What Do You Want to Be in Business When You Grow Up?

A few years ago, while working for corporate America, I hung a poster at my desk that read, "There are those who travel and those who are going somewhere...successful people have this over their rivals, they know where they are going." I would look at it often; thinking then that it would give me daily motivation to plan and pursue the career track that I had envisioned. I was then in a position that included helping and advising entrepreneurs daily. I was reviewing business plans and processing loan applications for entrepreneurs. But be an entrepreneur? Maybe in five years or so, I thought.

Soon, after twice being denied the position I had worked hard for, I came to the realization that my "Plan B" had to take effect. Since the position I wanted was denied me, I decided to create one for myself. So I started to plan for my dream.

This, my dear reader, is the beauty of planning. It helps you define a path for where you want to go, and then it guides you in the execution of your vision. Planning is what makes people go from daydreamer to believer. Remember the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" If you answered, "a doctor," you then spent much of your young adulthood planning to be one. You most likely tried to do well in science classes in high school, applied to colleges that offered great pre-med programs, prepped for medical school examinations, applied to medical school after college and mapped out which medical schools you would want to attend, what medical school and residency would entail, and so forth.

Well, this is the same route you would need to take as an aspiring entrepreneur, startup business or business owner. The difference is that you can plan with pizzazz; your business and vision plan is all about you, your visions, your personal style, your uniqueness, your special clients and the purpose that drives you.

You figure out what you want to be in business, and how you want your business to grow up. Then you plan to be this. It's that simple. "Business plans," "business planning," are just simple terms to help answer the questions: Who do you want to be when you grow up? Where do you want to end up in business? What kind of entrepreneur will you be? With the answers to these questions, you then have the ability to make your process as unique as you are.

Sometimes, of course, plans will change. In my case, my Plan B became my Plan A. I had planned for my career track; now I was left to plan for entrepreneurship. Instead of mapping out possible bonus pay and how I would invest the extra money, I was strategizing a way to pay the bills while I pursued self-employment. The one thing that remains is this, I had a plan!

OK, so maybe I'm cheating a little because I've always liked to plan. I've always believed in the saying by Mary Kay Ash, "Within yourself lies everything you ever dreamed of being." And my belief is rooted firmly in the thought that it all starts with a plan.

Next: Three Simple Planning Exercises