The Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine

Author:Margaret Lobenstine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780767923965
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2006-01-09T16:00:00+00:00

HOW YOU GET FROM THERE TO HERE:

THE REVERSE FLOWCHART

Flowcharts are the darling of manufacturers, who depend on them for the efficient assembly of everything from ballpoint pens to airplanes. They work like this: you name your goal—say, assembling a ballpoint pen. Then you identify the first step (acquiring the supplies—a plastic shell, the spring that goes inside, the ink cartridge, and the cap) and peg an estimated time of completion; then the second step (inserting the ink cartridge into the plastic shell) with its own target completion time; and so on, until the pen is complete. And it's not only manufacturers who love flowcharts: In my experience nearly everyone does. Caterers use them to keep a lid on pre-party chaos; business owners have flowchart analyses of their quarterly financial goals tacked over their desks; and lots and lots of individuals use them to slice their biggest dreams into a series of bite-sized actions. But this conventional business tool doesn't always help when what you're trying to assemble is a brand-new, as-yet-unknown, experience. How can you identify a task you may not even know exists or determine how long something will take you when you've never done it before?

This is what Joy, a client of mine, discovered when she fell in love with handmade sweaters on a trip with her husband through Europe. She became excited about opening a store devoted to top-of-the-line sweaters in the resort community where she lived. But she'd never run her own business or worked in retail before. How was she to know whether to draw up a business plan first and use it to attract backers, or get the financing lined up first and then lay out her business plan according to how much money she raised? And how could she figure out whether she'd need to trademark her store's name, when she was totally new to this endeavor, or take a course in employment law? What about family obligations? How would she manage those while running a business?

At this stage of the process, a better tool for Joy was the reverse flowchart. The reverse flowchart is like a treasure hunt in which you find the treasure right off the bat. So your first step is to identify your goal. Joy's goal was to have her own imported-sweater shop, fully stocked and open for business.

The next step is to ask: What are three steps you know you'll need to take before you find your treasure? Even if you're a novice to your new activity, you can probably take a stab at the answers. Joy came up with these three steps: (1) secure financial backing, (2) set up accounts with suppliers, and (3) learn the legal requirements for small businesses.

Then Joy asked herself: “What do I need to do before I can get financial backing?” Although Joy knew almost nothing about corporate financing, she could say: “I need to know more about who offers this kind of backing.” She knew that banks lend money, and that sometimes business owners raise capital by bringing investors on board.

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