
cocktail party or…in an elevator. You introduce yourself with your Elevator Speech. And
Warren says, “at’s interesting. Tell me more.”
at’s where the Executive Summary comes in. Your Elevator Speech is the 25-second
summary of your business. Your Executive Summary is the 2-minute version.
In response to Warren’s request to “tell me more,” you could share your Executive
Summary. Recite the main points and hand him a written copy.
Find the form called Setting Sight – Executive Summary on the next page. Cra a sum-
mary of your business, and keep it to one page. Longer than that, and you are wasting
words. Brevity is clarity. Write your Executive Summary and add it to your Plan Binder in
the Setting Sight section.
Remember, you will review and rene these pages as you work through e Bare Bones
Biz Plan. Your business plan and your business are viable, growing, evolving entities.
As motivational speaker, trainer and author Mark Victor Hansen says, “Put your best
work out there. en, stand on its shoulders and make it better.”
Putting it All Together
Let’s go back to meeting Warren Buet. Imagine that Warren is impressed with your
Executive Summary and oers to meet with you for an hour in his oce to go over your
business plan. You accept his oer.
You bring your Bare Bones Biz Plan Binder to the meeting. You ip through it, section
by section. is is your Bare Bones Business Plan.
Warren oers to…
Buy your company for multiples of millions of dollars. A
Be on your board of advisors. A
Introduce you to just the right person who can help you reach one of your Goals. A
Whatever you imagine! Fill in the blank: _______________. A
See how it ts together? is week you created the Setting Sight section of the plan. is is
the foundation of your business. Well done! Next week, you will assemble the section for
Building the Team. Aer that, Week ree is all about Making Money. And so on.
Like any tness program, there will be challenging moments. Press on! A
I promise you this: At the end of six weeks, your business and your life will be in A
much better shape.
Open the Plan Binder and Share your Vision. A
Share your Plan Binder with your team. Show them what you have been working on.
40 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Practice your Elevator Speech on them. Let them know that you are committed
to improving the company and to creating a place where they can grow, per-
sonally and professionally. Let them know that changes are coming. Change is
stressful! However, it isn’t right for you to play in the business game without a
game plan. Let them know you intend to correct that. Let them know you are
working a six-week Biz program that will help your get your company in top
shape.
is announcement will scare some people. You know, there may be folks at
your company who don’t want you to look to closely at what’s going on. Trust
that this process is ultimately going to result in a stronger, more protable and
more ethical company. But there may be some painful moments along the way.
Your Weekend Homework
Spend a few minutes reecting on this week’s exercises. Jot down thoughts in
your Journal. Building a business can be an amazing adventure. Capture your
thoughts, feelings and moments of epiphany or frustration. Someday, you may
reread these words or share them with someone else, and you will be well served
by the wisdom you nd in them.
Start using your Master To-Do List. Write down ideas, projects, to do’s that
need to be done and anything that needs follow-up. We will explore this and oth-
er tools for getting and staying organized in more detail in Week Five – Getting
it Done. In the meantime, use the Master To-Do List as the one place you write
down things that need to be done. No more writing notes to yourself on Post-its
or little slips of paper.
Before you meet with a prospective investor or banker, ask them if
they have a Biz Plan template they want you to use. If so, customize
a new binder for them and pull into that template the appropriate
sections of e Bare Bones Biz Plan. All Biz Plans have similar core
elements.
“Make no little plans,
they have no magic to
stir men’s blood. Make
big plans, aim high in
hope and work and
let your watchword be
order and your beacon
beauty.”
~David Burnham
www.BareBonesBiz.com The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 41
Executive SummarySample Document
Updated
This is a ONE-PAGE summary of your business…What you do, why, for whom, by
whom, how do you make money, who else does this, and what makes you better?
42 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Need More Direction? Remember, you can’t do these exercises wrong. And you can always TIP►
revisit these exercises and add to them. Give these pages your best eort. If you need help, enlist
another business owner to be your Bare Bones Biz Buddy. Work through the exercises and build
your Plan Binders together. Visit www.barebonesbiz.com. I oer Teleseminars on each section of
e Bare Bones Biz Plan. Check it out! And you can always call or e-mail: 877.629.7647 and ellen@
barebonesbiz.com. I am here to serve!
www.BareBonesBiz.com
877.629.7647
Week
Two:
Building
the Team
44 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Day SIX
Monday’s Coaching Lession: The Clean-Up
Flip through the pages you created last week in the Setting Sight sec-
tion of your Plan Binder. Do the words and pictures inspire you?
Great! Now, let’s take the next steps in The Bare Bones Biz Plan.
is week you will work through the Building the Team section of e
Bare Bones Biz Plan. Today’s lesson is simple yet super powerful. Today
you are going to clean your desk.
Your desk says a lot about you. Is it a sane, functional, inspiring work-
ing environment? Or is it disaster on four legs? Certainly, a clean desk
can improve your productivity. Even more importantly, cleaning your
desk is a symbolic gesture. It symbolizes your willingness to change, to
clear out habits and systems that no longer serve you. It symbolizes the
business-building process. You are going to clean up each area of your
business…day by day, step by step. Your desk is a signicant part of the
process.
And it shows your team that you are serious about building a bet-
ter business. ey will know you are committed when they see you
pull your oce apart, wash everything down and put it back together
again.
A clean desk demonstrates to prospective employees that you are
organized, professional and in command of your environment. People
who value organization, professionalism and purposeful eort will
want to work for you.
So far in The Bare Bones Biz Plan, you’ve been asked to think
about and visualize what you want. Today, you are going to break out
the elbow grease.
The Clean-Up Exercise
Start with your desk. Step by step, here’s how to create a neat and func-
tional working space.
Collect the tools you’ll need – a garbage can, a stapler, Post-it A
notes, paper clips, a marking pen and furniture polish or all-
purpose cleaner.
Take everything o your desk. Empty all drawers and shelves. A
“Success is a science; if
you have the conditions,
you get the result.”
~ Oscar Wilde
Week Two: Building The Team A 45
Set everything on the oor.
Clean your desk, inside and out. Polish it, and make it shine! A
Go through every pile and get rid of stu. Throw it out. You are no worse o A
having thrown it out if you can’t nd it anyway.
Put everything you’d like to keep into “like kind” piles on the oor. A
Put back on your desk only the things you will need to access this week. A
Put back in your drawers only one of each type of oce supply item you use. A
Put back on your shelves only current projects that require your immediate A
attention.
Take the piles of like-kind information and le them. A
A clean desk is no small thing. It is symbolic of your commitment to excellence, funda-
mental business basics and focused thinking. It is a testimony to your personal discipline.
If you can’t keep your own desk clear and your work focused and productive, then how
can you lead others? A clean desk speaks volumes.
Look at the rest of your oce. Business philosopher Lance Secretan says, “Your oce
is sacred space. It’s where you work. Does it inspire you to create at the highest level?”
Continue your clean-up eorts. If needed, paint the walls and mop the oor. Make your
oce representative of the loy Mission and Vision you have craed for your company.
Now, address the rest of the shop. Schedule a Clean-Up Day. Gather a few buckets and
some cleaning supplies. Rent a power washer. Enlist your kids. Order a few pizzas. And
clean your shop from top to bottom.
Cleaning is rejuvenating! Out with the old, in with the new! Whether you are just start-
ing out or you have been in business for decades, make a clean start. Clean-Up Day…
your clean desk…communicates that things are changing and they are changing for the
better.
Professional Clean-Up Back-Up
Cleaning is easy…but not always simple. Are you a pack rat? Does the
thought of throwing things away make your stomach hurt? You might
need a Professional Organizer! Yes, there is such a person. Contact the
National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) at 512.454.8626,
and they can put you in touch with a local clean-up professional. Or check
out www.1800gotjunk.com. These folks will show up and remove whatever
you don’t need anymore and sweep up afterward. They will even deliver
appropriate items to the local recycling center.
46 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Today’s lesson is about craing the Organization Chart for your
company. Tomorrow you will work on your company’s Position
Descriptions. ese are useful tools for building your team.
Paradox: A statement, seemingly absurd or
contradictory, that is in fact true.
What is a team? A team is something special that’s created when indi-
viduals are free to do their jobs. Teamwork is a paradox. Team mem-
bers perform individually, yet are dependent on the other members for
their success.
ink of a college basketball team. e point guard is responsible
for taking the ball down the court and setting up the oensive play.
e center is responsible for controlling the area under the basket and
scoring points from that area. e rookie on the bench is responsible
for being ready, should the starting player get hurt or become unable to
play. e coach’s job is to bring out each individual’s best performance
to add to the overall success of the team. e Vision for each college
team is to win the national championship.
Business, like basketball, is not a democracy. Someone has to be in
charge. Someone has to lead. at’s you. Your job is to develop and lead
the team to realize the company’s Vision and Mission.
How do you build a team? By helping individuals win. By helping
each person on the team succeed individually and contribute to the
whole. In his terric book Good to Great, business author Jim Collins
suggests, “Get the right people on the bus. Get the wrong people o the
bus. en, put the right people in the right seats.”
An Organization Chart is a graphic representation of the main ar-
eas of your company, arranged according to reporting relationship. In
other words, the Organization Chart lists who is responsible for what
and who reports to whom. e Organization Chart represents the seats
on the bus.
If you are migrating to business ownership from the corporate world,
you may cringe at considering the formal structure of an Organization
Day SEVEN
Tuesday’s Coaching Lesson: Creating an Organization Chart
“Some people are more talented
than others. Some are more
educationally challenged than
others. But we all have the
capacity to be great. Greatness
comes with recognizing that
your potential is limited
only by how you choose.”
~ Peter Koestenbaum
Week Two: Building The Team A 47
Chart. Fear not! e Organization Chart can be a wonderful tool. Recalling my many,
many jobs, I can count on three ngers the number of times I actually knew for what I was
responsible and to whom I was required to report. I would have loved that information
on every job. It’s frustrating not to know what your responsibilities are. It’s confusing to
have someone tell you what to do, just to have another person tell you to do exactly the
opposite.
Organization Chart Exercise
For this exercise, you will need…
The page called Sample Organization Chart A
The pages called Sample Position Descriptions A
A large unadorned wall or dry-erase board A
A stack of Post-it notes…the 3-by-3-inch size is good. A
Start by reviewing the basic company divisions on the See More Blinds Sample Organization
Chart. e divisions are indicated by the double-lined boxes. Do the divisions reect the
main areas of activity in your company? Customize as needed. Note: You can use the Bare
Bones Biz language for the divisions or substitute your own names.
Does TIP►
the thought
of an
Organizaion
Chart
seem “too
corporate”
for your small
business?
If you want
to grow, get
over it. An
“Org Chart”
is a powerful
tool for
helping team
members
see how
they t and
contribute
to the whole.
What’s not to love?
Identify Divisions and Responsibilities
Use Post-it notes to identify the divisions on your Organization Chart. Put them up on
the dry-erase board.
On additional Post-its, list the Responsibilities for each division. Responsibilities are
WHAT needs to be DONE to realize your Vision and Mission and achieve your Goals.
Review the Setting Sight section of your Plan Binder.
Arrange the Post-its to show the reporting relationships. Who is dependent on whom?
Who reports to whom? For example, note the Sample Organization Chart for the See
More Blinds and Window Coverings company. Take a look at the Positions.
Don’t be bound by what is currently happening in your company. ink more broadly.
ink in terms of how the company should ideally operate. Plan for growth.
Create Positions and Assignments
Now group the Responsibilities into Positions for your company. Move the Post-its around
until the Positions start to make sense to you. Name the Positions.
A Position Description lists the Responsibilities for that Position. Find the pages of
Sample Position Descriptions for the See More Blinds and Window Coverings Company
and use them as examples. A Position can be part time or full time.
48 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Assign names to the Positions. Put the right people in the right seats.
Put your name at the top. You are the one responsible for Setting Sight. You are the leader.
Understand that the Organization Chart ows uphill. If there is an empty Position, the
person who holds the Position above it is responsible for handling that Position.
As you make your assignments, ask, “Can this person be successful in this Position?”
You may hold more than one Position. In a small company, each team member may
hold a few Positions.
You may want to outsource one or more Positions. If you do, put that company’s name
in the box. On the Sample Organization Chart, notice that Mastery, Inc., handles mystery
shopping services for See More Blinds, Inc.
As the company grows and as you hire more people, you can change the Position as-
signments. Add an additional box on the Organization Chart if more than one person is
assigned to a Position.
Do your best to map out an Organization Chart that represents the basic divisions of
your company and addresses the main Responsibilities of each division.
Draw your Organization Chart and write in names for the Positions. Insert a copy of
your Organization Chart in the Building the Team section of your Bare Bones Biz Plan
Binder.
One-Person Show or Ready to GROW?
Can you realize your Mission and Vision all by yourself? Does your Perfect Life describe
your business as a one-person operation? It can be done. You’ll still bene t by creating an
Organization Chart. All the areas oyour business need to be addressed. You will have to shift
from Position to Position. The Organization Chart can make it easier to do that without get-ting
confused. And you may decide to add a team member at some pointWhen you do, you can
hand o one or more of your Positions.
Nothing stays static in the universe. Things are either shrinking or grow-ing. It is tough to
make it all by your-self. As you work through The Bare Bones Biz Plan, open yourself up to the
opportunity to grow and developa team. Maybe you have been burneby employees and you
don’t want to go through that again. A formal plan with written procedures and accountability
systems will make teaming up a safer, saner experience.
If your Vision is of a big company, the Organization Chart can help you grow fast. Note on the
Sample Orga-nization Chart that Suki is the Sales Manager as well as a salesperson. A small
company doesn’t need formal systems. By imposing the form of a larger company, you actually
cause the company to grow. The systems drive growth. It works!
The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 49
Bare Bones Biz Plan Building the Team 45Bare Bones Biz Plan Week Two - Buidling the Team! 45
Sample Organizational Chart
BUILDING
THE TEAM
MAKING
MONEY
Ted
PRESIDENT
SETTING
SIGHT
Ted
Human
Resources
Juan
Book-
keeping
Ted
Publicity &
Marketing
Noah
Customer
Service
Rep
Chris
Webmaster
GETTING IT
SOLD
GETTING IT
DONE
MAKING
SURE
Suki
Sales
Manager
Mandy
Sales
Person
Rocco
Sales
Person
Ali
Sales
Person
Kelly
Sales
Person
?
Sales
Person
Pete
Installation
Manager
Pete
Installer
Ben
Installer
Max
Installer
Mastery,
Inc.
Mystery
50 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Today we will work on Position Descriptions. How nice it is to clearly
communicate what needs to be done and who is responsible for
doing it. Right-stu people like the Organization Chart and Position
Descriptions because they like being held accountable.
A Position Description is…
A list of Responsibilities for the Position…basically, who does A
what.
The percentages, dollars or key numbers to measure whether A
the Position-holder has successfully handled his or her
Responsibilities.
The compensation for that Position. A
Don’t worry about nishing every Position Description today. Just spend
an hour on this task. If you have a team already, go over the Organization
Chart assignments with each team member. Work with the person who
holds the Position to esh out that Position Description.
Day EIGHT
Wednesday’s Coaching Lesson: Who Does What? The Position Descriptions
Do they have the TIP►
“Right Stu?” Look for
people who share your
values. You can teach
the “right” behaviors. I
suggest you look for and
recognize the core values
before you hire.
Position Description Exercise
Yesterday, you jotted down Responsibilities–things that need to get
done–on Post-its and arranged them on the dry-erase board to help
you create your Organization Chart. Refer to those Post-its as you list
the Responsibilities for each Position Description. For examples, take a
look at the Sample Position Descriptions.
Do the best you can to list the Responsibilities – what needs to be
done – for each Position. As you go over the lists, ask and answer these
questions:
What needs to be done that we are not doing? A
What are we doing that doesn’t need to be done? A
Who is served by doing this? The customer? The employees? A
The owner? The government?
Does this help us make money, now or in the future? A
Is there a better, easier, faster or smarter way to do this? A
“To do what you love and
feel that it matters - what
could be more fun?”
~ Katharine Graham
Week Two: Building The Team A 51
For the key numbers, come up with ways to measure performance in the A
Position. Ask and answer these questions:
How can we measure performance in this Position? A
Is this a revenue-producing Position? A
What costs are associated with this Position? A
In this Position, how do I know when I have done a great job? A
Ask every team member to think about his or her Position Description and to spend time
editing or expanding the list of Responsibilities. For some, this assignment can be stress-
ful. Perhaps Juan in bookkeeping is fearful that you may be preparing to replace him. He
may interpret these questions as an indication of your distrust in him or displeasure with
his performance.
Assure him that your intent is the overall improvement of every aspect of the company.
Tell him about your Vision and your Mission. Let him know you would appreciate his
help in building a better business–one that is of service to customers and provides a great
life for the team members.
However, understand that he may choose to “get o the bus.” It’s all right. Consider
your employees as volunteers. Every day, each one decides whether or not he or she is
going to play the game with you. Some will love and support your eorts to improve the
company. Others will not. e work you are doing to cra the Organization Chart and
Position Descriptions will appeal to those who are inspired by your Vision and Mission.
And it will serve you well as you recruit new team members.
For each Position, ll in the compensation section with what you are currently paying.
Be aware that next week, in the Making Money section of The Bare Bones Biz Plan, you
will put your Budget together. e Budget will help you determine how much you can pay
for each Position. You may need to restructure your pay plan.
Again, this can be stressful. Communication is the key to keeping your team steady
while you work out your business plan. Let them know that your intent is for your em-
ployees to make more money as you increase sales and productivity. For right now, just
hold tight. Leave the pay as it is until we work through the Budget in the Making Money
section.
As you complete the Position Descriptions, print a copy and store it in the appropriate
section of the Plan Binder. For instance, the Bookkeeper Position Description goes into
the Making Money section of the Plan Binder. You might want to store additional copies
of all the Position Descriptions in the Building the Team section. For a downloadable, cus-
tomizable Position Description Template, go to the Buy Stu page at www.barebonesbiz.
com.
52 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
RESPONSIBILITES ARE WHAT TO DO; PROCEDURES ARE HOW TO DO IT
Position Descriptions are incredibly powerful tools. Clearly communicating the
Responsibilities for each team member is a loving, empowering gesture. Establishing ways
to measure performance provides clarity and increased sanity to your company.
Responsibilities are what to do. Procedures are how to do it. For the Position
Descriptions, just list the Responsibilities. You will learn how to write Procedures in the
Getting it Done section of The Bare Bones Biz Plan. Over time, you and your team will
create Procedures for each Responsibility.
As you go, you’ll review your work and match it with your Setting Sight pages. Do
the Position Descriptions t in with your Vision and your Mission? Do they reect your
Values? Are you moving in the direction of your Goals?
Compare your Position Descriptions with your Organization Chart. Do you have the
right people in the right Positions on the bus?
is is high-level work. I promised this would be an adventure. Congratulations on
your progress so far!
“We must drop the idea that change comes slowly. It does ordinarily – in part because we think it
does. Today changes must come fast and we must adjust our mental habits so that we can accept
comfortably the idea of stopping one thing and beginning another overnight. We must discard the
idea that past routine, past ways of doing things, are probably the best ways. On the contrary, we
must assume that there is a better way to do almost everything.”
~ Donald M. Nelson
www.BareBonesBiz.com The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 53
Position DescriptionSample Document
Updated__________
Position: President See More Blinds and Window Coverings, Inc.
Name: Ted
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Develop, empower and support the team in the realization of the Mission and A
Vision.
Protect and grow the assets of the company. A
Complete The Bare Bones Biz Plan and communicate it throughout the company. A
KEY NUMBERS:
Goals as listed on the Goals form. A
COMPENSATION:
$60,000 per year A
54 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document
Position DescriptionSample Document
Updated
Position: In Charge of Publicity and Marketing, See More Blinds and Window
Coverings, Inc.
