Business Plans: Better than Duct Tape

Profile: Dan Shundoff
Founder, President, and CEO Intellicom Computer Consulting Inc.

Location: Kearney and Grand Island, Nebraska

Established: 1993

Number of employees: 22

Revenue: $3 million in 2007, $4 million in 2008

Web site:www.intellicominc.com

Company focus: Full-service IT outsourcing for the SMB market, offering network design, engineering, implementation, and deployment, as well as managed services, help desk, Web design, and other services

Favorite part of my job: The cumulative positive impact we have when we engage with customers and help them grow more aggressively and with less risk, which creates hundreds and hundreds of jobs for people in our region.

Least favorite part: Traveling

Words of wisdom: Business isn’t sustainable without vision. You can’t control the change that’s required in our business and stay ahead of the game without it.

In response to our ever-changing world, our company has implemented countless strategies. And our success rate in navigating challenges that have arisen from those strategies has spanned both ends of the success/ failure spectrum. But of all the successful processes we’ve developed, nothing has had as deep and broad an impact, or delivered such immediate and lasting results, as writing our business plan. It’s the one tool no business should be without. It’s a living, 3D map that connects the dots and enables you to see a manageable forest rather than a million needy trees. In fact, if Mac- Gyver ever decided to stop saving the world and start a business, he should trade his duct tape and paper clips for a great business plan.

Great business plans start with clear statements of a company’s mission, vision, and values (MVV). These are the common threads that are woven into the plan’s objectives, strategies, and tactics, ensuring that it is not only a road map for daily execution, but the foundation for commitments to clients, each other, and the communities in which we live and work. The plan then provides a company with the stability and direction to keep clients happy and staff and management on task. It also affords a growing business the flexibility to react to market changes.

Using our MVV, we can craft objectives and strategies aimed at our number one priority: our customers. So the parts of our business plan that detail our markets, geographies, verticals, and product/service mix—as well as the objectives, strategies, and plans for each—are customer-centric. They require a clear understanding of who our customers are, their needs and challenges, and how we will address those needs better than anyone else. By focusing our plan on specific customers and their needs instead of on all things possible under the sun, we avoid distractions, stay on task, and achieve our objectives.

For example, we’ve defined our SMB market as companies with fewer than 250 employees and our geographic market as communities with populations of fewer than 50,000. Both of these provide us with room for growth as our plan evolves. It’s easier to build a narrow plan and broaden it later than to build an all-encompassing plan and attempt to narrow it over time.

Although our business plan is customer-centric, it is strongly aligned with our employees. A great plan lays the groundwork for deep and lasting business relationships, but has an identical framework for building employee relationships with commitment, trust, and loyalty. Regular communication from management about the state of the business helps employees connect their individual roles and responsibilities with the objectives of the company. The team can relate their personal and professional interests and values with the business plan, building confidence and excitement around the objectives and strategies.

Communication also provides employees with enough information that they can align their advanced skills education and training with the goals of the company and deliver market-leading products and services that meet the needs of our clients. Jobs quickly become career paths full of satisfaction, challenges, and opportunities. When purpose and passion are part of objectives and strategies—and when decisions are made with honesty and trust, and are consistent with your plan—unity within the organization reaches a new level and vision becomes reality. If you look closely enough, your business plan should be dripping with culture.

Finally, a good business plan reaps significant rewards with the many business partners you depend on for success. Making time to share your plan, objectives, strategies, and tactics with your top vendors and distribution partners is critical. By sharing your plan and providing state-of-thecompany updates, your partners can provide support, remove barriers, mitigate risks, and fill in some of the gaps. The same holds true for your banker, accountant, mentors, and advisers. Nothing attracts the interest of top resources and support networks like a good business plan and regular communication about business obstacles and achievements.

Like MacGyver, managing challenges requires that we be part Indiana Jones, part Sherlock Holmes, and part Thomas Edison. Of course, most of us will never have to turn a faucet into a blowtorch or start a truck with a hockey ticket. But when it comes to building a high-performance company, a great business plan along with some quick wits is a surefire way to achieve business success.