If You’re Planning, You’re Guessing

The way I look at it, long-term business planning and forecasting is really just guessing…fantasy.

Why do I think this way? Well, there are just too many variables outside of what you can actually control: market conditions, your competition, your customers, the darn economy, etc. In business school and in all business journals you’re told to ‘write a business plan.’ What’s the point? The problem with it is this:

Writing a business plan makes you feel in control of things you really can’t control.

So much effort is made stressing about business plans, financial projections, and stratagem…but these are all just guesses! When you start to think about it like that, there’s really no need to stress.

You’re on the ‘highway to the danger zone’ when you start turning guesses into work. When you plan, you let the past drive the future, it’s like wearing blinders. Planning conflicts with improv and innovation.

Business is all about improvising. You have to be able to take on an opportunity when it comes along.

And think about this: When do you have the most information about something? When you’re right in the middle of it. This is why long-term plans are so messed up, planning something long-term before you’ve actually done it doesn’t make any sense, before is actually the worst time to make an important decision.

Now, you should always be thinking about the future and how you’re going to overcome impending hurdles. You just don’t need to feel like you have to write it down and become fixated over it. Am I right: Plans that are written down and longer than a page or two just wind up in some filing cabinet that you never look at again?

Quit guessing. Just decide what you’re going to do this week. Stop worrying about this year. Start working on the next most important thing that needs to be done.

Working without a plan might seem scary, but following a plan blindly that has no correlation with reality is even more terrifying.

We’re winging it here at Hillsports. We’ve got our ticket, we’re on the plane and it has taken off. We’ll pick up a nicer shirt, shaving cream, and a toothbrush once we land.

Small…and Proud of It!

We get asked the question, “How big is your company?” a lot. It seems like the bigger the number the more impressed people are.

We only have 15 employees spread out across 3 locations. We’re a small business and we’re proud of it.

What is it with expansion? Why is that always the goal? What’s so attractive about being big? Other than you get to puff your chest out and have a big ego?

We’ve found that 15 is our number. It’s the right size because it’s…sustainable. What’s wrong with that?

Does anyone ever look at Princeton University and say, “If they could only expand and go global, then they’d be a great school!” No, because that’s not how you measure quality…so why would it be any different in business?

It’s important to grow a little to see what size feels right – often times premature hiring can spell sudden doom to a business. Being small is not just a good stepping-stone, it’s actually a really great destination. Many large companies dream about being more agile and flexible, but once you get big it’s really difficult to shrink without having to fire people, destroying morale and changing the way you do business along the way.

Ramping up is not our goal. We serve some really awesome customers across Utah, Nevada, and Arizona…we even have great customers spread out in other states, it’s enough to keep us busy and happy!

When You Work With Us

The other day I was bidding on a non-profit organization’s apparel. They had never ordered from us before but heard many good things about working with us from our satisfied customers (thank you guys!).

What they wanted required a lot of work on our end and their budget was very limited so we gave them the best pricing we could in order to get them into exactly what they wanted. Turns out our price was about the same as another company’s prices. The new customer had to make a decision, so she asked, “This other company is closer to our office, so what’s the benefit of going through Hillsports?” What she was really asking me was, “What is your competitive advantage? Or, what do you do better than everyone else?”

My answer was simple, “You get to work with me!”

Purchasing decisions would be so easy if cost was the only factor involved in decision making. Have you ever gotten a really good deal, then received a horrible product? That’s the worst way to learn that you get what you pay for. In our industry if you’ve got a printer that’s offering a better deal it’s probably because he’s cutting corners. We all buy from the same vendors, and they’re sticklers so none of us will get a special deal without the other having access to it as well.

When you work with us, here are some perks we like to offer because we’ve learned that they are super important to our customers:

• Free Artwork – Yes, we actually provide this labor free of charge. We figure if you’re going to buy shirts from us the least we can do is design you up something nice as a courtesy. Plus, the image on your shirt is a reflection of us too!
• Proofs – We won’t print or embroider your stuff without sending you a proof to approve before we print. It just makes sense. Surprises are for Christmas, no one likes a surprise on 100 custom t-shirts.
• Pleasant People – You deserve to deal with people who are happy to serve you because you’re the one keeping us in business.
• No Salesman – We don’t like pushy and intimidating salesman, so why would you? Sure we may lose sales over not being pushy enough, but that’s Ok with us, we’re “Facilitators” not “Salesman.”
• On-Time – If we can’t meet your deadline, we will tell you upfront. We won’t take a payment unless we plan on delivering the order exactly to spec and on time. We never leave our teams hanging.
• Top-Notch Products – We won’t cut corners, doing so makes us all look bad and cheap. Our goal is to have you say WOW! We’re not here to make a buck on the job and then run you off. We want your business forever and we want you to be happy.

We Still Feel Happy

Before we sign off for the weekend, I wanted to plug this Huffington post article that reports how notwithstanding rampant unemployment (which is really around 15%) and a national foreclosure crisis, most people are still feeling pretty happy.

Our last blog post was about how the things we do for free are what bring us the most happiness, not the amount of money we earn. According to the results of this poll by Harris Interactive, the poorest Americans were not the least happy. After breaking it down by income classifications, those earning between between $75,000 and $99,999 were the least satisfied. Those making the least, under $34,499, were actually the third happiest income bracket (out of five).

Enjoy the weekend and remember the rewards of charity far outweigh the rewards that are driven by money.

Follow the Non-money

While I’ve been blogging on the subject of motivation, I realized that it is critical to understand motivation in order to more fully comprehend a person or a company’s story.

Whenever you read about someone (or some business) doing something, often your first move is to figure out what their motivation was – or, what’s in it for them?

As people we’re curious and therefore want to know why someone is acting the way they are acting. Your friends, family, customers, investors, vendors and boss all want to know what makes you tick. Usually the instinctive explanation is: money.

“She works 50+ hours a week, but that’s because she gets paid so much.”

“He only wants me to buy that t-shirt because he works on commission.”

Sure, in some cases these explanations are right on. Except they almost always are not.

People don’t volunteer all those hours coaching a little league team for the money. Because there isn’t any!

People don’t work at their jobs from sun-up to sun-down and on weekends because they have to…they have coworkers that get paid just as much who work less.

I have to laugh when I call a customer to follow-up on their uniforms before the season starts. Sometimes I get treated like a ‘salesman’ because they think I’m trying to prod them along…I’m really trying to take care of them so the kids have uniforms by the time the season starts. I’m really saving the coach from the kid’s parents.

No, most people don’t do things only for money. There’s usually a minimum salary that gets someone to choose a job and stick with it, but after that the things we do are expressions of who we are and what we love and the impact we wish to make, not selfish acts designed to earn a few extra bucks (I bet no one is paying you to read this blog).

People don’t always pick the job that pays the best. People don’t always buy the cheapest t-shirt. I believe most of the meaning and activity in our lives comes from the things we do for free, or the choices we make about where we work, not the financial exchanges we do to support ourselves.

Before you choose to follow the money, follow the non-money first.