Name: Grace
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Develop Marketing pieces. A
Update the Marketing Calendar twice a month. A
Determine marketing results. A
Develop the identity and branding package. A
Create and maintain a community service program. A
Communicate Marketing Calendar to the Sales Manager and the President weekly. A
Responsible for the Customer Service Representatives and Webmaster. A
Keep the customer service area clean. A
Deliver 20 Elevator Speeches weekly. A
KEY NUMBERS:
Number of calls received for our service and products at or above Budget A
Marketing and advertising costs at or below Budget A
Brand awareness survey A
COMPENSATION:
Base pay of $15 per hour A
3% commission on all website sales A
The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 55
Position Description Sample Document
Updated
Position: Making Money – In Charge of Bookkeeping, See More Blinds and Window
Coverings, Inc.
Name: Juan
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Daily data entry of sales and expenses A
Weekly Financial Quick Check report A
Weekly update of Year to Date Scorecards A
Month-end checklist and package A
Maintain detailed records of all Balance Sheet items. A
Maintain cash requirements. A
Payroll and subcontractor payments, bonuses and benets A
Accounts receivable and accounts payable management A
Compliance with tax, payroll and insurance requirements A
Maintain excellent credit rating. A
Work with President and accountant to operate from a known nancial position at A
all times.
KEY NUMBERS:
Timely delivery of required reports A
On-time payment and compliance A
COMPENSATION:
$15 per hour A
56 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Day NINE
Thursday’s Coaching Lesson: Attracting the Right People
Creating a winning TIP►
team is both art and
science. Engage simple
systems to recruit and
hire. However, don’t hire
anyone you just don’t
feel good about. Life is
too precious to spend
with folks who make your
stomach hurt.
Become a relentless recruiter. In fact, you should continue to recruit
team members even aer you hire them! Consider your employees
a volunteer force. Every day they volunteer to come to work for you.
e more compelling you are, the more compelling your Vision and
Mission, the more people you’ll nd willing and even wanting to work
with you.
Everything you have done so far in The Bare Bones Biz Plan will
positively impact your company. You can see how you, your customers
and your employees will benet from your Vision.
If you are just starting your company, you’ll nd that The Bare
Bones Biz Plan makes it easier to recruit, hire, train and retain great
employees.
If you have employees already, they have been noticing the changes
you’ve been working on the past few days. Some may be enthusiastic about
the changes. And some may be terried.
People don’t like change. Remember the word homeostasis from
your high school biology class? Homeostasis is the mechanism that
controls body functions. It’s what keeps your body temperature at 98.6
degrees as the air temperature around you uctuates. It’s what keeps
you at about the same body weight, even if you change your diet. We
are physically designed to avoid change. Change always produces some
anxiety, and in some people, change can be downright frightening.
As you hit this point in e Bare Bones Biz Plan, employee turnover
may throw you back into the re. If someone leaves, the Responsibilities
for his or her Positions fall back on you until you can nd a replacement.
You’ll nd yourself busier and crazier than ever.
You don’t want to lose good employees. But you don’t want to be
held hostage, either. Stay true to your Vision and Mission. Recruit new
and current team members by sharing what you see and why you are
in business. Look for people who get it and want to help. And you are
going to honor and reward those who want to play the game your way.
“No matter how much work
a man can do, no matter
how engaging his personality
may be, he will not advance
far in business if he cannot
work through others.”
~ John Craig
Week Two: Building The Team A 57
Recruiting Exercise
Review your Organization Chart. What Positions might need to be lled now or in the
near future? Find the form in the book called Building the Team – Recruiting Checklist.
Customize a form for each Position you intend to ll. Put the page(s) in your Plan Binder
under Building the Team. is will help you keep track of your recruiting eorts. A cus-
tomizable version is available on the Buy Stu Page at www.barebonesbiz.com.
Let it be known that you are looking. Get the word out. You are looking for great team
members. Announce to your employees that you are going to need great people to help
you expand. Alert them that you are not going to hire just anyone; you are going to be
highly selective. And you know that they know ne people. Let them know that if they
have a few people whom they would like you to meet, you’d be pleased to hear about
them.
Remember Ernest Shackleton from last week’s Vision Statement lesson? His initial
Vision for his expedition was to be the rst to cross the continent of Antarctica. He need-
ed a team to accomplish the Vision, so he put this ad in a local newspaper:
WANTED: People to undertake hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long
months of complete darkness; constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and
recognition in case of success.
Note that last line, “Honor and recognition in case of success”. at compelling oer
triggered hundreds of responses, including two from women.
You are growing your company with each new hire. Imagine patiently waiting and
watching and selecting just the right people to help you take your company to the next
level. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the luxury of picking only the best for your company?
e right people are honest, willing and inspired by your Mission and Vision. Start
looking. Expect to nd them.
Don’t Hire is Week!
Initiate your recruiting eorts. But wait to hire someone new until aer you put to-
gether the Budget in the Making Money section of The Bare Bones Biz Plan. is will
keep you from making a classic business mistake of putting the wrong person “on the
bus.” Today’s lesson will help you expand your options so that you can make better choices
when it’s time to expand the team.
Use your Master To-Do List to jot down any to do’s or follow-up actions that need to
be taken.
Assemble your prospective team members and hold tight. When you are ready to hire,
you’ll make a better decision. And you may nd people who are a good t for your Board
of Advisors. You’ll learn more about that in tomorrow’s lesson.
A Denition
of Recruit:
Recruit comes
from the
French word
recroistre,
which means
to grow up
again. Webster
denes recruit
as to secure
the services
of, to seek to
enroll.
58 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Fly Your Flag!
Do you play well with others? Or are you a lone wolf? Are you the life of the
party? Or would you prefer to skip the party altogether? Larry Bilotta is an
expert on why people do what they do. He’s created a terric program called
Flag Pages to help you and your team members discover your talents, strengths
and motivations. Larry says, “Owners can use Flag Page technology to lead
people in a way that builds loyalty by supporting their top motivations. Flag
Pages can help employees control their negative emotions, grow their feelings
of condence and measure their inner progress so they can succeed at higher
levels. And the Flag Pages system shows owners how to pick the people who
will succeed in the company’s culture and get along with the people already
there.”Your Flag Pages can help you nd the right people and put them in the
right Positions on the Organization Chart. Fly your ag! Contact Larry Bilotta for
more information at www.agpagetest.com.com.
www.BareBonesBiz.com The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 59
Recruiting Checklist Sample Document
Updated
POSITION THAT NEEDS TO BE FILLED ______________________
SKILLS, TALENTS AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS POSITION:
WHO CAN HELP ME FIND THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THIS POSITION?
RECRUITING EFFORTS:
PROSPECTIVE TEAM MEMBERS FOR THIS POSITION:
60 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Imagine a helping hand and a friendly voice within reach at all times.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were someone with whom to confer about
the big decisions?
Today’s lesson is how to create a Board of Advisors for your com-
pany. Advisors are unpaid volunteers with no real legal responsibility
(as compared to a Board of Directors that comprises paid professionals
who carry heavy legal and duciary responsibilities for your company.)
Volunteers are naturally less formal in their advice and participation.
What does a Board of Advisors do? e best Boards are indepen-
dent, objective thinkers who help you solve tough business problems.
e best Board members complement you in strengths. ey see your
company with fresh eyes and unattached egos.
Board of Advisors Exercise
Start by putting together an ideal list of Advisors. Who are the best
thinkers that you know of…living or dead? How about having omas
Jeerson, Tom Peters, J.P. Morgan, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buet, Ben
Franklin and Mahatma Ghandi on your Board? Cool, huh? Now, some
of those folks are dead, and the others may be, well, over-committed at
the moment. (But you never know. Ask them!) Add to your list others
who exemplify the best characteristics of these great thinkers. Do you
know someone with common sense like Ben Franklin? Warren Buet
would certainly add a high level of nancial literacy to the Board. Who
else do you know who really understands nancial reports?
Pick folks who are smarter and richer than you. Don’t be intimidat-
ed. Just ask. You want challenging people who will help you grow and
develop. Aim for three or four crackerjack Board members. Pick the
best people you can for the Board. Each member of the Board should
feel honored to be in the company of such ne people. If someone turns
you down, accept the rejection gracefully. Assume he or she is attered
that you asked.
Communicate what’s required to be a Board member. What are
you looking for? Direction or advice on a specic topic? You could ask
for feedback about your Bare Bones Biz Plan. Meetings could be held
Day TEN
Friday’s Coaching Lesson: Shore Yourself Up With a Board of Advisors
“An executive is a man who
decides. Sometimes he decides
right, but always he decides.”
~ John Henry Patterson
Week Two: Building The Team A 61
monthly or quarterly. Go through your Plan Binder. You can certainly visit with Board
members individually more frequently.
Help them right back. Just because they are smarter and richer than you doesn’t mean
that you can’t be of service to them. Make sure that each Board member – particularly on
a volunteer Board – knows that you are available to help him or her in any way that you
can. ank your advisors frequently for their eorts. Oer to help them right back.
Your Board can help you over the rough spots in business and can teach you important
things…like how to become protable. And how to manage more eectively so that you
can have some fun in your life. But make no mistake about it, a company can’t be run by a
committee. You are ultimately responsible for the success or failure of your organization.
Add the names of your Board of Advisors to your Organization Chart. Store the page
in your Plan Binder in the Building the Team section.
When recruiting a hard-to-reach prospective advisor, TIP►
leave a compelling message with his or her assistant, or
on voice mail. For example: “Hi Ms. Winfrey, I’m Ellen Rohr
(877) 629-7647. I have a BIG idea for your Leadership School.
And some good news about a local BIG GIVE project you’ve
inspired. Reach me for an update...and thanks for all you do.”
Your Weekend Homework
Write a personal note to every member of your team, including your Board of Advisors.
Assure them that they are doing important work. Remind them of your Mission. ank
them for their help.
62 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
www.BareBonesBiz.com
877.629.7647
Week
Three:
Making
Money!
64 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Day 11
Monday’s Coaching Lesson: Getting to a Known Financial Position
Today’s lesson is about getting to a Known Financial Position (KFP).
If you were driving 80 miles an hour in the dark with your lights o
heading toward a cli, would you like someone to yell, “STOP!”? OK.
Stop!
Do you produce nancial reports – the balance sheet and Income
Statement – every week? Do you analyze sales, costs, cash ow, and
debt every week? If not, you may be heading for the cli.
STOP. And nd out.
A KFP is essential to your success and protability. “Known” is the key
element. It may be that you are losing money or deeper in debt than
you would like to be. Find out how much and how deep. at’s the
starting place. e nancial reports are the scorecards in the game of
business. You can always improve the score, but you must know where
you are right now.
is seems obvious. But from my experience as a business consul-
tant, nine out of 10 business owners don’t know where they stand -
nancially. ere are a couple of reasons for this:
They don’t know how to keep score. A
They are afraid to look, because they don’t want to know how A
bad it is.
If you are the one in 10 who runs, reviews and understands A
nancial statements, congratulations!
If not, well, that’s going to change, starting today. Learning A
how to keep score is the focus of our lessons this week in the
Making Money section of The Bare Bones Biz Plan.
“If he appreciates his lack of
knowledge he will nd a way
to acquire it, and it is cheaper
to learn before an investment
is made in stock and xtures,
tools, etc., than it is to learn
aerwards by sad experience.”
~ Wesley Albert Fink –
Bookkeeping and Cost-Finding for
the Plumber, published in 1918.
Learning How to Keep Score
You’ll be at a Known Financial Position when:
You can generate Income Statement and balance sheet A
reports and trust that the information is current and accurate.
Week Three: Making Money A 65
You can go through the reports line by line, account by account, and understand A
what each dollar amount represents.
I strongly recommend that you do your accounting “in house.” You can’t wait until the
month is over to nd out the score. You need to know the score while the game is on! e
best way to do that is by generating nancial reports in house. Your accountant may be
able to train you on how to use your accounting soware or recommend someone who
can. You can also contact your accounting soware company for a list of qualied train-
ers. Today’s computers are so fast, and accounting soware is so simple, you can do the
accounting at your shop.
You are going to need some help, however, to get to a KFP.
You need a good accountant. Many accountants just prepare tax returns. A A
good accountant will help you develop an accounting system that delivers the
nancial information you need to make good decisions. A good accountant
will be excited when you tell him that you want to learn how to read and use
nancial reports. A good accountant won’t feel threatened when you tell her you
want to move the accounting system in house.
A good bookkeeper is meticulous about data entry and getting it entered on A
time. In a small company, you may hold the Position of bookkeeper. This will
serve you very well in the long run. Embrace the Position. Figure out double-
entry accounting and how to fully utilize your accounting system. When you
are ready to hand o the Position, you’ll be prepared to work well with your
bookkeeper to receive on-time, accurate and relevant information.
While often
the most
intimidating,
the nancial
aspect of your
business is the
easiest one to
get handled.
Set your fear
and frustration
aside and have
FUN keeping
score.
Don’t be held back by an intimidating TIP►
accountant, or one who acts like a martyr
when you ask a question. Find a helpful
professional interested in developing your
nancial understanding. Shop around!
66 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Getting to a KFP Exercise
Schedule a meeting with your bookkeeper and accountant for sometime this week.
Go through the balance sheet and Income Statement, line by line, account by account.
Ask these questions:
Where do the dollar amounts come from? A
What do they represent? What do they mean? A
How does the information get entered into the accounting system? A
Review how information moves through the company and ends up on the nancial re-
ports.
Keep it simple. Cra a chart of accounts that reects your company. But don’t overdo
the detail. If you aren’t going to use the data, do you have to track it? Do you need a sepa-
rate account for electricity, trash removal, fuel oil and water service, or can you lump it
into utilities.
Work together to answer these questions:
How can we structure the chart of accounts to better reect how we do A
business? How can we separate information so that we know how dierent
divisions of the company are performing? Should we create divisions in the
accounting system?
Are we tracking information that we don’t really need? At what cost? A
What will it take to generate current and accurate balance sheet and Income A
Statement reports at any time?
Finally, look over the Month-End Checklist together. Find the Month-End Checklist form
in this book, or download the customizable form. Find it on the Buy Stu page at www.
barebonesbiz.com. is checklist makes sure that you stay in a KFP. Ideally, your book-
keeper completes the checklist. Your accountant can help by checking to make sure that
your reports are accurate, and that all the legal and tax-compliance requirements are han-
dled. Commit to completing the checklist every month, starting right now.
Don’t delay. Insist on meeting this week. Insist on getting to a KFP by the end of this
month. It is that important.
Store copies of your most current Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Month-End
Checklist in your Plan Binder in the Making Money section. Write to do’s and items that
need follow-up in your Master To-Do List.
Good for you for your determination to acquire this knowledge!
Week Three: Making Money A 67
Financial Reports 101
Don’t know what a balance sheet is? Don’t know your asset from your liability?
Read Where Did the Money Go? – Accounting Basics for the Business Owner
Who Wants to Get Protable, by me. You’ll learn the Bare-Bones Basics of the
Balance Sheet, the Income Statement, the chart of accounts and double-entry
accounting. You’ll be delighted at how simple it really is! This information is
the prerequisite for everything we discuss about accounting and nance in
the Making Money section of e Bare Bones Biz Plan. Find this book on our
Buy Stu page at www.barebonesbiz.com, or call and order over the phone at
877.629.7647.
68 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document
Month-End Accounting ChecklistSample Document
For the Month of: Year:
Actual Date: Prepared By:
Complete this checklist on or before the 10th of each month for the previous
month.
Back up of the accounting system les.
Run the Balance Sheet and Income Statement for the month…and go through
line by line. What’s dierent? What’s “weird?”
Review the General Ledger for the month and check for anything unusual or out
of place.
Accounts Receivable/Invoicing
Make sure that all sales for the scal period have been entered.
If you job cost, make certain that all sales related to a specic job are coded to that job.
Make sure that all payments and/or adjustments for the month have been entered.
Follow up on any receivables that are more than 30 days overdue.
Make certain that statements have been sent regularly.
Take a look…
Print an aged Accounts Receivable report.
The total of all Accounts Receivable should match the Accounts Receivable
balance on the Balance Sheet.
Accounts Payable/Liabilities/Purchases
Make sure that all vendor invoices, payments and adjustments for the scal period
have been posted.
If you job cost, make certain that all purchases related to a specic job are coded
to that job.
Post all purchases made by credit cards to their specic liability account.
Make Loan Payments on Line of Credit Loans.
www.BareBonesBiz.com The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 69
Amount for Principal _________________
Take a look…
Print an aged Accounts Payable report.
The total of all Accounts Payable should match the Accounts Payable balance on
the Balance Sheet.
Print the detail for each credit card used for purchases.
The outstanding balance of each card should match the corresponding liability
account on the Balance Sheet.
Payroll
Make certain that all paychecks for the period have been entered and posted to
the correct expense accounts.
Make certain that all payroll tax deposits have been made and posted to the
correct expense and liability accounts.
Make sure that the Payroll Clearing account has a ZERO balance.
Take a look…
Double check that you have posted everything to the correct accounts – this is
one of the EASIEST places to make mistakes.
Review your payroll closely each month to avoid the costly mistake of xing it
later!
Banking
Bank Accounts—make sure that you have reconciled all bank accounts according
to the bank statement. Print the reconciliation report and staple it to the bank
statement.
Petty Cash—make sure that all payments that were made from petty cash have
been entered, all deposits to petty cash have been recorded and the account has
been reconciled.
Take a look…
Bank Accounts—compare the reconciled balance to the bank’s balance.
Petty Cash—make certain that the total you actually have in petty cash matches
the Petty Cash account balance on the Balance Sheet.
70 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document
General Ledger
Make sure Sales Tax is submitted
Make sure all Insurance compliance issues are addressed.
Make sure all tax reporting compliance issues are addressed.
Make sure all new employees are properly accounted for in the accounting,
information systems and with the Payroll Service
Make sure that any journal entries for items such as depreciation have been
posted.
Once all data entry is complete and all transactions that aect the scal period have been
posted, you are ready to…
Create your Month-End closing package.
Print the following reports:
Balance Sheet
Income Statement with Year-to-Date comparison
Income Statement with budget comparison
Most recent BBB Financial Quick Check report with the supporting
nancials
Communicate any discrepancies, challenges, or anything out of the ordinary on
the notes section of this checklist.
Go with your intuition – if you think something looks “weird,” or “o,” or “wrong,”
make a note of it and report it to your Manager.
If changes have been made to the BBB Basic Budget, make sure to update the
budget in your accounting program and the Financial Quick Check.
If you have diculty balancing to any of the above accounts, use your detailed
trial balance. Run the report for the account(s)in question for the specic period,
and start looking. You might go back to a prior period and compare “then” to “now.”
Back up and store le o-site.
Change the closing date in your accounting program.
Write up any month-end notes.
If you’re stuck, there’s always help…call us at 877.629.7647or reach us online at www.bare-
bonesbiz.com.
Week Three: Making Money A 71
Day 12
Tuesday’s Coaching Lesson: Bare Bones Budgeting Basics > Part One
Today and tomorrow, we will work on your budget. Budgeting is set-
ting Goals for your company, for sales and for expenses, and then
checking your Goals against actual results. Your budget is a powerful
tool for creating your ideal business.
Spend at least an hour today in the budget process. e budgeting
process is an ongoing activity. is week, you will jump-start your bud-
get. Successful businesspeople know how to budget and use their bud-
gets to make better decisions. Do your best and enjoy the process.
Getting started with basic budgeting
Start by stopping. Stop whining about budgeting. Stop claiming you
can’t do it. Stop claiming you don’t get it. Budgeting is writing down
what you intend to generate in sales and spend on expenses for a future
period of time. You can do that. Over time and with practice, you will
get better and better at budgeting. Any attempt at creating a budget is
a positive move.
