A Simple Plan of Action

In my last blog I mentioned creating a Plan of Action.  This can be a list or chart that you write down or manage on a spreadsheet. I thought I would share my Plan of Action for those who may feel it's too intimidating to create one, or for those who have never written anything down and need a starting point.

Simple

When I say simple, I mean simple. Your Plan of Action doesn't have to be elaborate, fancy, or intricate. It is a guide for your daily, weekly, and monthly plan to steer your business to success. It allows you to put down your goals, track your progress in working towards them, and then evaluate how well you executed your plan.

The Layout

I have 5 columns on my spreadsheet: Date, Action, Goal , Actual, and Notes.

1. Date – Ideally you want to fill out your Plan of Action the week before you want to implement it. I put the dates in that I plan on working on the goal.
   
   
2. Action – This is the breakdown of what it is I want to do ( i.e. Call leads, Follow up with Jane Doe).
   
   
3. Goal – I place the number or desired outcome to the action I listed. So if my action was to call leads then my goal would be how many I plan to contact that day, such as 5. If my goal was to follow up with Jane Doe then my goal would be to get her to sign a contract and pay the retainer.
   
   
4. Actual – This is where I put the actual results I obtained from my action. If my goal was to call 5 leads what actually happened? Did I call 5 leads? Or did I only call 3 leads? Did I get to send Jane Doe a contract? Did she ask me to call back next week?
   
   
5. Notes – I use this column to add details about my actual results. If I was supposed to call 5 leads and only called 3 I need to be accountable as to why I fell short. Since Jane Doe asked me to send the contract what additional notes about the conversation do I need to document?  Adding details about your results will help you in preparing your Plan of Action for the following week and allow you to reflect on why a particular course worked or didn't work.

That is it. Simple and straight forward. What does your Plan of Action include? Share it with us.

A Sample Spreadsheet Layout for a Plan of Action