Everybody’s got a plan… whether its written down on paper, somewhere in your computer, or in your head.  But having a plan is not good enough.  Sure its a start but that’s the excuse we all use.

A plan means nothing unless you execute on it.  Like they say,”talk is cheap”.

I wrote about execution earlier in my post entitled “Strategy is nothing without execution“.  This is a very imporatant topic and you can bet that I’ll write more about this later.

The best way to execute on a plan is to break it down in to small, what they call ‘bite-size’ chunks.  This helps you feel good about getting things done without having to bite off too much to chew :-)

For example… if you want to write a business plan, the first step would be to come up with a list of the things required:

1. company name
2. definition of the idea
3. list of competitors
4. thoughts on what makes you different
5. what the market opportunity is like
6. how much money you’ll need
7. how much money you can make

… and so on.

Then you could set some realistic goals for each item.  The key to goals are that they need to be realistic and soon.  Setting a goal to have the business plan ready in 60 days means nothing.  But if you say that you’ll do step 1 tonight, step 2 tomorrow, step 3 the next night, etc., then you can see how you’ll make progress.

So when you make a plan, don’t forget to plan the execution part.  Execution will be the most important part of each plan.