Realize your power. You are incredibly powerful, so much more
so than you may realize. Writing your Goals, craing your Budget…
these actions trigger the realization of your Goals. Once you are clear
on what you want, the whole universe conspires to help you. You have
everything to gain and nothing to lose by budgeting.
Enlist a Budget Buddy. Working with someone is much better than
tackling this process on your own. Two brains are better than one! Your
Budget Buddy can help you come up with realistic Goals for sales and
expenses and help you stay focused. A formal appointment to work on
the budget may be just the discipline you need to get going on your
budget. Who could be your Budget Buddy? Ask your accountant for
help. Or seek out a member of your Board of Advisors. You can also
work with one of your employees on the budget.
“Budgets are not merely
aairs of arithmetic, but in a
thousand ways go to the root
of prosperity of individuals,
the relations of classes and
the strength of kingdoms.”
~ William E. Gladstone
72 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Gather your budgeting tools and nancial information.
Pull together the items you need to begin making your budget. You can build a simple
budget for any time period…a week, a month or a year. You can use Excel®, accounting
soware or paper to dra your budget.
Columnar pads are your friends. A You know those green-tinted sheets with the
rows and columns inked in already? There is nothing wrong with using a pencil
and paper to help you work out your budget.
Gather relevant information about the past two years’ sales and expenses. A
Print out your Income Statements for the past two years. If you don’t have
accurate Income Statements yet (yesterday you committed to getting to a KFP),
your income tax returns will have some information about past years’ sales and
expenses. Also, your check register is a list of paid expenses. You can use that
information to help you develop your expense Goals.
Compare apples to apples. A Make sure the list of accounts in the budgeting
program matches the chart of accounts in your accounting program. Your
accountant can help you do this. This will help you compare actual performance
to budgeted Goals, item by item, account by account.
Basic Budgeting Steps
Start plugging in numbers for sales and expenses. e end result should be a “pretend”
Income Statement that lists your Goals for sales and expenses for a future time period.
Enter the dollar amounts. AWork your way down the list of expenses. Reference
your Income Statement, tax returns and check register to see how much you
have spent on expenses in the past. Enter an amount that seems reasonable.
Fill in the sales line last. AFill in all your projected costs, and then see how much
you will need in sales to cover costs and leave your desired prot. Remember…
the budget is pretend. You can move the numbers around.
Play the “what if” game. ADo several versions of your budget. Save each budget
with a dierent le name so that you can reference each one. Creating monthly
budgets allows you to better predict sales and protability. Is your business
typically busier in the holiday season? Reect that in your budget. Are you
considering a booth at a local trade show? Increase marketing costs in your
budget for that month.
Think like a watermelon. A It only takes one seed to grow a watermelon
plant. One plant can generate a dozen watermelons. Each watermelon is
lled with hundreds of seeds. Theoretically, it only takes one seed to carry on
the watermelon family. But Nature knows that “stu happens” and plans for
abundance. Do the same for your budget. Put a little cushion in the numbers.
The budget should show a prot! ASales minus expenses should be a positive
number. You may choose to create a short-term loss while you build your
company. For instance, you may incur expenses before your company opens for
Week Three: Making Money A 73
business. The best approach is to budget for protability every month.
Keep a Budgeting Log. AYou are going to pull some of your budgeted numbers
from thin air. Write notes to yourself as you come up with the numbers for your
budget. When you refer to your budget in the months to come, you may forget
your assumptions. Write them down in your Budgeting Log.
Spend at least an hour today on budgeting. Store your work in the Making Money section
of your Plan Binder. Tomorrow, we will continue working on your budget.
e budgeting process may make you aware of other projects and to do’s that need to
be addressed in your business. Keep your Master To-Do List handy…and jot those items
down so that you won’t forget about them.
More Help with Budgeting!
How Much Should I Charge? – Pricing Basics for Making Money Doing What You Love, by me, will
take you step by step through the budgeting process. You learn how to use your budget to
come up with a selling price. Find the book at www.barebonesbiz.com. We’ll work together in
real time to answer your budgeting questions.
74 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Today you’ll integrate your budgeting work with the Setting Sight and
Building the Team sections of The Bare Bones Biz Plan. And you’ll
use your budget to create your pricing strategy.
Apollo 13 and Budgeting
Did you see the movie “Apollo 13”? ree astronauts take o for the
moon. ey put together a plan and laid out the space coordinates.
Kaboom! Li-o! And stu happened. Pieces of the ship fell o, and
the capsule ran low on oxygen. ey circled the moon but realized they
couldn’t land on it, or they wouldn’t make it back to earth. So they
changed their plan. ey knew what they wanted, ideally: Land on the
moon, play some golf, take photos, hop in the spaceship and make it
back to earth…alive. As the game progressed, they adjusted their Goal
and decided that now the top priority was making it back to earth…
alive.
So they headed home. And they had a plan for making it back to
earth. ey had the exact coordinates. ey knew where they should be
every inch of they way. And they were on course less than one percent
of the time. ey were too far to the le or right or north or south, or
however one measures position in space. ey adjusted and overcor-
rected and kept at it until they plunked down in the ocean on Planet
Earth. Although the plan changed, without the plan, they might have
missed the target altogether.
at’s why you create a budget. Budgeting is an ongoing process. It’s
a cycle….Set Goals, play the game, keep score, make decisions based
on the score, change you behaviors, revise your Goals, play the game
again.
Check Your Budget Exercise
When you have put your budget together, give yourself a pat on the
back. Now…let’s check your work. Does your budget t in with the rest
of the work you have done building your Plan Binder and assembling
your business plan?
Day 13
Wednesday’s Coaching Lesson: Bare Bones Budgeting Basics > Part Two
“You don’t get paid by the
hour. You get paid for the
value you bring to an hour.”
~ Jim Rohn
Week Three: Making Money A 75
Go through the Setting Sight section of your Plan Binder and check your budget against
your Mission and Vision. Does the budget support your Mission and move you toward
your Vision? Review your Values. Does your budget match up? Suppose one of your
Values is to provide a family-friendly work environment. You may choose to include child-
care services as an expense in your budget.
Look over your list of Goals. Is the sales line of the budget in agreement with what you
wrote on your Goals list? If not, adjust one or the other…or both.
Review your Position Descriptions. Does your budget support the compensation you
are oering your employees and yourself? In your budget, have you accounted for all the
people who work with you?
Review and rene the forms in your Plan Binder. Make adjustments. e Setting Sight
and Building the Team sections of your business plan should agree with your budget.
Adjust the sales line on your budget to ensure that sales minus expenses delivers your
Goal for prots.
Check your budget to ensure that:
Your budgeted sales Goal will support your intended expenses and your A
desired prots.
The budget agrees with the rest of your business plan. A
Now, let’s use your budget to help you create your selling price.
TIP►
Once you’ve
crafted a
Budget, go
back to the
Executive
Summary in
the Setting
Sight section.
Rene the
paragraph
about
how your
extraordinary
business
makes
money!
Pricing Exercise
It’s easy to make money. All you need to do is charge more than it costs. Sales minus ex-
penses equals prots.
Simply put, the formula for creating your selling price is this: Divide your sales Goal by
the number of widgets you can sell. at’s your selling price per widget. For service work,
divide your sales Goal by the number of hours, or days, you can sell. at’s your selling
price per hour, or per day, of service time.
Refer to your budget and crunch the numbers. The Bare Bones Biz Budgeting Program
will automatically calculate your selling price per hour of service time. You can also play
out dierent computations with pencil and paper.
Let’s look at a simple example using See More Blinds, Inc. e budgeted monthly sales
Goal is $120,000. On average, one month has 22 days of available work time…days avail-
able to sell, deliver and install window coverings.
$120,000 divided by 22 days divided by 2 installation crews = $2,727
Two installed sales per day, at an average sale of $2,727, will oat the boat.
Note that this is just a simplied example! You need to crunch the numbers for YOUR
business to come up with a reasonable selling price. How Much Should I Charge? – Pricing
76 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Basics for Making Money Doing What You Love is a terric book for explaining…in de-
tail…how to create a budget and use it to support your selling price. If you haven’t read it,
do yourself a favor. Find it at www.barebonesbiz.com.
Also, note that this selling price for See More Blinds, Inc., will work IF the rest of the
expenses and percentages fall in line. And IF the Salespeople are able to close enough
calls to schedule two installations per day. As you move forward in time, you’ll check your
performance weekly. You can make adjustments to your budget, your pricing, your busi-
ness plan, as needed.
Spend some time today working through several pricing strategies for your company.
You’ll probably discover that your selling price needs to be higher… maybe a lot high-
er…than your competition. Remember, nine out of 10 business owners are driving toward
the cli. ey don’t know better because they don’t look at their nancial reports. ey
may be deeply in debt or going out of business. Calculate your selling price from your
budget. Don’t copy your competition!
To compete with lower prices competitors, you’ll have to get creative.
Business is a lot
more fun when
you are willing
to charge more
than it costs.
Leverage Your USP.
Learn how to sell value instead of price. Become so much better than your competitors at
what you do and how you do it that your clients will be happy to pay your prices. Your cus-
tomers have gotten so used to poor service that it isn’t even dicult to be extraordinary. Be
polite. Show up clean and on time, and you will blow away most of your competitors.
What’s your Unique Selling Proposition? How can you deliver it so well that your cus-
tomers are delighted to pay more for your products and services?
Leverage Your Time with Products and Information.
If your business is limited to skilled services, you are going to have to charge enough
money per hour to cover all expenses and make a prot. Your skills are valuable and your
time is limited. Let your budget be your guide and price accordingly.
No matter how much you charge per hour, you still only have a limited number of
hours per day per service provider. ink about ways to leverage your time…with prod-
ucts and information.
Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is considered one of the greatest business
leaders in history. If you want Jack to speak at your local chamber of commerce event, he
would charge you about $50,000…if he had room for you on his schedule. If you wanted
to visit with Jack personally to ask for his business advice, the price would be much higher.
But you can buy Jack’s book, Jack – Straight from the Gut, for about $24. Jack leveraged his
time by selling his advice in book form. And he sold millions of books!
Is there a way to deliver what you do or know without oering your time? Consider
writing what you know and selling that information in books, magazines or on the
Week Three: Making Money A 77
Internet. Can you create a DVD or videotape that teaches others how to do the wonder-
ful things that you do? Can you develop a product line that supports your services? For
instance, See More Blinds, Inc., could sell “mini-blind duster mitts” along with installed
window coverings.
Most business owners never put any thought into their pricing! Most of them call their
competitors, assume a fake voice, ask how much they charge…then charge just about the
same thing. Most small businesses fail! You can’t win by blindly following the competi-
tion. Good for you for taking a fresh look at your pricing.
Summarize your pricing decisions on the Pricing form. If you have decided to add new
products or services, make adjustments to your budget for sales and expenses. Put the
form in the Making Money section of your Plan Binder. Reect on your experiences and
jot your thoughts down in your Journal.
is is the budgeting process: Set Goals, play the game, keep score, make decisions based
on the score, change you behaviors, revise your Goals, play the game again. Tomorrow,
we’ll introduce a wonderful way to help you match budgeted Goals to actual performance
on a weekly basis.
Next week, we will spend time in the Getting it Sold section of The Bare Bones Biz
Plan. You’ll lay out your plan for marketing and selling your wonderful products and
services…at the right price.
Bootstrap
As you put together your budget, you may need some money to get your
business started. The technical term is start-up capital. When you borrow
this money from someone, or from a bank, it’s called venture capital. You are
best served by borrowing as little as possible to start your company. Even if
you have a billion dollars, or access to a billion dollars, create a business plan
that depends on sales income to cover expenses right out of the gate. It will
discipline you to operate in a responsible, frugal manner. Pull yourself up by
your bootstraps! Count on yourself and your business to grow through the
sale of your goods and services.
78 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document
Pricing Strategy
See More Blinds and Window Coverings, Inc. Updated
BUDGETED SALES GOAL PRICING STRATEGY THAT WILL HELP YOU REACH YOUR GOAL
$120,000 per month divided by 22 work days per month = $5,455 A
Each two-person installation team can do one See More Home Renewal A
installation per day.
Our selling price for the See More Home Renewal package will be $2,727 A
HOW DOES THIS COMPARE TO YOUR COMPETITORS’ PRICING STRATEGIES? A
In-A-Blind, Inc., oers a similar package for $1,999. A
However, In-A-Blind does not oer our lifetime warranty and cleaning service. A
Week Three: Making Money A 79
Day 14
Thursday’s Coaching Lesson: The Financial Quick Check
Today you’ll learn a simple way to take the pulse of your company
by reviewing a one-page report: e Financial Quick Check. is
powerful report is a weekly summary of the few numbers that make all
the dierence to the success of your business.
Financial Statements – The “Reader’s Digest” Version
When I rst learned how to read and use nancial reports, I would
assemble the information to show my partner and husband, Hot Rod,
how we were doing. I’d cover his desk with pages and pages of nancial
reports. His eyes would glaze over.
One day he sighed and said, “I really hate this. I’m glad you know
what this means, but I can’t take all this information. Can you just show
me the few numbers that make all the dierence in our company? Can
you give me the ‘Reader’s Digest’version?” Hmmmm. Hot Rod was
onto something.
When it comes right down to it, there are only a few numbers that
make all the dierence. If there is a problem with one of the critical
numbers, you can dig deeper and get more information. If you were to
watch the critical numbers at your company, you would have a pretty
good idea of what is going on. You would know for certain whether or
not you are making money. You would know if you are going to have
enough money to cover payroll.
Gail Gudell is a professional organizer and bookkeeper, par excel-
lence! She is also my sister and in charge of Making Money at Bare
Bones Biz. Gail started working with us many years ago and is one of
the reasons Hot Rod and I didn’t kill each other in our early years of
working together. Gail and I sat down, determined to put the few num-
bers that make all the dierence on a single sheet of paper. is is what
we came up with. (anks, Gail!)
Notice a group of TIP►
grade school kids playing
a game at the park. They
will keep score. It’s more
fun when you do. The
Financial Quick Check is
the Company Scorecard.
There is always something
you can do to improve
the score.
Financial Quick Check Exercise
is simple, powerful form summarizes the most important nancial
information from the Balance Sheet and Income Statement. Take a look
at the Financial Quick Check form. You can print and use this form as
“When we change the models
in our mind, we change
the results in our life.”
~Mark Victor Hansen
80 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
is, or download a customizable version at www.barebonesbiz.com. It’s included in e
Complete Suite on the Buy Stu page.
Understand that you have to be at a KFP to successfully use the Financial Quick
Check.
If your accounting program allows you to assemble a neat, consolidated report like
this, that’s cool. However, we still recommend that you or your bookkeeper manually
enter your nancial information into the Financial Quick Check Form. at “manual
moment” causes you to confront the data. It will help you stay at a KFP. You’ll be able to
nd and x mistakes so much easier when you are checking the nancial information on
a weekly basis. And the Quick Check will help you break out of denial if denial is keeping
you from charging the proper selling price.
I recommend lling out this form every week. Have it on your desk by noon on Monday
for the previous week.
To complete the form, print your current Balance Sheet and Income Statement reports.
Summarize the critical numbers from those reports on the Financial Quick Check form.
Time Period
is form is set up to compare a period of time – I recommend lling this form out weekly
– to the Year To Date (YTD) totals. List the budgeted information for the same period of
time. Now you can compare actual performance to budgeted Goals.
Note the percentage columns. Numbers vary from day to day and week to week.
Percentages present a clearer picture of trends and performance. By tracking critical num-
bers as a percentage of sales, you can assess data from dierent time periods. is makes
it easy to see if you are on track…or way o.
Ratios
e Cash Flow Ratio matches cash and accounts receivable against current accounts pay-
able. If you have $20,000 in cash, $40,000 in accounts receivable and $30,000 in accounts
payable, your Cash Flow Ratio is:
$20,000 + $40,000 =$60,000 = 2 to 1
$30,000 $30,000
In other words, for every dollar of bills you have to pay, you have two dollars in cash and
accounts receivable with which to pay it. is is helpful data! Keep in mind that if your
accounts receivable are more than 60 days old, you probably won’t collect all of them.
Recalculate this ratio using 30-days-or-younger accounts receivable to be conservative.
e beauty of knowing this ratio is that it will motivate you to collect your accounts
receivable. Also, stop the work-now-bill-later madness! A collect-on-delivery sales policy
Week Three: Making Money A 81
will dramatically improve this ratio…and your cash position.
Use the Data to Make Decisions.
e nancial information tells you the score. e numbers tell you what is happening, but
not why it is happening. If a dollar amount or a percentage is o, investigate. It may be an
accounting mistake. If not, look into what’s happening to cause that score. en gure out
how to make it better.
Suppose sales are less than anticipated for this week. You could initiate a sales contest
and oer performance awards to your sales team. You could call people on your customer
list and oer a special product. And you could hold o on buying that new coee pot until
next week. Make sense? Take action to increase sales and maintain protability with the
sales you have right now. You can act quickly because you are operating from a KFP.
Remember to think like a watermelon. If your sales amount is too skinny, it’s harder
to make a prot. Get the top line where it needs to be. Certainly, you can look for ways to
better manage expenses. Address the dierences between budget and actual performance
throughout the company. But understand that the top line – sales – has to be big enough
to cover all the costs of doing business, including reasonable compensation and benets
for you and your employees. Get the top line to budgeted Goal level, and lots of problems
go away.
Customize Forms for Your Company.
Feel free to customize this form to best suit your company. You might want to create a
form like this for each division at your company. You could customize a form like this to
keep track of a big project. You could add numbers for callbacks, customer complaints,
compliments or safety violations. Keep it simple and real. Be consistent with your tracking.
Produce this report every week and you will sleep better every night. is is a vital part
of your ongoing system for operating at a KFP.
Keep the most current copy of the Financial Quick Check in your Plan Binder under
the Making Money section. You may choose to include a current Year to Date actual per-
formance matched to Year to Date budget version of this form in your Plan Binder, too.
e Financial Quick Check is an easy way for you to keep score…and stay at a KFP. When
you show your Plan Binder to your Board of Advisors, your investors, or bankers, the
Financial Quick Check makes it easy for them to see what’s happening at your company.
Tomorrow, we will discuss Open Book Management and how to help your employees
develop their nancial literacy. You can use the Financial Quick Check form to teach your
employees nancial basics. Use it to show them why you need to charge what you charge.
Too much nancial information can be overwhelming; this form is just the right size.
82 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document
Bare Bones Biz Plan Building the Team 82Bare Bones Biz Plan Week Three – Making Money! 82
Financial Quick Check
SALES
SALES - Service
SALES - Construction
SALES - Coupons & Discounts
SALES - Customer Refunds
SALES - Subcontractors - Other Trades
SALES - Total
DIRECT COSTS (COGS)
COGS - Materials - Service
COGS - Direct Labor - Service
COGS - Materials - Construction
COGS - Direct Labor - Construction
COGS - Permits
COGS - Equipment Rental
COGS - Subcontractors - Our trades
COGS - Cash Discounts Taken
DIRECT COSTS (COGS) - Total
GROSS PROFIT/GROSS MARGIN
OPERATING EXPENSES (OVERHEAD)
NET PROFIT
TOTAL PAYROLL
TOTAL PAYROLL AS A % OF SALES
CASH FLOW and QUICK RATIO
Total Avaliable Cash from Checking & Savings
Accounts Receivable
Total (A)
Accounts Payable (B)
Cash Flow (A) - (B)
Ratio (A) / (B)
COMPARED TO
Budget/Goal
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ -
____%
____ to 1
Month
To Date
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ -
____%
$ -
$ -
$ -
$ -
$ -
____ to 1
COMPARED TO
Year to Date
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
$ - ____%
0
____%
TIME PERIOD: __________________ PREPARED BY: __________________________
Week Three: Making Money A 83
Toss It, File It or Keep It in Your Plan Binder?
Each week, you’ll go through your Plan Binder and update it. Keep the most
current copy of each of the forms, checklists, budgets and nancial reports.
