Approaches this planning phase having already undergone some critical attitudinal shifts during the searching period. Most important, she has come to appreciate her value as separate and distinct from the organization and, as a result, now has a vision of how she can employ her core skills in the marketplace. Through this process, has, in effect, developed the mission portion of her action plan. By assessing her core skills and experimenting with possible applications of those skills, has already envisioned what is possible in her future work lives. At this juncture, also has a pretty clear sense of which employment vehicle is best suited for her, given her core skills and what she hopes to achieve. The employment vehicle that will enable an individual portable executive to carry out her action plan can range from operating as a sole practitioner on a contract basis, to acquiring an existing business to starting a new business or returning to a large organization as an employee.
Ongoing Planning
As moves from the generalized transition phase to actual portability, it is important to realize that business planning is not a one time activity, but a core process that reviews, evaluates, and adjusts on an ongoing basis. Depending upon the individual's circumstances and requirements, this process can be as simple as planning a daily schedule, or as complex as comparing one's actual results with monthly benchmarks or creating a formal long term action plan. The specific approach a portable executive takes will be influenced by both personal style and the employment vehicle she chooses, but it should be orderly and consistent since the action plan should serve her over time.
Organizational Planning Versus Self planning
In assessing their attitudes, attributes, and core capabilities, portable executives come to understand themselves as personal service business entities rather than as employees of organizations. As you begin to develop your own action plan, recognize that as an independent business entity, you must weigh substantially different factors in your planning process than you did while employed by a large organization. For example, your action plan needs to account for the fact that as a portable executive you are limited by time, your individual mental and physical capabilities, and the availability of capital.
While many of the aspects of developing your action plan are taken from standard business planning procedures, there are essential differences as you are now involved in planning, not organizational planning. Following are the essential differences between the two:
Although some self planning should primarily encompass the nontraditional approach to creating a business that evolved during the searching period, traditional methods of creating a business plan should be considered as well. However, any solid business plan must incorporate a flexible series of steps or programs that can be adjusted to changes in the marketplace. 's self plan must also anticipate the unavoidable changes that occur as life passes. The professional athlete's career, for instance, is an excellent example of the need to plan for changes that accompany aging.
Prior to discussing the nontraditional elements incorporated in a portable executive's planning, it is important to review the three traditional elements of a business plan that must address: market research, competition, and financing.
Market Research
Throughout the searching phase of the job creation process, you probably did a great deal of market research in order to come to an understanding of how best to employ your skills and capabilities in the marketplace. Analyzing marketplace realities is essential in creating any business plan, but it is particularly critical for you as a portable executive, since, as you will see in the next chapter, it significantly affects your action plan.
The more you know about the realities of the marketplace, the better able you will be to adapt and recombine your core capabilities. In the planning phase, your market research should not be broad based, but rather aimed at defining applications, targeting markets, and identifying customer bases. Business owners Carol and Bob Fernier run a marketing business from their home in Vermont. Though the two spent many years producing commercials in Boston, today they work with dairy farmers placing ads on milk cartons.
The Fernier' initial market research helped them identify this untapped advertising potential. Then they discovered a unique niche for their business through more extensive market research.
