If following tried-and-true processes and templates for your small business can lead to success, then perhaps Richard B. Sanford’s “Success By Design: How to Create Ever-Increasing Income, Profit & Wealth in the World of Small Business” may be the answer.
Sanford, an entrepreneur who has launched eleven successful small enterprises over a 40-plus year career, challenges the reader to employ what he calls “Simplified Strategic Business Planning” for their business that can help them generate increasing revenue and profits. He carefully explains that this approach is not about the creation of a business plan – which focuses on pro-forma financial statements, sales projections, cash flow details etc – but one that helps the entrepreneur visualize and understand his company’s mission, purpose, business objectives, and the action plans that help achieve its goals.
The book guides the reader, in a hands-on and step-by-step process, to create their own “strategic business plan”. You’ll learn how to put together company objectives categorized by business functions, assemble a workable (and realistic) action plan for the year, and even create a “Spook Book”, essentially a business espionage and intelligence plan. It sounds like a lot of template filling, but since it’s a relatively small book, you’ll go through it in no time. I’m sure that, as a small business owner myself, I won’t be employing everything in this book, but there are definitely sections I find useful for implementation.
Will following everything in “Success By Design” guarantee you business success? Probably not. But it will definitely help you crystallize the essence of your business, and perhaps even set you on the right path for future world domination.