When you update it, decide what to le and what to throw out. Pack rats, listen
up! You can streamline your oce and your life if you throw out stu you won’t
look at again. For ling help, we heartily recommend a ling system called
The Paper Tiger. GREAT tutorial on the keep-or-toss question…and a sure-
re system for nding anything you choose to keep in ve seconds or less. I
use this system at Bare Bones Biz, Inc., and I don’t waste any time looking for
things. Find The Paper Tiger at www.thepapertiger.com.
84 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
To open the books means to share real nancial data with your team.
Today we’ll teach you how to open the books and let your employ-
ees in on the game.
What’s the big secret about nancial reports? Why do businesspeo-
ple treat the nancial reports as if they were CIA Top Secret Classied
information? Why are we so sensitive about the data?
e answer is because the numbers tell the truth. Sure, you can wear
a fancy suit and sit at the head table at your chamber of commerce
dinner meeting. But the numbers will tell if you are really winning or
losing the business game. You can say that your employees are your top
priority, but the numbers will tell if you spend any money on them. e
numbers and the dollars tell the score.
The Great Game of Business
It doesn’t make sense to ask people to play a game with you and then
withhold the score from them. Won’t it make the game more fun if
everyone knows the score?
Give your team a great game to play. is week you have raised your
prices to support your Goals. Unless you share your nancial reasons
for raising your prices, your team might think you are just being greedy.
Employees sometimes think that 100% of the dierence between what
they are paid and what you charge ends up in your pockets. is is a
good time to open the books.
Open-Book Kick-O Exercise
Schedule a meeting with your team to share your plan and sell them on
your new prices. Bring your Plan Binder to the meeting.
Start with an overview of e Bare Bones Biz Plan. Let your team
know that you are committed to creating a great company. Recite your
Mission and Vision. Read through your list of Values. Flip through the
Plan Binder and show them how you are building your business plan.
ank them for their help.
Day 15
Friday’s Coaching Lesson: Open the Books — Bare Bones Business Literacy for All
“Life is a game. A game
consists of freedom,
barriers and purposes.”
~ L. Ron Hubbard
Week Three: Making Money A 85
Show them what goes into the selling price. On a dry-erase board or ip chart, list all
the expenses that need to be covered by your price. Show them what’s in it for them…
benets, education, vacation, retirement, and salaries betting employees of their caliber.
Show them what is in the price for the customers’ benet… top-grade equipment, quality
products and services, community contributions. Professional and ethical business prac-
tices require money. Show your employees your justication for the selling price, because
if they don’t buy your prices, neither will your customers.
Your employees may or may not be interested in the numbers. For those who are in-
terested, oer to go into detail in one-on-one nancial education sessions. For those who
don’t want more detail, your willingness to share the data is enough. It builds trust.
Be worth it. If you are going to be more expensive than your competitors, you are go-
ing to have to be a lot better than they are. Let your team know that’s why you have been
cleaning the place up. Show them what’s in your budget for upgrading your vehicles and
equipment, creating a formal training program, etc. Discuss how you can do more for
your employees and your customers in every area of the company.Let them know that you
value them…and feel good about charging a premium price for the products and services
that they deliver.
Let them know you will hold them accountable, and teach them the skills to win. Your
employees will better understand the need for good data if they see how you use the data
to establish selling prices. You need to know if the numbers and dollars built into your
prices are going to cut it in the real world. You need to keep score.
You also need to know how much they are selling (or not selling). Based on your bud-
get, you need so much in sales each day, week, month, and year. Let them know that next
week, you will be introducing Scorecards so that they can help you gather good data. ey
probably won’t be super-excited about more paperwork. However, the information is es-
sential. Without it, you are driving blind.
Keeping score will also help you help your employees. How are they doing in sales,
productivity, call-backs, customer complaints? If you know the score, you can help them
get better. Perhaps the best part of playing a great game is helping willing team members
become winners.
As you wrap up this week, remember to jot down any to do’s and projects on your
Master To-Do List. And use your Journal to record any insights gained from your adven-
tures this week.
Your Weekend Homework
At this point in e Bare Bones Biz Plan, you have confronted the numbers and dollars
and, more than likely, signicantly raised your prices. Congratulations! You and your
86 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Read The Great Game of
Business
Get to know Jack Stack, the author of The
Great Game of Business and the poster child
for the Open Book Management (OBM)
movement. Learn more about opening the
books at www.greatgame.com.
team will make more money!
One of the best things about money is the joy of giving it away! Money is meant to ow,
to energize and to enliven that which it touches.
Don’t wait until you have plenty of money to start giving it away. at’s backwards.
Give, and you shall receive. Financial management guru Suze Orman puts it this way:
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I now know the following principle is true: We
experience prosperity, true nancial freedom, when our actions with respect to
money are dharmic, or righteous, actions – that is, actions of generosity, actions of
oering.
I knew I always felt better right aer I made an oering – stronger, worthier, more
powerful. And aer a while I began to believe that it was no coincidence that aer I
made such an oering, more money would always begin to ow my way.
Make giving a part of your corporate culture. is weekend, nd a community project
that warms your heart. Determine a dollar amount or a percentage of sales that you will
commit to the project on a monthly basis. Build your contributions into your budget.
Let everyone who works with you in on the power, the magic, the wonderful feeling that
comes from giving to those in need.
www.BareBonesBiz.com
877.629.7647
Week
Four:
Getting
it Sold
88 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
The Bare-Bones most important part of business is sales. Every area
of your business, all of your planning, all of your systems, should
support sales.
Does that make you uncomfortable?
Salesphobia:
1. A compulsive and persistent dread of or aversion to sales.
2.Any strong aversion or dislike of sales.
Sales is the name of the game. “Salesphobia” is a fatal disease. If you
or someone on your team suers from salesphobia, it will absolutely
kill your business. Luckily, the condition is curable. In today’s lesson,
you’ll learn the causes of salesphobia. en we’ll start you on the road
to recovery.
“My name is Ellen, and I am a recovering salesphobic.”
Once upon a time, I exposed my salesphobia during a planning ses-
sion with one of my clients. We were working together to develop a
curriculum for the service managers’ training program. One of the
other committee members said, “e service manager has only one re-
sponsibility: sales. e service manager needs to look at every situation
he encounters and ask, ‘Is this helping or hindering sales?’”
Certainly, the technical aspects of the job were as important as sales.
What about making sure the service trucks were in top shape? What
about safety issues?
I argued, “Money isn’t the only thing, you know. ere’s more to a
business than making sales.”
His head whipped around. He took a deep breath and replied,
“Unless a sale happens, none of those other things will happen. Sales
have to be the top priority. Ellen, what is your problem with sales? I’m
not talking about selling people things they don’t need. I am talking
about solving problems and charging a reasonable price. You’ve got an
issue with sales. And you need to get over it.”
He was right. Sales is the game. at confrontation knocked some
sense into me. Certainly, I am not the only one eligible for a 12-step
Day 16
Monday’s Coaching Lesson: Overcoming “Salesphobia”
“Keep your focus on sales.
If the top line is right,
managing your business is
easy. If the top line is too low,
everything is a struggle.”
~ George Barnett
Week Four: Getting It Sold A 89
program for recovering salesphobics. In his fabulous book How To Sell At Margins Higher
an Your Competitors, Lawrence L. Steinmetz makes this observation:
Many salespeople really don’t like selling. In fact, a lot of salespeople think selling is just
a notch above ambulance chasing. e truth is, more than 40 percent of the salespeople
I’ve tested fundamentally don’t approve of selling – and my educated guess is that about
90 percent of our total population doesn’t approve of selling.
If salespeople don’t approve of selling, and if 90% of all people don’t approve of sell-
ing,…no wonder so many businesses fail!
Are You a Wimp About Sales?
You may dislike sales because you’ve had bad sales experiences. Have you ever been
hounded by the car salesman who won’t stop asking, “What will it take to earn your busi-
ness today?” Have you ever been assaulted with a spray of cologne while walking through
a department store?
As a result, you’ve learned to hate sales and cringe at the thought of being a salesperson.
But there is a paradox here. e things you don’t like about sales are things that don’t work in
sales. You don’t like pushy salespeople. You know what? Pushy salespeople don’t make many
sales. You hate it when salespeople lie. Well, liars don’t make a second sale, which shortens
their careers in sales. Fears about sales are founded in behaviors that don’t create sales!
And there’s the fear of rejection. You don’t want to ask someone to buy and have them
say no. To be successful, you must transcend this fear. If you or a team member is a
salesphobic, you better get on the road to recovery.
Overcoming Salesphobia Exercise
Today’s exercise is to become aware of sabotaging, salesphobic thoughts and actions in
your company. Review these points to increase your sales appreciation.
Recall purchases that made you happy. AToday, you’ve bought power, water,
sewer, Internet service, phone service, fuel…without even thinking about it.
Because it’s so convenient, you agree to have these basic goods and services
constantly delivered. Think about your ongoing purchases. Over time, with
nancing, you’re buying your car and your house. During a month’s time, you’ve
bought food, clothes, entertainment, education, haircuts, vitamins, school
yearbooks, family outings. Fun stu! Wonderful purchases. Without sales, you
would spend all day every day gathering food and water and obtaining basic
clothing and shelter.
Realize the connection between sales and world peace. A Good sales are good
trading practices. Good sales allow you to focus your energies on your skills and
talents and oer them to the world in exchange for money. Then you can oer
that money to others to secure their livelihoods while beneting from their skills
and talents. Good sales build solid communities and our best chance at world
peace. Certainly, governmental distribution of goods and services is a poor
substitute for free-market trade.
90 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Understand that without sales, you are out of business. AIt’s easy to go out of
business. It’s easy to lose money in business. Either way, you do a disservice to
yourself, your employees and your customers. As a protable business owner,
you are a pillar of society. As a losing business owner, you are a burden to
society.
Promise never to sell anything your customers don’t need or want. A Does
that make you breathe easier? Good sales and good customer service go hand
in hand. Oer customers your best, and ask them if they would like to buy.
Good sales feel good to everyone involved. Sales expert Bill Stiles says, “Think of
yourself as your customer’s assistant buyer. Your customer has a problem. Oer
solutions. Help solve the problem.”
Accept that people want to buy from you! AReview your Unique Selling
Proposition. Aren’t your customers better o if they BUY?
Now, get out there and sell
Let people know about your great business. Today, and every day this week, you and each
of your employees will…
Deliver 10 Elevator Speeches. A Find 10 people, preferably strangers, and
deliver your Elevator Speech. Hand out your business card, too. Watch for their
reactions. Do they react positively? Do they look bored or confused? Do they
laugh? Review your USP and revamp your Elevator Speech until it causes people
to respond with, “That sounds interesting. Tell me more.” Ask them what business
they are in. Listen. Share an authentic human moment.
is exercise will expose any salesphobia at your company. Discover the sales-lovers on
your team. Uncover the salesphobics. You are going to help them overcome their fears. Or
they are going to “get o the bus.” Tomorrow we will lay out a Bare-Bones basic system for
creating a sales-focused company.
e game is SALES. It is an honorable game. Good for you for playing!
You may want to update your Elevator Speeches in the Setting Sight section of your
Plan Binder. Also, keep assembling ideas, to do’s and projects on the Master To-Do List.
We will work on organization and strategies for Getting it Done next week.
Week Four: Getting It Sold A 91
Day 17
TUESDAY’S COACHING LESSON: CREATING A SALES-FOCUSED COMPANY
Today, you’ll learn about sales management, and you’ll start assem-
bling the Getting it Sold section of your Plan Binder.
Growing a sales-focused culture doesn’t just happen. It requires the
intention to deliver your Unique Selling Proposition. It requires pay-
ing attention to sales and making sure all systems support the ow of
products and services to your customers. It takes sales management. A
solid sales management program includes accountability for sales, sales
training, and honor and recognition for sales success.
Salesperson Scorecards.
To play the game, you need to keep score. e Salesperson Scorecard
imposes accountability for sales. Implementing this form will increase
sales and performance at your company. Take a look at the sample
Salesperson Scorecard in this book. You can download a customizable
version of the Salesperson Scorecard at www.barebonesbiz.com on
the Buy Stu page. (Bare Bones Biz’ Shauna created the Excel form. It
keeps a running total of the Salesperson’s performance all year. anks,
Shauna!)
Every person who holds the Position of Salesperson on your
Organization Chart lls out a Salesperson Scorecard on a daily basis. If
you hold the Position, even on an infrequent basis, you must play by the
rules and ll out your Scorecard. As the owner, you lead by example.
Print a blank form for each Salesperson…one Scorecard per week.
Every day, each Salesperson will ll out his or her score for that day.
is form is lled out manually. is is essential. is “manual mo-
ment” ensures that the Salesperson confronts his or her performance.
Right-stu people like accountability. Sales-focused salespeople want
to know the score and where they stand.
Note the Sales Goal and Close-Rate Goal boxes on the Salesperson
Scorecard. ose Goals come from your budget. If you completed
the Bare Bones Biz Budgeting spreadsheets, you can pull those Goals
from your budget. If you completed the Baby Budget, use the Pricing
Exercise from Day irteen to help you create your Daily and Weekly
“at which you recognize,
you energize.”
~ Mark Victor Hansen
92 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Sales Goals. Individual Sales Goals come from dividing your total Sales Goals by the num-
ber of Salespeople on the team.
If you are not yet comfortable with your budget, skip the Goals columns for now and
just start gathering the actual performance information. You can add that later. We’ll re-
mind you to do that in Week Six. Ultimately, sales performance must be measured against
sales Goals.
Here’s the best part about the Scorecards: You can identify those who need help…and
help them. And you can identify those who are doing great and reward them.
Sales Training
If you are going to keep score, you must commit to helping people improve their scores.
To keep score and not oer Sales Training is just mean. To oer Sales Training and not
keep score…well, how will you know if your Sales Training is working?
e numbers on the Salesperson Scorecard are a reection of the Salesperson’s perfor-
mance. e numbers are inuenced by what he is doing, and how she is behaving with
your customers. Are there behaviors that, if performed on each and every sales opportu-
nity, would positively impact those numbers? Yes!
For instance, we know that Salespeople who develop personal relationships with their
customers sell more than those who don’t. What are a few behaviors that help create those
relationships? Establishing eye contact, wearing a clean uniform, using polite speech and
remembering to say “please” and “thank you.” Sales Training is teaching behaviors that
help Salespeople be more successful.
Perhaps you are already a great Salesperson. Or maybe you have some great Salespeople
on your team. Formal Sales Training gives you and your team a common language with
which you can speak, learn and teach good sales behaviors.
ere is an endless supply of great Sales Training products on the market. Tomorrow’s
Coaching Lesson is about incorporating a formal Sales Training program into your com-
pany. It is an essential component of your sales management program.
Sales That Feel Good
As I mentioned yesterday, good sales feel good. Those are the only kind of sales to make.
Understand that we are not interested in sales at any cost or using unethical techniques to
deliver sales. Good sales feel good to you, your team and your customers. Stay focused on sales
that feel good. Your sales eorts must support your Mission, your Vision and your Values.
Week Four: Getting It Sold A 93
Sales Meetings
Starting today, you are going to have a weekly Sales Meeting. Only positive, sales-focused
topics are presented in this meeting. e intent: to recognize and celebrate Sales.
Ideas for Sales Meeting topics:
Recap of great Sales performance from the previous week A
Sales Training sessions A
Elevator Speech practice A
Sales Contest results A
Recognize Top Sales. A
Introduce new products and services. A
Role Play sales situations. A
Share sales compliments from customers. A
Listen to a sales training tape, and then discuss. A
Read a chapter from a sales training book. A
Watch sales training videotapes. A
Invite “guest star” salespeople from other companies. A
Make it fun! Good sales feel good…to customers and salespeople. e Sales Meeting
should be a fun, safe, energizing gathering to honor good Sales and salesmanship.
Enthusiastically applaud all eorts to share and participate in the activities and training.
Limit the agenda to Sales only.
e Sales Meeting is NOT an arena for attacking your team for poor performance. As
a general meeting rule, praise anywhere and everywhere, discipline in private. Keep the
Sales Meeting upbeat and positive. (Next week you’ll learn more about meetings in the
Getting it Done section of e Bare Bone Biz Plan.)
e Salesperson Scorecards, Sales Training and Sales Meeting are three components of
a comprehensive sales management program and will help you to develop the Getting it
Sold section of your Bare Bones Biz Plan.
Exercise: Hold a Sales Meeting
Today, you will hold a Sales Meeting. Schedule an hour with your Salespeople.
Host this meeting even if the team includes just you and one other person. Act as if you
have an army of salespeople, and you soon may.
Let them know that their actual performance will impact your budget, the Sales A
Goals and Close-Rate Goals. Do your best to communicate how all areas of your
94 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
business are dependent on one another. You have been crafting your
business plan to the best of your ability. Now you need their help, their
data, to rene your budget and business plan.
Let them know that by keeping score, you can help those who need A
help and reward those who are performing well.
Share your intention to develop a bonus plan for exceeding sales A
Goals. To do that, you will need a month or two of Scorecard
information and nancial information.
Announce your commitment to Sales Training. Ask for their sales A
program suggestions. (Tomorrow you will research your Sales Training
program.)
If you have personally struggled with salesphobia, share your story. A
Promise to help them get over any salesphobia that they may have.
Wrap up with an announcement of the day and time for each week’s A
Sales Meeting.
Plan to meet individually with each Salesperson to go over his or her Scorecard.
You may discover some resistance. Suppose Rocco complains about the paper-
work. Stand rm. It may be salesphobia rearing its ugly head. Let him know
that you need this information and that you are committed to his success as a
Salesperson.
Make sure each Salesperson understands the form and can demonstrate how
to ll it out. Jot this reminder down in your Master To-Do List.
Each Salesperson should keep copies of his or her Scorecards to track prog-
ress. On Monday of each week, the person in charge of bookkeeping should
assemble the updated Year To Date Scorecards. Keep the most current copy of
this form in your Plan Binder in the Getting it Sold section.
Store a copy of your most recent Sales Meeting Agenda in your Plan Binder
in the Getting it Sold Section. Congratulations on your progress toward estab-
lishing a sales management system at your company!
Like all TIP►
my forms, you
can customize
the Salesperson
Scorecard for
your company.
Incorporate your
lingo and any Sales
statistics unique to
your business. Don’t
get fancy - keep it
simple!
The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 95
Sales Meeting Agenda Sample Document
Updated
Open with a reading of your Mission and your Vision.
Deliver your Elevator Speech.
Call on someone to give his or her Elevator Speech.
Recap today’s lesson. Let them know you are committed to their success and to
creating a customer-focused, sales-focused culture.
Introduce the Salesperson Scorecard.
Pass out blank Scorecards and go over how to ll them out.
96 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document
Sales Scorecard Sample Document
NAME:
DAILY SALES GOAL: $
WEEKLY SALES GOAL: $
CLOSE RATE GOAL: %
FOR THE WEEK ENDING:
Sample Document Sales Scorecard
NAME: ____________________________________________________
DAILY SALES GOAL: $ ______________________
WEEKLY SALES GOAL: $ ____________________
CLOSE RATE GOAL: % ______________________
FOR THE WEEK ENDING: ____________________
Day
# of
Sales
Calls
Run
# of
Sales
Calls
Closed
Actual Close
Rate (calls
closed/calls
run)
+ or -
Close
Rate
Goal
Actual
Sales
+ or –
Sales Goal
(Actual
Sales
– Sales
Goal)
Average
Invoice
(Actual Sales/
Closed Calls)
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Bare Bones Biz Plan Week Four – Getting it Sold! 97
Week Four: Getting It Sold A 97
As part of your business plan, you must outline the basic Sales
Training program you will use to help your team make good sales.
Sales Training is teaching people the skills they need to serve custom-
ers, help them solve their customers’ problems and satisfy their needs.
