In the midst of the thousands, if not millions, of women’s conferences being held around the country these days, I recently attending a women’s conference in Atlanta with a very different spin on it.
The host, Robin May, was clearly determined to make her fifth conference anything but status quo. Robin is a mental health therapist, business owner, life coach, and author of six books, founder of two growing networks, wife, mother, and girlfriend to numerous ladies across the country. Anyone wearing all of those titles understands the importance of pausing and taking a deep breath. This conference was a place for businesswomen to take a deep breath, reset, and refuel for greater success. It had all the points of your standard women’s conference: motivation, sisterhood, laughter, fashion, prayer, and tears. However, one of the conference speakers came with a tool kit of expansion action. Motivation is great but you will get run over if you have no action plan. Janice Anderson, CEO of Moruwa Consulting, a growth strategist organization, was the perfect twist to the conference. She guided the ladies in a hands on session that seemed like personal consultations with each lady walking out with an action plan. I will share a couple of those steps to help you build your 90-Day Expansion Plan, and expand your business.
Project:Â Make the main thing the first thing by clearly identifying your project. Determine what is it, specifically, you want to work on. Properly identifying the project is a critical point to your expansion plan and being as specific as possible will help you build the plan. Maybe your project is to start your business. You need to identify what type of business and exactly when you want to start it. We will use starting a business as our example for this article.
Goal: This step requires you to establish goals you will need to both create and complete your project. Maybe one of your goals would be to create your SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). At the right time, another goal could be to establish your legal entity.
Obstacles: Many times, we plan for everything to go right. But we also need to identify the things that could go wrong and plan for them. You will be setting yourself up for greater success by using this step. Perhaps, a new start obstacle could be lack of funding. Many great ideas fail due to lack of planning. Be sure to list out all of your potential obstacles. You are not being negative or speaking dooms, you are simply preparing to build a fail-proof plan.
Strategies: You will want to create strategies and processes that allow you to implement your goals, overcome your obstacles, and allow you to successfully complete your project.
I must reiterate: this was no regular women’s conference. Ladies left with their 30, 60, and 90-day plans with the promise of a follow up contact. In all conferences and networking events, it is so important for successful business owners to figure out how to leverage the information obtained so they can execute a plan. Anderson provided additional steps and you can get the full 90-day plan at www.exhale2016.com. In order to be successful, you must be sure to plan your work and work your plan!
Marquita Miller is the founder and CEO of Five Star Tax and Business Solutions — a full service accounting firm in Kansas City, Missouri. A small business expert contributor on CBS & FOX morning shows, Miller is a published author, business strategist, motivational speaker and well-known advocate for entrepreneurship. A recipient of Kansas City’s Influential Woman and Woman Who Means Business award, Miller is also a conference speaker and workshop facilitator for TD Jakes Ministries. www.marquitamiller.com. Twitter:@MarquitaMMiller www.facebook.com/MarquitaMMiller