What Would You Do If You Could Not Fail? It's Time To Revisit Your Business Plan

Every year, when I was running a large relocation department, my senior staff and I did strategic business planning. We came up with very specific tasks and goals and assigned each item to someone who was responsible for driving the initiative. We did a good job of staying on task and revisiting it throughout the year. And every year, for several years, there was a program that I put on the plan that was specifically for me to create, and it never happened. We accomplished a huge amount of the actions and achieved a lot of goals, but I never quite found the time for this one. The reason for that is that stuff gets in the way, or at least I told myself that. We mentally prioritize either based on our interest or how hard or viable or expensive or time consuming the task is. We find ourselves being reactive and dealing with the most current issue at hand or one that might be easier to accomplish or a guaranteed success. Had I created that program, we might have generated a lot of new opportunities.

We all happen to be dealing with an issue that has derailed us from the business plan we wrote in 2019. That’s ok, nobody predicted a curve ball the magnitude of what we are facing.  But it doesn’t mean we should abandon the plan, just adjust it to meet the demands before us, sort through the chaos and move some things up the list. Maybe it’s time we stopped solely depending on corporate relocation from others as our principal source of business.

With possibly more downtime due to the temporary slowdown in business, it might be a good time to actually visit some of those items, because you might find yourself with uninterrupted time.  No unannounced pop ins from coworkers. No travel and fewer meetings means more time to think and strategize. Try and shut out the distractions while working remotely. Even if we are busy again, it’s not too late to refocus our efforts. As volume begins to return to normal, don’t get lulled into the same old ways, because corporate relocation may not fully recover for a while.  Broaden your base of business.

I have brokers contact me about wanting me to help them start a relocation department and they invariably say, “We have been wanting to do this for a long time, but have never gotten around to it”. The first couple of times someone said that to me, I was taken aback. I’m not sure why. I think it is because it seems so obvious. Why on earth would you not have made it a priority? Why would you not create a new source of revenue? And I’m not just talking about creating a relocation department, I am talking about all of the juicy business lines that can be administered by company generated business staff. And then I thought about my own business plan with the never created program on it. And what I realized is that I didn’t really know what that program would have generated, so I blissfully ignored it. That’s what brokers and relocation directors do. What we don’t create won’t hurt us or cost us, but it certainly isn’t helping us.

We might avoid taking on new initiatives because it might be hard or take an investment of time or money. Or maybe we just don’t understand it well enough. But what if we knew it would be wildly successful once we achieved it? What if we knew we could not fail? Wouldn’t we be more likely to make the time, find the resources and set aside the budget?  Even if it means hiring someone with expertise to come in and create it with you, it would be worth it. And while you are at it, start thinking about 2021 and how we might shift our business plan to thrive in the new environment. It’s time to look for opportunity where it might not have existed before. Don’t let another year pass saying, ‘we just never got around to it’.  There are enough success stories out there to provide the evidence that if you go for it, it will be worth it.

Now as we are halfway through this awful year, it is the perfect time to drag out that plan. Dust it off and determine what new programs might set us apart from the competition, or help us recruit and retain, or contribute to a struggling bottom line or improve customer service. Don’t let the drama of what’s going on around us get in the way of laying the foundation that can bring in revenue to set you and your company apart in the future. What would you do if you could not fail?

“Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” ~ Jack Canfield, American Author, Motivational Speaker