Having a Plan B in your back pocket

As we travel on the entrepreneurial journey we will without doubt at some point slam into a T-junction. Our life will be interrupted with a necessary change of direction.

Having a Plan B in place allows you to change quickly with enthusiasm, if Plan A with all alternatives fails. A sound well thought out plan B in your back pocket gets you to move ahead with confidence on Plan A. You know that in the back of your mind, you can, with confidence, shift if you really need to. This is not to say that you must change direction as soon as you hit an obstacle. Plan B kicks in, when you have exhausted all avenues on Plan A.

Not having an alternative, clouds your mind, creates unnecessary stress, closes you in a box, and sometimes forces you into desperate situations. It is also often ends in "giving up".

Just because your initial project, idea, or goal, doesn't work out, this is not a sign that you have failed or a reason to give up. It just means that you have to re-engineer your strategy or re-define your goal. The most direct route is not always the right way.

What you need to do is to:

- Establish all the things that could go wrong in your business and how you would remedy them, one by one, before any one of these obstacles cross your path.

- Create a Business Plan B. For quick implementation when all doesn't work out in your current direction.

This might mean that you may never have to reach for your back pocket for Plan B.

With Courtesy of Mike Anderson CEO NSBC