It’s an old phrase that some may consider a cliché but in terms of planning for your business it is absolutely spot on.
The phrase is usually credited to Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a remarkable man and was famous as an author, diplomat, inventor, politician, printer, scientist and statesman. Clearly he liked to keep busy.
As such a busy man he well knew the perils of procrastination, the act of postponing or delaying something, and this is at the heart of the saying. If you are going to do something and it is possible to do it straight away, then don’t delay; get on and do it.
This can be the problem with planning. It is all very well planning to do something but what happens next? Very often it is easy to find an excuse not to do it.
“I’ve just got to get through these emails and I’ll be right on it.” You won’t.
“I’ll sleep on it in case I get a better idea.” You won’t.
“Things may look different in the morning.” No, they won’t.
You have a problem that needs solving so get on and deal with it. Planning is all very well but it needs to be implemented or it is worthless.
In the words of Nike, ‘Just do it’.