Review your Target Market and USP in the Setting Sight section of your
Plan Binder. Sales Training is about building better behaviors so that
you can deliver your USP. Sales Training is not a pep talk. We suggest
you skip the pep talk! Condence comes from one source: sales suc-
cess. Teach your Salespeople skills to help them be successful.
On our Sample Organization Chart for See More Blinds, Inc., Suki
is the Sales Manager. She is the one responsible for sales management,
including Sales Training. As the owner of a sales-focused company,
you would work closely with your Sales Manager to develop your Sales
Training program.
Sales Training Basics
Your Sales Training program should include:
Salesperson Scorecards A
A standard Sales Process A
Group training at your weekly Sales Meeting A
Seminars and workshops, local and out-of-town sales training A
events
Individual coaching A
One-to-one meetings with each Salesperson to review his or A
her Scorecard and to work on sales-skill development
Following the Salesperson in the eld or in the shop to assess A
and improve performance
Let’s address the Sales Process. e Sales Process is a description of
the steps involved to transforming prospective customers into happy
purchasers. You could create your own Sales Process. Our suggestion:
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Find a well-known professional sales trainer
Day 18
WEDNESDAY’S COACHING LESSON: SALES TRAINING BASICS
“We are all salesmen every
day of our lives. We are selling
our ideas, our plans, our
enthusiasms to those with
whom we come in contact.”
~ Charles Schwab
98 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
and “adopt” his or her program. Incorporate its language and Sales Process into your Sales
Training Program.
Understand that this Sales Trainer is only required to visit your shop in the form of
tapes, books and videos. You may choose to arrange for private consulting at your com-
pany, or to attend a live Sales Training session. However, it is not required. You are inter-
ested in the sales materials and the sales language. e “adopted” Sales Trainer supports
your company’s Sales Trainer: the Sales Manager.
The Sales Process
Every Sales Trainer will have a similar Sales Process. Here are the Bare-Bones Basics of
every Sales Process:
Opening. Greet the customer and establish a relationship. A
Discovery. Ask good questions and listen closely to the customer. Look for needs A
and wants.
Problem solving. Present product and service options, and list the benets to the A
customer. Share your USP.
Closing. Ask for the sale…and the customer says “Yes!” A
Follow up. Reassure the customer about his or her purchase and oer additional A
products and services.
e Sales Process is what it is. However, each Sales Trainer has his take on the steps and
makes it his own by naming them. e Opening step may be called the Greeting or the
Introduction or Auditioning. e Discovery step might also be called Probing. e Sales
Trainer may add sub-steps, such as Trial Close, Objection Handling and Close.
The Frankenstein Factor
The main reason for adopting a Sales Trainer is that it will give you a standard
language, a standard Sales Process. Without it, you may create a Frankenstein
at your company. A Frankenstein describes a patched-together system
that uses dierent names for the same things. A Frankenstein may include
contradictory steps. It’s confusing!
Adopt a Sales Trainer Exercise
Find a Sales Trainer and sales program to “adopt” for your company. Go to Barnes and
Noble and look through the Sales Training section. Search for “sales training” on the
Internet. Call your Board of Advisors and ask for their recommendations. Listen closely
Week Four: Getting It Sold A 99
to recommendations from your team, particularly from high-produc-
ing Salespeople.
Do you belong to a progressive trade association in your industry?
Find out what Sales Training programs your trade association oers.
ey might have a wonderful, industry-specic Sales Training program
available as a member service.
Learn about dierent Sales Trainers. Read their books or listen to
their tapes. You’ll nd much of their content is the same. Find one
whose personality and philosophy align with your Mission, Vision and
Values. e behaviors outlined in his or her Sales Process should be
founded in basic good manners and respect. Pass on the programs with
a tightly scripted sales pitch. Look for a program that focuses on good
communication skills.
Be sure to “interview” a few of my favorite Sales Trainers:
Tom Hopkins A
Brian Tracy A
Jim Rohn A
Mark Victor Hansen A
Dale Carnegie A
Al Levi A
Dennis Waitley A
Je Gitomer A
Look into the product packages these trainers oer. Do they have books,
tapes, CDs, videos, workbooks, and seminars available?
en make the decision…and adopt a Sales Trainer.
Find the page called Sales Training Summary in this book. Fill it out,
and insert this page in the Getting it Sold section of your Plan Binder.
You might nd a page from your adopted trainer’s website or brochure
that oers a brief summary of the program. ree-hole punch the page
and place it in your Plan Binder.
Don’t forget to adjust your budget for travel and education expenses.
So far this week, the focus has been Sales. You’ve learned the Bare-
Bones Basics for creating a sales-management program and a sales-
focused culture. Next, you’ll turn your attention to Marketing.
The Most
Important Sales
Skill...is Listening!
Great Salespeople, no
matter what sales system
they use, always ask good
questions and listen to
the answers. Paul Swan
is “The Listening Coach”
and he is developing an
audio program to help
you become a better
listener. We’ll keep you
posted and announce the
release of this program at
www.barebonesbiz.com.
100 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document www.BareBonesBiz.com
Sales Training Program Summary Sample Document
Updated
Who is your adopted Sales Trainer?
What Sales Training products and services are available to support this program?
Describe how you will deliver Sales Training to your Salespeople. Include products,
services, time requirements, and dates.
Week Four: Getting It Sold A 101
Over the next two days, you’ll learn the Bare-Bones Basics of brand-
ing, marketing and publicity. And you’ll continue building the
Getting it Sold section of your Plan Binder.
Brand and Demand
Marketing has a two-fold purpose:
To build your brand A
To create demand for your products and services A
Your brand consists of your name, your logo and your message. Branding
is burning your name, logo and Unique Selling Proposition into the minds
of every person in your market. Branding takes time, but it takes less time
with a powerful brand. One that’s easy to remember. One that associates
your product with your customers’ needs and wants. In the short run, you
need customers demanding your products and services and creating sales
now. Becoming a great marketer takes energy, passion and a willingness
to experiment. A great marketer will do whatever needs to be done to get
the phone ringing and the shop crowded.
A great brand will help customers remember you and call you when
they are in the market for your products and services. A great brand
will multiply the impact of your marketing dollars.
Day 19
THURSDAY’S COACHING LESSON: BARE BONES MARKETING BASICS – PART 1 – BRANDING
Roy Williams is brilliant at Branding.
Check out www.wizardofads.com
Great Brand Examples
At this company, the name, logo and message are all the same thing:
Target. is is the place. Come right here. Buy this. Target sometimes
doesn’t even use words in its television commercials. But we under-
stand…we should go there!
Check out www.1800gotjunk.com. e company name, logo, phone
number and website address are the same. 1 800 Got Junk provides
junk removal services. e brand is catching on. And in the short
run, they get the phone ringing with television, billboard and radio
ads. And publicity. Every morning, members of the team put on bright
blue clown wigs, stand next to busy intersections and wave “1 800 Got
“Obstacles can’t stop you.
Problems can’t stop you. Most
of all, other people can’t stop
you. Only you can stop you.”
~ Jerey Gitomer, Author
102 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Brand Exam Exercise
Spend some time today reecting on your name, logo and USP. You’ve been working on
your Elevator Speech. If you have a great USP, you have the basis for a great Marketing
program and a great brand.
Now, consider your name.
Does it communicate your USP? A
Is it dicult to spell or pronounce? A
Does clever spelling keep people from nding it in the phone book? A
Does your name trigger good feelings about your company or your products? A
Does your name make your customers think of another company? A
Even if you are just starting your business, you have been calling it something. A
Should you run with what you have, or start over?
What about your logo? A
Does it support your USP? A
Are the colors easy to print and reproduce? A
Do the colors create positive feelings? A
Franchises and Branding
One of the best reasons to consider a franchise is the Brand.
Every dollar every other franchisee spends on marketing
leverages your brand. If you’re considering buying a franchise,
or if you’d like to franchise your business, explore the
International Franchise Association at www.franchise.org
Junk?” signs to passing motorists.
At Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, the Unique Selling Proposition is “the punctu-
al plumber.” Most folks don’t expect a plumber to show up on time. In fact, Benjamin
Franklin Plumbing promises, “If there’s a delay, it’s YOU we pay!” at gets customers’
attention …and it assures them that they won’t wait around all day for a plumber. at’s a
USP with real customer value.
Week Four: Getting It Sold A 103
Is the design powerful and memorable? A
Can your customers see only your logo and recognize it as your company? A
Here are the bare bones about your name, logo and USP: e passion you put into your
Marketing and publicity eorts can overcome a less-than-perfect brand. ere is no such
thing as a perfect brand. Yet a great brand could become your most valuable asset.
You can make yourself nuts with this.
Set a time limit. Pick a future date on your calendar, no more than a month or two
away. On that date, you will make a decision about your name, logo and USP. Between
then and now, commit to learning about branding.
Today, spend an hour thinking about your brand and expanding your branding educa-
tion. Consider the time, money and energy you will put into your branding strategy, and
cra a plan.
And when that day shows up on your calendar, make a decision about your name, logo
and USP. Commit to your brand. And run with it.
Test Your TOMA
If you have been in business a long time, you might check your TOMA before
you change your name. TOMA stands for Top Of Mind Awareness, and it is a
measure of the strength of your brand. T
TOMA, Inc., is a company that performs name awareness surveys. Its
employees will call people in your market area and ask them to name a
company who does what you do. For instance, “Name a fast food restaurant.”
Then they rank the results in order of strongest name awareness.
If 90% of the people in your market named your company in a TOMA
survey about your industry, then stick with the name you are using. You
are successfully branding your name into the minds of your customers and
marketplace. If 2% name your company, you have little to lose by creating a
new brand.
High TOMA survey scores are the result of a great brand and relentless
marketing. Learn more about TOMA surveys by calling 800.597.9798.
104 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Day 20
FRIDAY’S COACHING LESSON: BARE BONES MARKETING BASICS – PART 2 –
THE MARKETING PROCESS
Today, you’ll learn the basic steps of the Marketing Process and start
assembling your Marketing Calendar.
Here are the Bare-Bones Basics of the Marketing Process:
Assemble ideas. A List at least 101 ways to market and
publicize your business on your Master To-Do List.
Research expenses. A Find out what it costs for Yellow Pages
ads, radio, billboards, TV, newspaper, classied ads, printing
services, etc., for prospective marketing vehicles.
Research your competitors. ADiscover what they do well and
poorly. Find out what they oer and how much they charge.
Look for ways to be better, cleaner, nicer, smarter, faster, and
more polite.
Review and revise your budget. AAssess your actual sales and
expenses to budget. Adjust your budget and your marketing
eorts for the best eect with the fewest dollars.
Assemble the Marketing Calendar. AAssign marketing
vehicles to dates on the calendar.
Create your marketing vehicles. ACoordinate eorts with
graphic artists, advertising sales representatives and printing
companies. Check for USP, consistency in brand.
Launch your marketing vehicles. AMake sure they get out
into the marketplace.
Leverage your marketing eorts with publicity. AGet
positive attention for your company on the basis of your USP,
your personality, your good deeds in the community.
Assess your marketing eorts. AKeep track of the results. Do
more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
Repeat the process. A
Like your adopted Sales Trainer, you may be well served to adopt a
Marketing Coach. If I could pick one person to help create a Marketing
Calendar, it would be Nancy Michaels. Check out Nancy’s book, O
e Wall Marketing Ideas, and meet Nancy at www.growyourbusiness-
network.com. She is the queen of low-cost, high-impact marketing and
publicity.
“e moment one denitely
commits oneself, then
Providence moves too. All sorts
of things occur to help one
that would never otherwise
have occurred…unforeseen
incidents, meetings, and
material assistance, which
no man could have dreamed
would have come his way.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Week Four: Getting It Sold A 105
Other great marketers to “interview”:
Seth Godin A
Harry Beckwith A
Jay Conrad Levinson A
Jack Trout A
Al Ries A
Each of these marketing gurus has written handfuls of books on tried-and-true market-
ing and publicity techniques. Certainly a member of your Board of Advisors has a wealth
of experiential marketing knowledge. Plan to meet with him or her to go over marketing
strategies and advertising purchasing strategies. And brainstorm with your most creative
employees, friends and family members.
In my experience, the idea-generating portion of the process is easy. It tends to bog
down when it comes to assembling the Marketing Calendar and executing the plan.
Marketing Calendar Exercise
Find the form called Marketing Calendar in this book or nd a downloadable, customiz-
able version of the form in e Complete Suite on the Buy Stu page at www.barebones-
biz.com.
In the Making Money section of your Plan Binder, refer to your budget. If you are us-
ing the Baby Budget, take note of the dollar amount you have budgeted for Marketing. If
you are using the Bare Bones Biz Basic Budgeting Program, open the Excel le on your
computer. Note the Marketing page. Rene your marketing budget numbers as you cra
your Marketing Calendar. Make sure that they are in sync with each other.
Note that the Bare Bones Biz Basic Budgeting Program calculates the number of op-
portunity calls (sales leads) you need to generate. As you get more experiential knowledge
about marketing, you’ll be able to estimate how many calls a particular marketing vehicle
can contribute to the total. Until you have that kind of data, you’ll have to experiment.
Today, spend some time lling out the Marketing Calendar. Review the ideas on your
Master To-Do List. Move your best ideas to the Marketing Calendar. Plug in the dollars
required. It’s an engineering challenge…how to best use your marketing dollars for maxi-
mum eect. Make sure you cross-reference your budget with the Marketing Calendar.
Note that you will check your successes by updating the Marketing Calendar every week.
e person on the Organization Chart in charge of Marketing is responsible for keeping
the Marketing Calendar current.
106 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
There’s Always Room for Publicity.
No matter what your budget is, there is always room for publicity-generating items on
your Marketing Calendar.
Positive publicity is when someone other than you says wonderful things about your
company to your customers or your community.
Negative publicity is when someone says bad things about you to your customers or
your community. Not to worry! Negative publicity can be your best-ever opportunity to
communicate how wonderful you are to the world. We’ll explore this in the Making Sure
section of e Bare Bones Biz Plan.
Add publicity-generating eorts to each week of your Marketing Calendar.
Even if you have not yet committed to your brand, you can spend time working on the
Marketing Process. Start putting together your Marketing Calendar. Keep the most cur-
rent version of your Marketing Calendar in the Getting it Sold section of your Plan Binder.
Remember to update your budget and insert the latest version in the Making Money sec-
tion of the Plan Binder.
Your Weekend Homework
Practice what you’ve learned this week by selling your spouse or signicant other…on
YOU. What’s great about you? What’s your personal USP? Reect on your Mission and
Vision for this relationship.
Learn about your Target Market. What needs are being met? What wants are not being
addressed? Ask good questions and listen to the answers.
What marketing vehicles would be most eective? A billboard? A personal, handwrit-
ten note? How can you best present the benets of YOU? Dancing? Bowling?
Here’s to closing the sale this weekend!
Consistent Image or Circus Train?
Put up a corkboard in your oce to be used exclusively for displaying your marketing vehicles.
You’ll be able to tell if your Yellow Page ads, newspaper ads, yers, postcards, etc., are working
together to build a clear, consistent brand. You can check the consistency of color and
production quality. Remember, however, the most important element of a marketing vehicle
is: Did it generate leads and sales? Track the performance of each eort in your Marketing
Calendar.
www.BareBonesBiz.com The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 107
Marketing Calendar Sample Document
updated _______
When What Expense Calls
Generated
Expense
Per Call Sales $ Expense to
Total Sales Repeat?
Aug
8-14 YP AD $350
Aug
15-21 YP AD $350
Aug
22-24 YP AD $350
Aug 29-
Sept 4 YP AD $350
108 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
www.BareBonesBiz.com
877.629.7647
Week
Five:
Getting
it Done!
110 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Urgent vs. Important
Business philosopher Stephen Covey, author of First ings First, says
our activities can be categorized as Urgent or Not Urgent and Important
or Not Important.
Urgent Not Urgent
Important
Quadrant I
Crisis
Deadline-driven projects
Quadrant II
Planning
Preparation
Recharging activities
Not Important
Quadrant III
Interruptions
Some meetings
Some phone calls
Mail, e-mail
Quadrant IV
Trivia
Excessive TV
Time wasters
Escape activities
Stephen’s research has shown that the highest-performing companies
spend 65% to 80% of their time in Quadrant II activities.
e time you’ve been spending working on your Plan Binder and
craing your business plan is Quadrant II time. If you don’t purpose-
Today you’ll learn about the tools in e Bare Bones Biz System for
Getting it Done. Getting it Done means delivering your wonderful
products and services to your customers so that their needs are met
and their problems solved. Getting it Done means consistently deliver-
ing your USP so well that your customers are delighted by their experi-
ence and will come back for more. Getting it Done means delivering on
your promises…to yourself, your team and your customers. Getting it
Done means focused activity in the direction of your Goals, Mission
and Vision.
Today, we’ll review the forms and checklists we’ve already introduced
and show you how they ow together to move you in the direction of
your Mission, Vision and Goals.
Day 21
MONDAY’S COACHING LESSON: THE TOOLS FOR GETTING IT DONE
Add Stephen Covey’s TIP►
book First Things First to
your MUST READ list!
“e Presidency is a
decision-making job.”
~ William Jeerson Clinton
Week Five: Getting It Done A 111
fully commit to spending the time in Quadrant II, Quadrants I, III and IV will take over
your day. And the problem is that if you don’t spend energy on the Important, Not Urgent
planning tasks, you’ll never resolve the systemic problems that cause you to waste so much
time “putting out res” or just “escaping” aer an exhausting day.
From “Big Thinking” to Focused Activities
Today’s exercise is assembling your Top Projects list. We’ll start with a brief overview of
your Plan Binder to help you see how the work you have been doing in e Bare Bones
Biz Plan helps you answer this question:
“What should I focus on doing NOW to achieve my Goals?”
Business guru Stephen Covey says, “Begin with the end in mind.” at’s why you start-
ed this adventure by developing your Mission, Target Market, Vision, USP and Values
statements.
Next, I asked you to write down your Goals. Goals are “to have” statements. Goals are
measurable and achievable. Goals should be written down and have a date attached to
them. Goals are the milestones in the pursuit of your Mission and your Vision. e Setting
Sight exercises provide the boundaries of your business plan.
You created the Organization Chart and Position Descriptions to help you start A
Building Your Team.
In the Making Money section, you developed your Budget to support your A
nancial Goals.
You spent time creating your Sales Scorecards and Marketing Calendar in the A
Getting it Sold section.
Note how the sections ow from one to the other. Understand the importance of integrat-
ing each section of your plan so that it supports the whole.
roughout, I’ve been encouraging you to write down any ideas, to do’s and projects on
your Master To-Do List. e Master To Do List keeps you from losing track of the things
that need to be done to build your business.
By now, your Master To-Do List may be a very long list!
So…what to do rst? What should you focus on doing NOW to achieve your Goals?
Top Projects List Exercise
Find the Top Projects form at the end of this section. e Top Project List can help you get
things done and keep you from being overwhelmed. e Top Projects are the FEW proj-
ects that you and your team will FOCUS on NOW to help you accomplish your Goals.
Look over the “A” priority Goals on the Goal sheet. What actions, projects, to do’s will
help you accomplish those Goals? e items on your Master To-Do List may inspire you
as to what needs to be done to move you to your Goals.
112 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Remember the saying, “How do you eat an elephant?” e answer is, of course, “One
bite at a time.”
e next question may be, “Where do I start?”
e answer: “It really doesn’t matter!”
What should your Top 10 Projects be? Gather input from your team. Justify each one
by asking: Is this moving us toward our Goals? Is this project helping us make more sales?
Is this the best use of our time and energy at this moment?
Examples of Top Projects can be…
Completing your Marketing Calendar for the next six months A
Developing Procedures for the Salespeople A
Creating your Position Descriptions A
Revising your Budget for this year A
Would you like help from your team as to what to put on the Top Projects List? Ask
for their help. But the nal decision is yours. Put no more than 10 projects on the Top
Projects list. For another project to make it to the Top Projects list, one project has to get
done and moved o the list.
