Plan Your Business - Backwards

by Erroin Martin
(Branford, CT, USA)

Happy New Year! In an effort to join the chorus of blogs, posts, and tweets wishing you success and tips for planning for your resolutions, I am going to add a bit of twist. When it comes to your business, especially when it comes to your business plans you should build into this New Year the concept of backwards planning.

What is this planning backwards you ask? Well, it is a method used when you have specific date(s) in mind. Let’s say you are launching an herbal and alternative health business. You plan to hold a Grand Opening for your new business venture on the first of April. You are smart, you know what items you need to make this Grand Opening a success.

You need advertisements, fliers, mailers, business cards, a website, press releases, and etc. Without adequately knowing how long each of the above items can take to completion or believing that everything can get quickly accomplished before the big day can lead you, and your business, to a very poor start. So, you apply the principles of backwards planning. You research how long each piece of your Grand Opening will take. You take into consideration back ups just in case something cannot be completed on time. With this information in your hands you can assign the resources needed to make this Grand Opening the best loudest mother of all Grand Openings ever experienced.

To plan effectively you need to know how long everything takes.

The above was just a glossing over of what is involved. Here are the nitty gritty details to backwards planning.

With the Grand Opening date set, as we said April 1st, and the information on how long each part of the project can take you from your research, here is an example of what backwards planning looks like:


April 1 – Grand Opening

March 27 – Advertising Campaign Begins

March 29 – Wave 4 Mailings

March 25 – Wave 3 Mailing

March 15 – Wave 2 Mailings

March 1 – Wave 1 Mailings (Save the Date)

March 1 – Website launched

February 22 – Final Mailing List Delivered

February 15 – Mailing List Broken into Waves

February 8– Proof Mailing List

February 1 – Mailing List Building Begins

Now of course actions would be assigned to members of your team and capital resources determined ahead of time to keep costs down. There would also be more detail. With a calendar in hand (which is an essential tool for backwards planning) you can mark down when the events or milestones should be met.

It allows you to clearly see targets.

To refresh, the concept of backwards planning is that you work backwards from the date you want to achieve a specific goal or task. It allows you to clearly see when targets should or must be met and allows you to quickly assign resources to the most prioritized tasks. The best part of this business planning tool is that it allows you to get rid of the non-essential items that waste time and resources.


Unlike GANTT charts, which plan items in a forward looking fashion, therefore allowing items to creep in and cause delays, this tool is easy to grasp and use.

How do you plan for your business?


About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a coaching and consultancy provider for businesses and medical practices. He has over eleven years experience working within the pharmaceutical industry in various levels of leadership across six continents. He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079. You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin



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