Day Five: Create Your Business Road Map

Now it’s time to create the road map you will work by over the next few months. In this step you’ll take all the information you´ve captured and create a month-by-month plan for action. The key to remember is your success is dependent on your action. If you do all this work and never take any action on it, you’ve wasted a bunch of time. Time you don’t have to waste — right?

So here we go. Let’s take those goals you created yesterday and break them down into achievable pieces. The best way to do that is to brainstorm each goal at a time. When you’re brainstorming, thoughts come randomly. Just write down what you think of. You can put them in order later. Don’t bother to do it now because it will interrupt the flow of the process and you won’t come up with near as good of a list.

Here’s an example. Goal: Find a product that provides passive income for my business.

Brainstorm Action List

• Check website stats for what people are searching on
• Review client records for “need to have” theme
• Conduct survey of clients to determine wants and needs
• Search affiliate sites to see what’s available — ClickBank, Commission Junction, LinkShare
• Determine best format for product — audio, video, book, membership, digital delivery, mail delivery
• Identify costs to deliver
• Create product or secure affiliate product
• Announce to current clients and prospects
• Create website / web page
• Send news release
• Advertise — online (PPC, newsletters, websites) and offline (print pubs, speaking, memberships)

Once you’ve created the action item brainstorm list for each goal, you’ll need to put them in order and assign a projected completion date. The easiest way to do that is to decide on a completion date for your goal, then put your brainstormed list of action items in reverse order. Identify the last thing you need to do for the goal to be completed first, then work backwards. If you missed an action item, add it into your list. Make sure you assign each action item a realistic date as you move through the process.

That’s it. You’re done. See how simple that was? Now you have a plan to work from to achieve your goals for next year. But remember, having a plan does not change anything. Working the plan does. The key to successfully working a plan is to keep it front and center. Your plan should drive your daily activities. Bounce everything you do each day against your action plan and decide whether it’s going to help you achieve the goals you’ve established.

Got questions? Send me an email or leave me a comment. Don’t forget to tell me about your success. I’d love to hear from you.