Tomorrow, we’ll address using the Top Projects List to focus your meetings…and Get
it Done!
Store a copy of your Top Projects list in the Getting it Done section of your Plan
Binder.
If your idea of a time-management system is a pencil and a Post-it pad, you may get
bogged down in this section. Do yourself a favor…attempt to use the tools we oer in this
section.
The best part about the Top Project List? It helps you move out of overwhelm and into
focused action. It’s a nice feeling!
Week Five: Getting It Done A 113
Day 22
TUESDAY’S COACHING LESSON: MEETING BASICS
Today, you’ll learn the Bare-Bones Basics for making meetings pow-
erful and eective Quadrant II events.
Meet With Yourself First
Make a standing appointment with yourself to review and update
your Plan Binder and structure your Personal Calendar. Pick an hour
on Sunday night or Monday morning, before the work week begins.
Commit to this meeting! Whether you are just getting started in busi-
ness or you are the CEO of General Electric, this meeting with yourself
is the most important meeting of the week.
Invest the hour reviewing your business plan and organizing your
upcoming week. Flip through your Plan Binder. Update the forms
and reports. Keep only current and relevant information in your Plan
Binder. File or throw away the outdated pages.
Read over your Perfect Life for inspiration. Look over your Mission
and Vision. See yourself achieving your Goals. Review the Top Projects
List and the Master To-Do List. Edit and rene your Plan Binder.
Ask yourself, “is week, what is the BEST use of my time?”
Your time is innitely valuable. Spend it wisely. Don’t squander it.
Time management guru Dan Sullivan says, “You can have everything
you love in life as long as you give up things you hate.”
Don’t do things you hate. Don’t hang out with people who suck the
life out of you. You are too smart for that! Life is too precious.
Commit your time to things that make you happy with people you
love, do things that move you to your Goals and allow you to express
your greatest gis. Plan your week to reect your Perfect Life.
Block out time for your activities this week on your Personal
Calendar. You can use a standard week-at-a-glance calendar. Or you
can…
Brighten Your Outlook
If you are parked at your desk for most of your workday, you might
consider using Microso Outlook for your Personal Calendar. More
“e world must learn to
work together, or nally
it will not work at all.”
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
114 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
than likely, Outlook is already loaded on your computer. Outlook is not
the same as Outlook Express. Outlook Express is primarily an e-mail
management program. For the Outlook program, look for a camou-
age-green clock icon. If you don’t have Outlook, you can preview or
download it from www.microso.com.
Set the Outlook Calendar to display all seven days from le to right.
Go to Tools, Options, Calendar Options…and click on all seven days.
Now, plan your week.
Let this be your mantra: What is the BEST use of my time?
Block out family commitments rst. Look ahead for upcoming trav-
el and meetings. Schedule time to fulll the Responsibilities for each
Position you hold on the Organization Chart. Block out time to work
on your Top Projects. If you don’t make time for the Non-Urgent yet
Important stu, it just won’t get done. You can always click and drag
and reschedule.
When you schedule an appointment in Outlook, check out the label
feature. You can color-code your appointments. I use green for per-
sonal/family appointments. Currently, writing this book is on my Top
Project list. I coded my scheduled writing time in purple. If I intend
to nish the project on time, there better be enough purple on the
Outlook Calendar.
Keep just one calendar. Otherwise, you may miss your kid’s game
because you wrote it on the calendar on the kitchen wall but you didn’t
record it in your Calendar.
Invest in a Treo®, iPhone® or BlackBerry®. ese tools can be synched
with your computer’s Outlook les so that you can take your Calendar,
your e-mail and your contact information with you.
During the week, keep the Master To-Do List handy. Use it to write
down anything you need to remember. At your Sunday night or Monday
morning meeting, transfer phone numbers, appointments, etc. from
the Master To-Do List into Outlook.
As you progress through your week, Outlook will help you hold
yourself accountable. All day long, my Outlook reminds me of appoint-
ments, meetings, project times, and phone calls. e key is spending
that hour Sunday night or Monday morning to set yourself up for a
highly productive week.
“It has been computed by some
political arithmetician that, if every
man and woman would work for
four hours each day on something
useful, labor would provide sucient
to procure all the necessities and
comforts of life, want and misery
would be banished out of the world,
and the rest of the 24 hours might be
leisure and pleasure.”
~ Benjamin Franklin
Week Five: Getting It Done A 115
Meeting With a Group
Here are the Bare-Bones Basics for eective meetings with team members.
By invitation only. Require only the people who need to be at the meeting to A
attend.
Be prepared and start on time. Ending early is ne. A
Name your meetings. This claries the topic and who is required to attend. Have A
fun with this. You could call your Sales Meeting the Sales Jamboree or the Safety
Meeting the Look Out Meeting.
Never discipline in a group setting. It’s insulting to the people to whom the A
lecture does not apply and it dilutes the message for those to whom the lecture
is directed.
Make sure each group meeting has some love! Celebrate wins, educational A
achievements, sales Goals met, compliments from customers, birthdays and new
babies.
Have an agenda and stick to it. Hold short and sweet meetings on focused A
topics. Don’t try to address everything at one meeting. Discuss sales at the Sales
Meeting and new payroll procedures at a Payroll Meeting. One point well taken
beats many points presented.
Meeting One-to-One
Meet weekly with every person on the Organization Chart who reports to you. Go over
his Scorecard. Review her progress on projects. Work together to solve challenges. Let
them know how much you appreciate them. Keep these meetings to 15 minutes.
In a small company, be sure to touch base informally with every employee every A
week.
Address any problems individually and immediately. A
“Give a hard job
to a lazy man to
nd an easy way
to get it done.”
~ Jim Hamilton
Six-foot-four-inch Abe Lincoln was asked once, “How long should a man’s legs be?” He
replied, “Long enough to reach the ground.” Your meetings should be long enough to
communicate what needs to be communicated but no longer.
Everyone must bring his or her Personal Calendar to every meeting. Each person is
responsible for recording his own assignments and synchronizing her Calendar.
Find the Meeting Agenda form in this book, or download the customizable form at
www.barebonesbiz.com. It’s included in e Complete Suite on the Buy Stu page. Use a
Meeting Agenda for every group meeting and for any one-to-one meeting with multiple
topics. Keep upcoming meeting agendas in the appropriate section of your Plan Binder.
116 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Your actions should be in concert with your Mission, TIP►
Vision and Values. Focus on activities that are interesting, fun
and productive. It feels great to move in the direction of your
Perfect Life. If your Projects inspire you, you are more likely
to get them done!
Plan Your Meetings Exercise: Part One
Today, schedule a group meeting to go over your Top Projects with the appropriate team
members. Complete a Meeting Agenda form in preparation for this meeting.
At the meeting, present your Top Projects List. Delegate the Top Projects. Discuss what
it will take to complete the projects, and schedule follow-up meetings. Make sure each
team member records his or her own to do’s. Set due dates.
Be sure to thank them for their time. Let them know you anticipate the successful, on-
time completion of their projects and to do’s.
Plan Your Meetings Exercise: Part Two
Spend some time today learning about Outlook. Snoop around. Play with the features.
Look through the tutorial and help screens.
Schedule a recurring appointment for your Sunday night or Monday morning meet-
ing. Schedule another for your Sales Meeting.
Congratulations! Now you are committed to Getting it Done.
www.BareBonesBiz.com The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 117
Meeting Agenda Sample Document
Date and Start Time:
Meeting Name/Topic :
Who needs to attend?
Points of discussion:
___________________________________________ Time _______
___________________________________________ Time _______
___________________________________________ Time _______
___________________________________________ Time _______
___________________________________________ Time _______
___________________________________________ Time _______
___________________________________________ Time _______
___________________________________________ Time _______
End Time:__________
Points that came up that we can include in a future meeting:
118 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Today you will learn how to create Procedures for your growing
business. Take a look at the Position Descriptions you created in
Week Two – Building the Team. Note the list of Responsibilities for each
Position.
Remember, responsibilities are WHAT to do. Procedures are HOW
to do it. For each Responsibility, you will create the Procedures for get-
ting it done.
Procedures keep you from wasting time and energy on the small
stu. Have you ever spent half a day tracking down a part that you
should have had on hand? Have you ever had to make an emergency
trip to the store because you ran out of toilet paper in the oce re-
stroom? Procedures handle the “housekeeping” so that you and your
team are free to serve and to sell!
Also, are you certain that each member of your installation team
has the same installation standards? Procedures help you consistently
deliver your USP. And Procedures help you grow your company.
Who Writes the Procedures?
e team member who holds the Position should write the Procedures
for that Position, then submit the Procedures to his or her manager
for review. Work with your team to develop Procedures for every area
of your company. Ultimately, you will have a Procedure for just about
everything that you do.
Writing the Procedures can be as simple as documenting what team
members are currently doing. Work together with your team to dis-
cover the best practices within your group. e process will help you
nd the “holes” in your current systems…and ll them. roughout
the process, ask, “How does this Procedure support sales and service to
our customers, now and in the future?”
If a Procedure is dependent on more than one team member’s per-
formance, have them partner up and work on their Procedures togeth-
er. For instance, at See More Blinds, Inc., Suki and Pete should discuss
how to communicate to customers when the sales process ends and the
Day 23
WEDNESDAY’S COACHING LESSON: CREATING YOUR PROCEDURES
“I’m working to improve my
methods, and every hour I save
is an hour added to my life.”
~ Ayn Rand
Week Five: Getting It Done A 119
installation work begins. ey can cra their Procedures to dovetail with each other.
A word of caution: is assignment can feel threatening to an insecure employee. Take
the time to explain what you are doing and why. Assure each team member that you are
building a company free of “housekeeping” headaches so that everyone is free to do his or
her job better. To do that, you need to create Procedures - documents that explain “how
things are done around here” - and you need their help.
Build “Checks” into the Procedures
“Checks” are points in the Procedure where another person or another Procedure veries
the work or information. For instance, in the Deposit Procedure, have the manager or
owner verify the cash and sign o on the deposit. Without “checks,” you put good people
under suspicion if something goes wrong. Your team will help you create a system that
“checks” and protects them.
Build a Procedure Exercise
Today, you will work on building Procedures for your company. Work with one of
your team members. Select one of the Responsibilities in his or her Position and cre-
ate a Procedure for getting it done. Start with how he or she is currently handling that
Responsibility and go from there.
Note the example on the Procedure form. Find the form in this book, or download the
customizable version at www.barebonesbiz.com. It’s part of e Complete Suite on the
Buy Stu page.
Fill out the Procedure form with each step necessary to handle the Responsibility. Some
Responsibilities may require more than one Procedure. at’s ne.
Be as detailed as you can. is will save you time in the long run. Build at least one
Procedure today. Store a copy of the Procedure in the appropriate section of your Plan
Binder. And make sure the team member who will use the Procedure has a copy.
Make an Appointment on your Outlook calendar to follow up. Find out....Does the
Procedure work? Are there some steps missing? How can it be improved? What can you
do to make it better?
Remember, this Plan Binder is a work in process. You can always modify and add to the
Position Descriptions and Procedures. Let your team know that you are always interested
in making things easier, better, faster, and more professional.
120 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document www.BareBonesBiz.com
See More Blinds and Window Coverings, Sample Document
Inc. Procedure
Updated:
Division: Getting it Sold
Position: In Charge of Publicity and Marketing
Responsibility: Keep the customer service area clean.
Behaviors: Every work day, by 9 a.m...
Remove all trash from the area.
Take one 55-gallon trash bag from the box on the oor of the storage closet.
Empty all wastebaskets into the trash bag. Wastebaskets are located:
To the left of the front door.
Under the Customer Service Representative’s desk.
Put the trash bag in the dumpster at the north end of the parking lot.
Clean all windows, inside and out.
Use Windex. The Windex is kept on the third shelf of the storage closet.
Use clean paper towels. The paper towels are on the second shelf of the storage
closet.
Wipe down all countertops.
Use the wood soap spray. The wood soap spray is kept on the third shelf of the
storage closet.
Use clean paper towels. The paper towels are on the second shelf of the storage
closet.
Vacuum the oor.
Find the vacuum hose in the storage closet.
Connect the hose to the central vac outlet on the south wall. (See diagram)
Turn the vacuum on by ipping the switch on the main unit to the ON position.
The main vacuum unit is the black box on the right wall of the storage closet.
Week Five: Getting It Done A 121
Training Tip for Crazy Family Businesses!
If you are working in a family business, written Procedures can keep you
from killing each other. She may be your mom, but if she is in charge of
bookkeeping at your company, she needs to create and follow Procedures.
You might end up ring her! Keep your emotions in check and stay focused on
doing the right things to achieve your Mission and realize your Vision. Create
Procedures and hold everyone accountable. Al Levi of Appleseed Business
developed his rst-rate management skills in his family’s business. He worked
with his dad, brothers and sister to put together Procedures for every area of
their super-successful service and energy company. And they still speak to
each other! Meet Al and check out his site at www.appleseedbusiness.com. He
has great ideas for building your Procedures.
122 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Today, you’ll learn Bare Bones Training Basics. Generally speaking,
the better your training program, the less skilled your prospective
employees need to be. In other words, the more training you do, the
more choices you have when it comes to building your team…and get-
ting things done.
Consider the U.S. Marine Corps. Its slogan: We’re looking for a few
good men. Notice that the Marines don’t require candidates to have
weapons-handling experience, foreign language skills or be in excel-
lent physical condition. ey are looking for good people, and they
train those people to the USMC standards to do all kinds of specialized
tasks.
If you don’t have a formal training program, then you must depend
on nding employees who already know how to do the job you are of-
fering. at really reduces your hiring choices. Also, you can be put into
the uncomfortable position of being held hostage by your employees.
“Oh, I can’t lose Jody! She is the only qualied high-temperature
deep-fryer operator we have! I’ll just pretend I didn’t notice that
she came to work 45 minutes late.”
You are not living up to your Values when you lower your standards.
Your integrity is on the line. Everything you have worked on in e Bare
Bones Biz Plan is designed to help you raise the standards to which you
hold yourself and your employees. You are looking for a few good men
and women. You can train them.
Level One and Level Two Training
Level One A is the training you provide so that team members
can perform their assigned Procedures to the minimum
acceptable level. Level One Training ends when your
employee can perform the Procedure well enough to be held
accountable for it.
Level Two A is the training you provide to enhance your
employees’ skills and abilities beyond the minimum levels.
Level Two Training is for increasing performance and
eciency.
Day 24 THURSDAY’S COACHING LESSON: BARE BONES TRAINING BASICS
“You can have whatever
you want in life if you
help enough other people
get what they want.”
~ Zig Ziglar
Week Five: Getting It Done A 123
For example: You could teach me how to make a basketball freethrow. I could learn what
line to stand behind and which hoop to aim for when I throw the ball. at’s Level One
training on the Procedure. I could “sign o ” on that aer a few minutes of training.
To get good at shooting freethrows, I would work on my technique. I may need to try
holding the ball in dierent ways. I may do some specialized weight training. I may need
to practice shooting the ball 50 times in a row. at’s Level Two Training.
Depending on the Procedure, you decide whether or not to oer Level Two Training.
For instance, the Procedure for turning on the restaurant lights requires no additional
training. When it comes to selling Procedures, however, a Salesperson is well served by
continuing with Level Two Training…forever!
Start by making sure all your team members are trained on the Procedure basics – Level
One. en add the Level Two Training.
The Training Process
ese are the Bare-Bones basic steps of the Training Process. e process is the same for
Level One and Level Two Training.
“I’ll do it.” AAs the trainer, explain and demonstrate the Procedure. Use easy-
to-understand words. You can do the Procedure yourself, draw a diagram to
illustrate it or show a movie of the Procedure. Try more than one approach. Refer
to the written Procedure as you go.
“Now you do it.” AAsk your trainee to demonstrate the behaviors and duplicate
the Procedure. Take as much time as you need to make sure that he or she can
perform the Procedure and explain the reasons for doing it.
Role play. A Now act it out together. Take turns playing the customer. This will
help you both see how the Procedure serves the customer and helps you deliver
your USP. Role play is a dress rehearsal before the actual performance.
Real world. ASend your trainee out into the world. Observe the required
behaviors in real time…at the shop, on the sales oor or in the eld.
Sign o. A“Sign o” on the Procedure when you and your trainee are both
comfortable with his or her understanding of the Procedure and the ability to
perform it. Both of you will initial and date the Procedure. File a copy in his or her
employee le.
Use the “sign o” to mark the end of the Training Process. As people learn new skills,
make sure they are acknowledged…with a handshake, with a diploma or with a standing
ovation at your next company meeting. Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics,
understood that people are hungry for praise. Her company has grown to multibillion-
dollar sales by praising the representatives for every accomplishment along the way. From
personal notes to diamond rings to pink Cadillacs, Mary Kay showers her team with
rewards for good performance.
124 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Expand Your
Training Offerings
Ask your employees,
“What can we do to help
you be more successful?”
and incorporate their
training suggestions.
Here are some ideas for
expanding your training
program.
Remember to adopt A
a Sales Trainer as we
discussed in Week
Four.
Work with A
your product
manufacturers for
technical and product
knowledge training.
Ask your insurance A
agent to sponsor a
safety program.
Oer English as a A
second language
classes.
Oer personal nance A
and debt-reduction
classes.
Oer smoking- A
cessation or weight-
loss programs.
Level One Training “Sign O” and Accountability
Once an employee has signed o on a Procedure, something really
wonderful happens. e team member is now responsible for getting it
done. Accountability begins. From the point of the sign o, any failure
to perform the Procedure is not a lack of training, but a lack of willing-
ness. While he or she may improve skills through Level Two Training,
as of the Level One sign-o, he or she is expected to perform the behav-
iors to acceptable standards and should be held accountable.
You have the right and the responsibility to require team members
to play the game your way. Hold them accountable. Good people like
accountability. Tomorrow we’ll address getting the right people on the
bus and the wrong people o the bus.
Measure the eectiveness of your training by tracking performance
and by reviewing the Scorecards. Do the numbers improve? Are you
reaching your Goals? Are team members performing the Procedures
as intended? Does the training program support your Mission, Vision
and Values? If so, you know you are on the right training track!
Level One Training Exercise
Select a team member for this exercise. Go through the Training
Process with at least one Procedure. First, you take the trainer role.
en reverse roles. Let your employee be the trainer and you can be the
trainee. is exercise is complete when you are both signed o on the
Procedure.
Be sure to give each other a hearty handshake and congratulations!
As Dale Carnegie says, “Show appreciation!”
Now you have the company structure to help the people on your
team to be successful. You are building the foundation for the company
of your dreams and are moving closer to your Perfect Life. However,
the best part of building a great business may be the positive impact
you can have on the lives of your team members.
Reect on your experiences and jot your thoughts down in your
Journal.
Week Five: Getting It Done A 125
Day 25 FRIDAY’S COACHING LESSON: THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO GET IT DONE
Over the past ve weeks, you have made signicant changes in your
life and in your company. Not all of your employees are going to
like these changes. It may be time to change the people on the bus.
In Week Two – Building the Team – you started your recruiting ef-
forts. Consistent recruiting in advance of your hiring needs can pro-
vide a choice of good candidates who are willing and want to work for
your company.
Today you will spend time thinking about your team. Who are the
right people to have on the bus? Is there someone who needs to get o
the bus? We sabotage our eorts to build a team because of our mis-
understanding of teamwork. A team is a result of individual eorts in
the pursuit of a mutual Goal. e Goal: great sales and service to your
customers.
Rewarding Poor Performance
Mark Victor Hansen says, “at which you recognize, you energize.” If
you reward poor performance, you will have more poor performance.
Have you ever given someone a raise in the hopes that you will improve
his lackluster performance? Have you ever given a bonus to someone
who didn’t deserve one because “she tried.”
