Concept
The first-year plan
The first-year plan is one page: at the top, the picture of the business at the end of year one; below it, the five lines of the one-page plan with real numbers; and three commitments, the profit percentage, one system written down, and the referral standard. One page because it is read every week.
Guillebeau's founders wrote one page and Gerber's entrepreneur starts from the end, and the first-year plan is both. The picture at the top is concrete: how many customers, what revenue, what the owner's week looks like, including the day off. The five lines beneath are the offer, the customer, the price, how they find you and how you get paid, now with the numbers the first customers have taught you. The three commitments are the road's later Stations made specific. The plan is a guess, as Rework insists, and the weekly owner review is where it is corrected: the lines below the picture are rewritten as often as the numbers say, and the picture is kept.
A real-life example
A baker's page: 120 regular households by next August, 22,000 lira a month, four bakes a week, Sundays off. Five lines with real numbers. Profit at eight percent, the nine-page manual kept current, the after-delivery message weekly. In month five she rewrites two lines and keeps the picture.
How to use it
- 1Write the picture of the end of year one first, including your week.
- 2Fill the five lines with the numbers your first customers taught you.
- 3Commit to three things: a profit percentage, one system, one referral standard.