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Planning for the Future
4:00 with Paul BoagDesigners often get so caught up in day-to-day work that they don't think about the future of their business. Take steps to stay focused and not overstretch.
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So last few thoughts I want to leave you with before we
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move on from this area of creating new business
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is planning for the future and thinking about the future.
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The trouble is you can get so caught up with the day to day work of dealing
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with clients and all their problems and the challenges of keeping
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up-to-date with the latest web techniques that we don't spend enough
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time to think about the future of all businesses.
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We need to be really careful that we plan our businesses properly
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and we're always looking ahead to the next step.
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So, is it really important to stay focus and not to over stretched yourselves
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that we can get so ambitious with our plans sometimes
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and start so many different things that we never follow through.
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So there is a balance to be struck here.
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With planning for the future, trying new stuff, but also not over stretching ourselves.
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The key here is to set aside regular time to think strategically
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about where we're going with our business.
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It's so hard to do but so incredibly important.
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So let's take a moment to consider how we go about setting aside that time
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and what we do with that time when we have it.
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The first piece of advice I would provide
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is consider getting an outside perspective.
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At our company, we have a nonexecutive director
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that is not involved in the day to day work of our web design agency at all.
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Instead, we get him in to provide a fresh perspective.
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This has a couple of benefits.
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First of all, it means that there are designated times when he is coming in
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that we have to stop day to day work and think strategically
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about the future direction of the company.
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The second benefit is he encourages us to think in ways
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that we've never thought before.
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Because he is outside of the business, he provides a perspective
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that we can never have if somebody that works day to day in the business.
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He provides that different perspective you need, and you need to find
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somebody that does view the world very differently to you.
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For example, the person that we have is our known executive director.
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He is used to working with companies that have an exit strategy,
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that build up and then they're sold off by the owners.
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So we are very different for him because we run a lifestyle business.
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But, he is constantly challenging us to maybe be more
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ambitious in our plans for the business.
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So having someone with a different perspective is hugely useful.
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Another piece of advice when it comes to planning for the future
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is to stay flexible.
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It's so easy to get entrenched in ways of working.
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And see you always need to keep an eye out and ask yourself,
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Are the things that I've done in the past still relevant in the future?
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For example, it's so easy to get so deeply entrenched with the particular technology
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or particular way of working that when something new and radical comes along
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it's too much for us to cope with.
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Maintaining that flexibility is the secret to running a successful business long term.
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You also need to be willing to take calculated risks.
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We've done so many things as a company where we've tried new areas
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where we branched out into different directions.
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Some of those have succeeded but I have to be honest,
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a lot of them have failed and you need to do it anyway.
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Don't let failure demoralize you.
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Make sure you've got good cash reserves behind you to
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support you when do make mistakes.
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And you'll be fine.
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Winston Churchill said the best quote that I love more than anything else
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and I apply it everyday when I think about growing my business.
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The quote was "Success is going from failure to failure
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with no loss of enthusiasm."
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