Have you ever ignored a high-performing individual to spend count-
less hours trying to get minimum performance out of an underachiev-
er? Are there family members taking up space on the bus because the
politics of ring them are too much for you to bear?
Even worse, sometimes we punish great performance. I’ve seen this
time and time again in sales. As soon as someone is really winning,
management will split the territory or pinch the commission. Aer all,
you can’t have someone making too much money. It will make oth-
ers –managers and under-performing salespeople – feel bad. Right?
WRONG!
“Hire smart. Train
hard. Manage easy.”
~ George Barnett
Firing, Hiring and
Basic Human
Resources Help
Fair, Square & Legal:
Safe Hiring, Managing &
Firing Practices to Keep
You & Your Company
Out of Court, by Donald
H. Weiss, will help you
develop Procedures for
bringing people on the
bus and getting them o
the bus. Keep this book
as a handy reference for
the person in charge of
Human Resources at your
company.
126 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Building the Right Team to Get it Done!
Remember, the key to your success is solving problems for your customers and making
them happy. It’s about great sales and service.
If you want good performance, then reward good performance.
If you are just starting your business, you have a wonderful opportunity to be selective
in hiring. You have created great systems in your company. Hang on to your Plan Binder.
As you grow and need help, you are much better prepared to welcome a new team mem-
ber than you were ve weeks ago, aren’t you?
The People on the Bus Exercise: Part One
Review your Organization Chart. ink about every person and his or her Position(s)
on the team. Of course, lying, cheating and stealing are always grounds for immediate
dismissal.
Review each employee’s performance. Ask these questions:
Do your customers compliment or complain about him? Disney, Inc., has a A
zero-tolerance policy for customer complaints. One complaint is grounds for
dismissal.
Is he completing his assigned Top Projects on time? A
Is she performing at or above Goals on her Scorecard? A
Does he meet his Responsibilities and perform his assigned Procedures? A
Is she willing to play the game your way? A
Does she prioritize service and sales to your customers? A
It’s time to get the wrong people o the bus. You know who needs to go. It is not OK to
decide to re someone and continue to keep him or her on the payroll. Once you have
made your decision, act on it. You dishonor the people on your team who share your
Mission and are willing to do what it takes to get things done for your customers when
you continue to employ a non-performer.
is exercise won’t take very much time. It is better to do the work yourself than to
have the wrong person doing it. Don’t keep someone on until you nd someone else. Let
them go.
Notice how written Procedures and Scorecards can take the emotion out of your deci-
sion. When you have performance data, you and your employees always know where they
stand. When you keep score, letting someone go won’t come as a surprise.
When you let someone go, meet with each employee and tell them all that you made
changes in the team. Let the person know you honor and respect him or her. Promise
that you will nd and hire “right stu ” people to help you in the pursuit of your Mission,
Week Five: Getting It Done A 127
“No matter
what we feel
or know, no
matter what
our potential
gifts or talents,
only action
brings them
to life. Many of
us understand
concepts such
as commitment,
courage and
love, but we
truly KNOW
only when
we can DO.
Doing leads to
understanding,
and action turns
knowledge to
wisdom.” ~ Dan
Millman
Vision, Goals and Values. ank them for their help.
The People on the Bus Exercise: Part Two
By working e Bare Bones Biz Plan, you will know when you are ready to hire some-
one and for what Position. Doublecheck your budget. Are you ready?
Spend some time today developing your Hiring Procedures. If you let someone go
today, promise yourself that you will use these Procedures to make better hiring choic-
es in the future.
Take a look at the Hiring Checklist form in this book. You can download this cus-
tomizable form at www.barebonesbiz.com. Look for it in e Complete Suite on the Buy Stu
page.
Spend some time thinking about and working on Procedures for the Hiring Process.
You’ll need Procedures for Interviews and your testing program, to include in the
Employee Manual.
However, your Hiring Procedures don’t have to be “nished” before you hire some-
one. Just having a checklist is 100% more Procedure than you used to have! If you are
ready to hire someone, start the Hiring Process and do your best with the Procedures
you have now. Review the Recruiting Checklist you started in Week Two – Building the
Team. You can start the Hiring Process with the prospective team members you have
listed.
Stay true to your Mission and Vision and live by your Values. Work diligently in
the direction of your Goals. Stay focused on serving your customers and solving their
problems. Be passionate about making a positive dierence in the world. You will at-
tract the right team members like a magnet.
Your Weekend Homework
Keep your meeting with yourself Sunday night or Monday morning. At that meeting,
reect on your Setting Sight pages and assess your progress towards your highest pur-
pose and Perfect Life. Revisit each section of the Plan Binder. ink about each area of
your business. Review your Top Projects List. Congratulate yourself for getting a few of them
done.
As you plan your week, block out half a day to work on your Hiring Procedures.
Update your Outlook Calendar and review the Top Projects List. Jot down thoughts
and insights in your Journal.
Congratulations! Your business plan is up and running. You are making progress…
and getting it done! Next week…Making Sure…
128 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document
Hiring Checklist Sample Document
Updated
Name __________________________________________________
Position ________________________________________________
Application completed Date _____ Manager’s initials _____
Flag page completed Date _____ Manager’s initials _____
First phone Interview Date _____ Manager’s initials _____
First in person Date _____ Manager’s initials _____
Continue Yes or No?
Skills test Date _____ Manager’s initials _____
Drug-free test Date _____ Manager’s initials _____
Background check Date _____ Manager’s initials _____
Continue Yes or No?
Second interview Date _____ Manager’s initials _____
Hire? Yes or No?
Oer accepted Date _____ Manager’s initials _____
Uniform ordered Date _____ Manager’s initials _____
Employee manual Date _____ Manager’s initials _____
Orientation complete Date _____ Manager’s initials _____
www.BareBonesBiz.com
877.629.7647
Week
Six:
Making
Sure
130 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Welcome to Week Six of e Bare Bones Biz Plan. Hurray for you!
is week is all about making sure. Making sure that you are on
a good path and fullling your highest purpose. Making sure that your
employees are doing a great job and that you are providing well for
them. And today, we’ll focus on making sure your customers are de-
lighted by what you do for them.
Review your Unique Selling Proposition. Say your Elevator Speech out
loud. Ask these questions:
Are your products and services really what your customers A
need and want?
Are your products and services being delivered in a consistently A
excellent way?
How can you make sure? A
Ask Your Customers
Your customers are happy to tell you what you can do to improve…if
you ask them. Most business owners are just not interested in nding
out whether or not their customers are happy. Perhaps they are afraid
of nding out that they are not on the right track. ey would rather
not know, so they continue complaining about the economy, their em-
ployees and their customers!
But not you! You want to know. You want to grow and get better and
better. So…ask your customers how you can serve them better.
Do you have a close friend who is also your customer? Is this friend
a tell-it-like-it-is person? Good. Call him up. Let him know you want
feedback about your services. Ask, “How are we doing? What could we
do better? What are we missing?” en listen. Don’t interrupt or judge
or comment. Just listen and jot down what he says in your Journal.
Send a thank-you note for the valuable feedback.
Other ways to ask your customer are…
Follow-up phone calls. Ask, “Are you delighted with your A
purchase today?”
Day 26 MONDAY’S COACHING LESSON: THE POWER OF CLARITY
“e progress is made by
correcting the mistakes resulting
from the making of progress.”
~ Sir Claude Gibb
Week Six: Making Sure A 131
Mail-back postcard report cards. Be sure to pay for the postage. A
On-the-store-oor surveys. Be creative. Ask, “If you could snap your ngers and A
have just what you are looking for, what would it be?”
And throughout the Sales Process…ask and LISTEN.
Get In on the Action
e next time you go to a restaurant, see if you spot the manager. A good restaurant man-
ager will use the M.B.W.A. management system: Managing By Walking Around. While an
M.B.W.A. manager may not look like she is doing much, she can be anticipating potential
problems and averting them, or pitching in when an extra set of hands will keep things
moving. She can catch someone doing something right and acknowledge him.
In your shop, get out there and walk around. Find out what’s going on in your business.
Watch the interaction between your customers and your employees. ink of it like this:
On Game Day, the coach is on the eld with his players, not locked in his oce. Start
M.B.W.A. today.
“His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows nobody to see him; and
by which he does not know what is going on in the very matter he is dealing with.”
~ Abraham Lincoln’s reason for relieving General John C. Fremont from his command
in Missouri, September 9, 1861
Ride Along
President Lincoln wrote these words to the man he was appointing to replace General
Fremont. e new General would make no mistake about what was required of him: Get
out there and circulate among the troops.
In a home service company, you won’t know whether or not your customers are de-
lighted with your services if you don’t go out into the eld. So get out there! By riding
along, you have a wonderful opportunity to bond with your servicepeople. You can nd
out if your Procedures are actually helping create good sales and service or getting in the
way. You can nd out what kind of training may be needed to help your servicepeople
improve their skills. You won’t know…unless you go.
Mystery Shopping
If you are serious about excellent customer service, you’ll implement a Mystery Shopping
program. Mystery Shopping is a technique for testing customer service. Here is how it
works: A Mystery Shopper will go to your business and…shop. Or you can arrange to
have a Mystery Shopper call and schedule service at her home. A Mystery Shopper can
“shop” over the phone to check your Customer Service Representative’s performance.
Mystery Shoppers work undercover, so they look and sound like regular customers.
“Nothing in
the world can
take the place
of persistence.
Talent will not;
nothing is more
common than
unsuccessful
men with talent.
Genius will not;
unrewarded
genius is almost
a proverb.
Education will
not; the world is
full of educated
derelicts.
Persistence and
determination
alone are
omnipotent.”
~ Calvin
Coolidge
132 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Mystery Shopping
Services
At what point does it
make sense to use a
professional service?
According to Linda Prayer
of National Shopping
Service, “A professional
service will give you more
objective results.” Also,
hiring a professional
Mystery Shopping service
makes sure that you
actually follow through
on the program. Check
out National Shopping
Service at www.
nationalshoppingservice.
com. Or call 800.800.2704.
ey pay attention to the Sales Process and make note of your team’s
performance. e Mystery Shopper may return an item to test how well
your team responds. e Mystery Shopper will submit a written report
on his or her experience. Take a look at the sample Customer Service
Representative Mystery Shop Report in this book. Download a customi-
zable copy; order e Complete Suite from the Buy Stu page at www.
barebonesbiz.com.
You could make arrangements with a friend who owns a non-com-
peting company to Mystery Shop each other’s businesses. Put together
checklists to help standardize the performance assessments.
Basic Mystery Shopping Guidelines
Plan your Mystery Shopping program before you launch it. A
Announce the program to your team and explain the A
procedures in detail. Let them know that Mystery Shoppers
will be stopping by or calling for service. When and where will
be a surprise!
Expect some pushback. “You don’t trust me,” is the underlying A
concern. Approach Mystery Shop ping as a way to help your
team members improve their performance. If you are serious
about creating excellence in your company, this can be a
transformational tool.
Make a game of it…and reward good perfor mance A
generously! Celebrate success and dust yourselves o when
you fall down. The Goal is constant improvement in the
delivery of your USP.
Circulate Among the Troops Exercise
Today, spend an hour on the oor or in the eld. Interact with your customers. Ask them
about what they need and want …and listen to their answers. Notice whether your USP is
being delivered in every transaction. Observe your company as if you were a customer. Is
it clean, professional and friendly? Are you fullling your promises to your customers?
Are your team members willingly using your Procedures? Are your Procedures help-
ing make good sales, or do they need revamping? Notice who is doing a great job and
acknowledge them for it. Notice non-compliance and pull the oending team member
aside and address it privately. Pitch in and help when help is needed.
Show your customers and your employees how passionate you are about your Mission.
Let them know you are on the lookout for better ways to serve your customers.
Look, listen and learn. Clarity lights the path to greatness.
The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document A 133
Mystery Shopping ScorecardSample Document
Customer Service Representative CSR
Date __________
CSR Name_________________________
Mystery call made by________________
Your call was answered promptly YES NO
If no, please explain: ________________________________ ______________________
The CSR answered the phone in a pleasant voice. YES NO
The CSR used the approved greeting. YES NO
The CSR asked for your contact information. YES NO
The CSR was polite and willing to help. YES NO
The CSR explained the service fee. YES NO
The CSR attempted to schedule the service call. YES NO
Overall score of the phone call: 1 2 3 4 5 (1 is POOR and 5 is EXCELLENT)
134 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
You are building your company with the best intentions. You are pur-
suing a loy Mission. You are working passionately and tirelessly to
create a company that dazzles your customers with wonderful products
and services. You are building Procedures to deliver your USP consis-
tently. You are training your team to do the right things.
Still…at some point, you are going to blow it.
And when you blow it, you may hear about it. At some point Ted, the
owner of See More Blinds, Inc., may hear…
“Your installer tracked mud on my carpet!”
“e blinds are the wrong color!”
“You ripped me o. My brother-in-law has a friend who knows a
guy who can install blinds for half of the money I paid you.”
Responding to a customer complaint is a Quadrant I activity…urgent
and important. For every problem, real or imagined, I suggest this
strategy for making it right…
Let your customer know that you are concerned!
Assure him that you will do whatever it takes to make the situation
right.
Ask her what she wants you to do to make it right.
Do that…and a little bit more. Aim to astonish him with your more-
than-asked-for response.
Admit it when you’ve messed up. Apologize and make it right. Bless
your complaining customers! You can make it right with them and use
the experience to improve your business. e customers who are upset
but don’t complain will just take their business elsewhere…and you
will never know. Too much of that will sink your business. (Hence, the
Coaching Lesson for Day 26!)
Sometimes a customer will complain because he or she intends to
rip you o and try to get something for nothing. Has that ever hap-
pened to you?
Sure, you can make a big deal about who is right and who is wrong.
e truth is, 98% of people are trying to do the right things. Just 2% of
Day 27 TUESDAY’S COACHING LESSON: MAKING IT RIGHT
“When you lay an egg, stand
back and admire it!”
~ Dale Carnegie
Week Six: Making Sure A 135
people, well, they are just nasty people. Don’t fuss over the 2%. Focus on the 98%. Save
yourself some grief and aggravation. Cut to the chase. Find out what your customer wants
you to do…and do it.
Should you receive a price complaint, try this approach:
“Mr. Fernwicky, I wish it were not so expensive to run a professional plumbing com-
pany. e trucks, the insurance, the training, the inventory, the safety programs, the 24-
hour phone service, the wages for top-notch plumbers…it costs a lot to put this show on
the road. Our prices are based on our costs of doing business. Our prices are fair, and we
try to provide great service. “
“However, in this instance, we have failed to communicate the value of that service to
you and for that, I apologize.”
“Our goal is your 100% satisfaction. What’s it going to take to make you 100% satised
with our service?”
Listen. en do it. Plus a little bit more. is approach will avoid lots of wrinkles and
gray hair.
Make it Safe to Serve.
Let your employees know that mistakes are bound to happen. eir response to a mistake
can be your company’s shining moment. Stick with a problem until it is resolved, and you
can turn an angry customer into a raving fan.
Make it clear to your employees that they won’t ever get in trouble for attempting to
solve a problem for a customer. Let them know that Procedures should support good sales
and service, not hinder their eorts to make customers happy. Service to customers is Job
One. Revamp Procedures that are getting in the way of sales.
“I tell my team that I will support any and all eorts to serve our customers.
You just cannot lose when your motivation is to be of service.”
~ Courtney McKenna Gibbs, Nordstrom Store Manager
What Mama Taught You
Most customer service problems stem from poor manners. Remember what your mama
taught you about manners? Good manners are the little things that we do for each other
to grease the skids of communication.
Here’s what mama teaches…
Say “please” and “thank you.” Even to family members. A
Don’t yell at people. A
“The weak can
never forgive.
Forgiveness is
the attribute
of the strong.”
~ Mahatma
Gandhi
136 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Create a Proactive Publicity
Procedure
What would you do if you learned that
the investigative TV show “48 Hours” just
lmed your employee on a service call at
Mr. Fernwicky’s house? The correct answer
is to activate your already-written Publicity
Procedure. Learn how publicity works. A
fascinating book on the subject is High
Visibility, by Rein, Kotler and Stoller. The
best defense is a good oense. Discover
Dean Rotbart, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated
journalist who helps business owners
build more eective relationships with
the media. Meet Dean and sign up for
one of his workshops at www.newsbios.
com. Have a Procedure in place for both
positive and negative media attention.
Work out a Procedure for getting media
attention for all the wonderful work that
you do. Send press releases to the local TV
and radio stations announcing employee
accomplishments, charitable events and
timely public-interest information. Keep
your website current and loaded with
valuable and helpful information regarding
your industry. Do what it takes to make it
right. Resolve the situation…and turn it
into your shining hour.
No hitting. A
Monitor your personal noises, including but A
not limited to…coughing, throat clearing,
sniing, knuckle cracking, gum popping,
eardrum equalizing…you know the others.
No swearing.
Criticize in private. A
Praise in public and praise in private…Catch A
people doing things right all day. It’s good
manners.
Don’t interrupt. A
Listen. A
Introduce people. A
Oer whatever it is you are oering to your A
guests rst.
Send thank-you notes and/or gifts. A
Handwritten
notes get bonus points.
Give genuine compliments. Comment on A
nice manners.
Ask permission to place someone on hold A
on the telephone.
When you are wrong, say you’re sorry. A
Help the people on your team learn manners by
your good example. Maybe their mamas didn’t teach
them.
Say You’re Sorry Exercise
Today, spend some time reecting on your relation-
ships. Have you fallen out of touch with a customer,
friend or family member over some miscommunica-
tion or unresolved problem?
Today you are going to settle the upset. Forgive
him or her. Forgive yourself. Knock the chip o your
shoulder. Life is too short to create unnecessary
boundaries.
Call and say you’re sorry.
Week Six: Making Sure A 137
Day 28 WEDNESDAY’S COACHING LESSON: SUPER-THINKING
At Bare Bones Biz, Inc., we love problems! A problem is the fertile
soil from which opportunity grows. If your customers didn’t have
problems, they wouldn’t call you.
Say it out loud: “I LOVE PROBLEMS!”
Sometimes we just get stuck. e problem with a problem is that you
don’t know what to do to turn it into an opportunity. en the problem
starts to gnaw at you. A problem can cause you to worry, and worrying
is not good for your health!
Today, you’ll learn a powerful brainstorming exercise: Super-
inking! is Procedure will help you solve problems, get focused,
banish worry and discover opportunity.
Super-inking is based on the classic work of Dale Carnegie. In his
book How To Stop Worrying and Start Living, he says:
Experience has proved to me, time aer time, the enormous value
of arriving at a decision. I found that y percent of my worries
vanish once I arrive at a clear, denite decision; and another
forty percent vanish once I start to carry out that decision. So I
banish ninety percent of worry by taking these four steps:
• WritingdownpreciselywhatIamworryingabout.
• WritingdownwhatIcandoaboutit.
• Decidingwhattodo.
• Startingimmediatelytocarryoutthatdecision.
Our version of Super-Thinking goes like this…
Write down precisely what the problem or challenge is.1.
Write down at least 20 ideas of what might be done about it.2.
Decide what to do.3.
Start immediately to carry out that decision.4.
Dale Carnegie keyed into the most powerful component of this pro-
cess: To solve the problem and banish the worry, you must write it out!
e “overwhelm” goes away once we expose thoughts to paper.
“e greatest pleasure in
life is doing what people
say you can’t do.”
~ Walter Bagehot
138 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Super-Thinking Exercise
In Week Two, you started your Position Descriptions. At that time, we suggested that
you revisit your employee compensation program aer you worked with your Budget
and assembled actual nancial data. You’ve gathered data from the Scorecards, too, and
you have been working on the Procedures. Now you are better prepared to work on your
compensation program.
