Herman School of Business
Forward Thinking...
In the past I have spoken out against plans that stretch out to far into the future. That does not mean you avoid forward thinking. You should sit down right now and spend fifteen minutes and ask yourself what your goal is by the end of this year.
Don’t kid yourself about what you can accomplish…assume your pace might pick up a little, but the environment around you is getting tighter. Adjust accordingly. You will have fewer sales, your vendors will raise their prices, your customers will be shopping for discounts, and if you provide a service and not a product some of your clients will do without you in coming months.
Credit crunch has your ability to borrow hindered.
So think. What does the reality of the outside world mean you have to do to overcome the reality of the near future? Forward thinking means being able to see what’s coming and slowing down…or speeding up…to avoid the obstacle in the lane ahead of you.
At a meeting this week of small business owners a banker sponsored the event by providing juice, coffee and donuts and muffins for sixty people. So for about two hundred dollars he was able to get up and speak about the services his bank provided and was able to capture a few prospects to become customers. The audience was the exact target customer for the banker…and he got their attention by addressing the group because he “sponsored” the meeting. Your customers may offer a forum for you to do the same. Use your forward thinking time to plan how you could sponsor an event where your audience is made up of potential new customers.
Forward thinking means something else to me to. It means yesterday is over and spending time wallowing in what happened then will waste time you need thinking about tomorrow. Let the past go. Or it will anchor you right in that spot. You wrecked the car…so what, get it fixed. Your lost an account…go get another one. You hit a home run and just had your best month in sales…go top it this month.
People were made to walk forward for a reason…so we can get where we want to go…in the future, not the past.
- Posted: 2 October 2008
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business success
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