Today’s exercise is to have a Super-inking meeting with your team to develop a
Bonus Procedure. Start the meeting by letting them know that you appreciate them, that
you intend to make sure that as the company grows they are justly rewarded. Ask for their
help with this challenge…
“How can we reward those who go above and beyond Goals and Performance stan-
dards?”
Now go through the steps of the Super-inking exercise. Insist that they write down
20 ideas. en, write all the ideas down on a ip chart or dry-erase board at the front of
the room.
Note that business is not a democracy. You want their input. And you may even have
the team members vote on their top three favorite ideas. But you will make the nal deci-
sion. Your team expects you to. ey will be pleased that you sought their input. And you
will be well served by letting their opinions impact your decision. at will make it easier
for team members to “buy in” on the Bonus Procedure.
e most important element of our Super-ink version is the list of 20 ideas. Not only
is there a solution to your problem, you have lots of options. e really creative ideas are
going to be numbers 14 through 20!
en, decide…and start immediately to carry out that decision.
e Super-inking exercise can be performed individually or within a group to take
advantage of its creativity.
“The man who
insists upon
seeing with
perfect clearness
before he
decides, never
decides. Accept
life, and you
cannot accept
regret.”
~ Henri Frederic
Amiel
End the meeting. Review the ideas. Look over your performance Scorecards. Consider
the nancial impact of the Bonus Program. Adjust your Budget as needed. en…decide
and ACT.
When you unveil the Bonus Procedure, let your team know that you will “test drive”
it for 60 days. at way, you can measure performance and nancial data and see if the
Bonus Procedure is working. If it needs to be changed, you can Super-ink the solu-
tion.
Update your Position Descriptions and add the Bonus Procedure to your Plan Binder
in the Building the Team section.
Super-inking will help you make sure you keep moving in the direction of your
Mission, Vision and Goals. Use it to help you create Procedures and tackle the projects on
your Top Projects List.
Week Six: Making Sure A 139
Listen to Innovate
Bite your tongue as you list and share
your ideas. If you shut down the ideas too
quickly, you discourage the team. And why
not try something a bit o the wall? You’ll
learn something.
“Life aords no higher pleasure
than that of surmounting diculties,
passing from one step of success to
another, forming new wishes and
seeing them gratied. He that labors
in any great or laudable undertaking
has his fatigues rst supported by
hope and afterward rewarded by joy.”
~ Samuel Johnson
140 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Day 29 THURSDAY’S COACHING LESSON: MAKE SURE YOUR BUSINESS IS
SERVING YOU
Setting Sight Reection Exercise
Spend an hour today reecting on the past six weeks. Pull out your
Journal and start reading it from the beginning. Isn’t it amazing how
much you have accomplished? Your business is dierent from what it
was six weeks ago. Certainly, you’ve changed too.
Reect on all that you have created. Good for you. I am proud of you.
So oen we neglect to acknowledge and enjoy our victories because so
many battles lie ahead. Today, take a moment to congratulate yourself
on your accomplishments. By following this six-week plan, even if you
have only done 25% of what I have asked you to do, you have accom-
plished more than most business owners ever will.
Review your Plan Binder. Flip through each section. As you do, re-
ect on these questions and write your thoughts and feelings in your
Journal…
What has changed…in yourself, in your business? A
What have you accomplished? A
Is your business consistent with your Mission? A
Is your business accomplishing its Vision? A
Is your business supporting your Values? A
Are you making more money? A
Are you making enough money? A
Are you reaching your Goals? A
Are you having fun? A
Are you making a positive dierence in people’s lives? A
Are your relationships strong and healthy? A
Are you t and strong…physically and spiritually? A
Are you moving closer to your Perfect Life? A
If you could shut down your business with a snap of your A
ngers, would you?
You were wise to invest your time the past six weeks improving yourself
“You can have anything you
really, really, really, really want.
at’s the good news. You will
also have anything you really,
really, really, really don’t want.”
~ Dr. Wayne Dyer
Week Six: Making Sure A 141
and your business. Protability can make the dierence between a business that serves
your life and a business that doesn’t. Money is terric, but it is not the only measure of
success. Does your business serve your life?
Remember, if your business falls short of your wildest dreams, there are only two pos-
sible reasons:
You are neglecting to do the Bare-Bones Basics that make all the dierence to 1.
your success.
You are not clear on what you want. 2.
e words of Dr. Wayne Dyer that opened this chapter are a good reminder that we need
to be clear about what we want and focus on it. What we focus on, we manifest.
Draw a line down the center of a page in your Journal. Put a minus sign at the top le
and a plus sign at the top right. Now list the negatives and positives of your business. is
is the classic Ben Franklin method of decision-making. See if the pluses outweigh the
minuses.
Should the business stay in your life? Should it go?
My friend Paul Swan adds another element to the decision-making process: “Test drive”
the answers in your mind. Pretend you snapped your ngers and made the business go
away. How does it feel? Perhaps according to the Ben Franklin test, the minuses outweigh
the pluses. If you nd yourself feeling deeply disappointed with the logical answer, con-
sider how you can change the minuses into plusses.
Should you keep working your business plan or change your direction…and your
business? Essentially, it’s a spiritual question. You are exchanging a good portion of your
life for your business. It has to serve you and it has to serve others. Search your heart.
Meditate. Pray. Ask for peace and guidance.
Many years ago, a friend of mine successfully climbed a 24,000-foot mountain peak.
Aerward, he said something that stuck with me. He mentioned that not everyone made
it to the top. One of the members of his party struggled with altitude sickness and had to
turn around less than 1,000 feet from the summit.
“He must have been hurting pretty bad,” I commented.
“Well,” my friend responded, “It had better be pretty bad before you turn around.
Because once you turn back, the pain goes away. en you forget how bad it was. And you
start to wonder, ‘Could I have made it?’”
Now, you may choose to take a dierent route. Or change your pace… or your climbing
partners. Or you might try again aer you repair some equipment. But if your Mission
represents the summit, if you are clear on what you want, don’t give up. Just keep applying
the Bare Bones Business Basics. Improve your knowledge and skills in each area of your
142 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
business. Make decisions and take action. And press on!
And if you choose another path?
Here is a story from a wonderful book called Mastery: e Keys to Success and Long-
Term Fulllment, by George Leonard:
When Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, was quite old and close to death, the story goes,
he called his students around him and told them he wanted to be buried in his white
belt. What a touching story; how humble of the world’s highest-ranking judoist in his
last days to ask for the emblem of the beginner! But Kano’s request, I eventually realized,
was less humility than realism. At the moment of death, the ultimate transformation, we
are all white belts. And if death makes beginners of us, so does life – again and again.
Today, I make a conscious commitment:
To move forward with my business plan…or choose another path.
I choose…
Signed:_______________________ Date:________________
If you choose to commit to move forward with your plan, don’t question your
decision...for at least six weeks. Give your mind a rest and allow yourself to just be
successful.
Week Six: Making Sure A 143
The Bare Bones Biz Plan will support the decision you made yesterday.
e skills you’ve learned over the past six weeks will help you cra a
better life and be useful in all of your business adventures. I am here to
help you grow in the direction of your Perfect Life!
You are creating the story of your life with each experience. Today’s
lesson is about sharing your story.
The Story of You
Once upon a time, in the late 1970s, there was a young prince named
Andy Grove. Andy was the CEO of Intel, Inc. Andy’s company had a
very focused product line: computer memory chips. Intel was the big-
gest and best producer of computer memory chips in the world.
But in a land far, far away, Japanese manufacturers were creating
their own memory chips. eir chips were faster and less expensive
than Intel’s chips. Intel tried to hang on to market share by seeking
out niche markets for Intel chips and by improving the quality of the
products. All to no avail, for Intel’s prots and market share continued
to dwindle. Shareholders were not happy.
During this crisis, Grove walked into Intel co-founder Gordon
Moore’s oce and asked him a compelling question.
“If we get kicked out and the board brings on a new CEO, what do
you think he’d do?”
“He’d probably get us out of memory chips,” Moore replied.
“Why shouldn’t you and I walk out the door, come back, and do it
ourselves?” Grove asked.
ey decided to abandon Intel’s biggest business – memory – and
move into uncharted waters – microprocessors. It was a gutsy move
that ultimately saved the company.
And they all lived happily ever aer.
Actually, I don’t know about happily ever aer, but I do know that
Intel has more than 80% market share in the microprocessor industry.
Andy Grove uses this story to communicate how Intel has respond-
ed to market changes. He uses it to create a change-tolerant culture at
Day 30 FRIDAY’S COACHING LESSON: TELL YOUR STORY
“Imagining where we want to
go, developing a strategic plan,
setting goals, communicating
the information, executing
the plan and measuring
our progress gives us a
sustainable advantage
over our competitors. It
starts with imagining.”
~ Ernest “J.R.” Richardson
144 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
his company. Andy could just announce to his employees that they need to adapt easily to
change, and the company must take great risks to survive and thrive. He could simply tell
his employees he is a great leader. But it works better to tell the story.
Author Noel M. Tichy tells this story about Andy Grove and describes how winning
companies create leaders at every level in his terric book e Leadership Engine. Tichy
examines leaders like Grove, Dick Notebart of Ameritech and Jack Welch of General
Electric looking for clues as to what makes a great leader. Leaders, he found, develop more
leaders. In this way, they create a company that can continue to win. “Six characteristics,”
Tichy says, “dene winning leaders: teaching, learning, ideas, values, energy and edge.
e ultimate hallmark of world-class, champion leaders is the ability to weave all the other
elements together into vibrant stories that lead their organizations into the future.”
Leadership is all about change. It’s about getting people to follow you into the un-
known. To get people to see the future, rst take them there in their imaginations. Tell
them a story.
Great leaders tell great stories. Tichy describes three kinds of stories that make up a
great leader’s storyline. You can learn the elements of these stories to help you develop
your own storyline…and your leadership skills.
“Who I Am” stories. ese stories explain who you are and how you came to be that
way. Oen, these are stories from your childhood. Did you have to walk six miles to
school each day? Did you drop out of school to run the family business when your dad
got sick? Did you marry your high school sweetheart 47 years ago, and do you still hold
hands at the movies? ese stories illustrate your strengths and values and let folks know
what makes you tick. Are you competitive? at can be a powerful leadership trait. Share
how you discovered your competitive nature by telling a story about winning the 3A high
school wrestling championship.
“Who We Are” Stories. Martin Luther King, Jr., galvanized the Civil Rights Movement
by declaring, “If I am stopped, this movement will not stop. Kill me, but know that if
you do, you have 50,000 more to kill.” rough his speeches, his stories, King created
a nation of activists. He made people understand their roles and responsibilities in his
dream. Great leaders understand that signicant change takes the energy and talent of
other people. Tell stories that illustrate how your team ts into the picture.
“Future” Stories. Cra a story that describes your Mission and why you are so passion-
ately heading in that direction. Create a picture of your Vision. Explain what the business
looks like…a year from now, two years from now and happily ever aer. What are the
career and ownership paths in your company? What are the future opportunities for team
members to pursue to their highest purposes? What future can you build together? What
does your Perfect Life look like?
Week Six: Making Sure A 145
Tell Your Story Exercise
Today, gather your employees. Tell them your story. As Zig Ziglar says, “Rip open your
chest and let them see your heart.”
Your Weekend Homework
Take the weekend o. Recharge! Have fun with your family.
Keep your appointment Sunday night or Monday morning. Look over the Bare Bones
Biz Maintenance Plan…and get growing!
By the way…remember Ted, the owner of See More Blinds, Inc.? Check out his Perfect
Life. He updated it a few days ago.
“Our children
may learn
about heroes
of the past.
Our task is to
make ourselves
architects of the
future.”
~ Mzee Jomo
Kenyatta
146 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan Sample Document
Ted’s Perfect Life Sample Document
I wake up…At 7:30 am. I take a long walk on the beach, right outside my home. I
have breakfast with Anita, my beautiful wife. Eggs and bacon and a perfect piece of
pineapple.
I drive to See More Blinds along the Coast Highway in my new Mini Cooper, dark red
with grey stripes.
At the oce, I do some Managing By Walking Around. I touch base with each team
member. At 10 a.m., we meet to go over the Plan Binder and review our actual
nancial performance and our budgets. Right on target to hit $2 million in sales with
25% growth and protability.
I interview a candidate for our new sales territory. And I hire her. I tell her my story and
I show her my Plan Binder.
After lunch (a cheesesteak from the deli), I work on my Top Projects. We are opening
our second location of See More Blinds. The Grand Opening is scheduled for May.
I call my Board of Advisors, just to say hello and see if I can help them in any way. I
write a check for $100,000 to the Juvenile Diabetes Association. I look up my nancial
portfolio on the Internet and note my net worth is $1 million and I am debt-free. I am
grateful.
At about 2 p.m., I meet with a smart teenager with a terric business idea. We look
through his Plan Binder and I help him tweak his business plan. I agree to invest $500
to get him started.
I meet with Suki to congratulate her on hitting Goals. We work on our employee stock
distribution plan.
arrange a tennis date with our son Max and we agree to meet at 4:30. I call Anita to
have her meet us there and bring our daughter, Roxy, so we can play doubles. In the
evening, we walk through our gardens and pick fresh vegetables for dinner. We play
games and read. I give thanks and pray. I relax …And then I go to sleep.
www.BareBonesBiz.com
877.629.7647
Going
Forward: The
Maintenance
Plan
148 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Six weeks puts the pressure on…so that you will make great progress in a short time.
Congratulations! You did it!
You have a business plan…you have your Bare Bones Biz Plan Binder. is is not a
business plan to be tossed into a le drawer with a dismissive, “ere, that’s done.” e
Bare Bones Biz Plan is designed to get your business jump-started and help you keep your
business growing and thriving. e basics work…from Main Street to Wall Street…as far
as you want to go.
The Maintenance Plan
Keep the good habits you have developed working for you in the weeks to come. Go back
to the beginning of this book. And go through this plan again. Spend one week in each
section of your business and “plus” the work you did the rst time around.
And just like a physical tness program, as your company gets stronger, you will nd
that improving each section of your plan takes less time. Your company won’t need the
attention it needs now as your people become more capable and your systems get simpler
and better.
Six weeks of e Bare Bones Biz Plan will transform your business. However, you can
benet from staying on the plan indenitely. Most importantly, keep your appointment
with yourself Sunday night or Monday morning. Continue to ask the big questions. Keep
asking and listening. ink. Gather data. Consider your options. Decide on a course of
action…and take it.
Here are the basic meetings and reports you need…
Daily
Scorecards for each division
Review sections of your Plan Binder as needed
M.B.W.A. (Managing by Walking Around)
Weekly
Financial Quick Check, Income Statement and Balance Sheet
Budget updates
Marketing Calendar
Mystery Shopping Reports
The Bare Bones Biz Plan!…Business Body-Building!
Week Six: Making Sure A 149
Top Projects meetings as needed
Individual Performance meetings
Sales meeting
Sunday night/Monday morning meeting with yourself
Stop by www.barebonesbiz.com to see what’s new to help you!
Monthly
Month-End Checklist and nancial package
Divisional meetings
May e Bare Bones Biz Plan be part of your lifelong self- and business-
development program!
Keep coming back…to www.barebonesbiz.com!
My Mission is Worldwide Business Literacy. ank you for your support and participa-
tion. I would love to hear your story.
I decided to deliver this book as a downloadable le so that I could get feedback, sug-
gestions, and ideas from YOU…and regularly update and improve the book and the
forms. I am here to serve you and help you start, x and grow your business.
Share your story. You’ve put together your Plan Binder. You’ve spent six weeks creat-
ing your Bare Bones Biz Plan. How are you doing? I want to hear from you! Contact me
to share your experience. I can include your story in the next edition of the book! Oer
suggestions for making it better. What can I do to improve my products and services? I
LOVE hearing from you!
Keep checking in at www.barebonesbiz.com. I am here to help you get going and grow-
ing with your business!
150 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
Special thanks to…
Hot Rod and Max xoxo
Yai, Papu, Lynn, Tae, Gail, Jim, Peggy, Andy, all the Gypsy Kids, Andrea, Shauna, Michelle
and Jon, Paul, Al, Dan, Jim, Steve, Katie, Kelly, JR, Keresa, Lisa, Jamie, Marla, Missy, Lisa,
Cathy, Mo, Courtney, Dianne, Billy, Bill, Tim, Jo, Ruth, Hal, Christian, Jules, Nancy, Dean,
Frank, Harry, John, Jim, Amy, Nick, Pete, Scott, Jim, Steve, Katie, Kelly, Matt, Kim, Lisa,
Donald, Matt, Je, Lisa, Kelley, Jack, Dan, Mike, Lyn, John and all the Revolutionaries, the
Challengers and our beloved Bare Bones Biz Clients...
…and all the others who have helped and inspired me!
Week Six: Making Sure A 151
About Bare Bones Biz and Author Ellen Rohr
I
almost sunk our family business. I assumed I knew
enough about business to run a dinky little plumb-
ing company. Aer all, I had spent about $100,000 of
my parents’ money on my college degree in Business
Administration. In fact, I graduated at the top of my class.
Still, I didn’t know how to balance a checkbook!
I got involved in my husband’s company aer his part-
ner died unexpectedly. Boy, was I humbled! It seemed
like lots of money was moving through the company, but
at the end of the month there was never any money le.
ankfully, I found a mentor, a savvy plumbing contractor. Frank Blau wrote a column in
Plumbing & Mechanical magazine. I wrote to him and asked for help. He took me under
his wing and taught me how to keep score in business. He taught me how to read and use
nancial reports. He taught me how to make money.
We turned our company around. We paid o our business loan. We doubled sales and
tripled the amount of money we took out of the company. Very cool. My husband and I
went middle-age crazy. We sold the company to our employees – a friendly coup d’etat!
– and bought a gentleman’s farm in the country. (Picture “Green Acres.”) At this point, I
realized that I wanted to share what I’d learned. Aer all, if a smart, highly educated per-
son like me didn’t know how to read a Balance Sheet, I gured business illiteracy must be
rampant. I was right.
My experiences since then have included teaching and consulting with hundreds of
small businesses, primarily plumbing and heating companies. In my seminars, I rarely
nd a student who creates and reads nancial statements on a regular basis, much less
uses nancial information to make management decisions. In fact, few know their assets
from their liabilities!
I started Bare Bones Biz – a training and consulting company – to teach folks how to
turn their big ideas into successful businesses. I teach the basics, the simple disciplines
that can take your company from ab to t. I’ve written two books on business basics,
Where Did the Money Go? – Accounting Basics for the Business Owner Who Wants to Get
Protable, and How Much Should I Charge? – Pricing Basics for Making Money Doing
What You Love.
My consulting work led to a position as president of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, a
home-service plumbing franchise company. We grew from zero to $40 million in fran-
chise sales, the 18th-fastest growing franchise in 2003. I learned a lot about what works
to grow fast and protably…and what doesn’t. Guess what! e basics never go out of
152 A The Bare Bones Biz Plan
style, no matter how big a company gets. (If the accounting gets confusing, then watch
out for Tyco- and Enron-esque criminal activity. e buzzword on Wall Street these days
is “transparency.” at means keeping business systems simple and the nancial informa-
tion clearly available, just as I describe in e Bare Bones Biz Plan.)
Bare Bones Biz is an exciting company. I love my team! We work together to develop
books, products, seminars and services designed to help you have more fun and make
more money in business.
is book, e Bare Bones Biz Plan, is an essential part of my plan to help improve
business literacy. It ties into my website, www.barebonesbiz.com, THE community for
BASIC business information.
Together, we can build extraordinary businesses and expand World Peace.
TELL US YOUR BIZ SUCCESS STORY!
e Bare Bones Biz Team
info@barebonesbiz.com
www.barebonesbiz.com
877.629.7647
417.753.3685 fax
3120 S. Know It All Lane
Rogersville, MO 65742
I wish you love, peace and lots of money!
