--- title: How to plan when you're not a natural planner [cheat sheet] description: Learn techniques to help you create and communicate your business objectives and business plans, when you're not oriented as a formal business planner. image: https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/hubfs/1.%20Images/1.%20Stock%20Images/Everest.jpg --- 21 September 2021 # How to plan when you're not a natural planner [cheat sheet] WRITTEN BYJames Price | JPAbusiness ![Business planning](https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Business%20planning.jpg?width=1000&name=Business%20planning.jpg) If you’ve been reading my blogs for a while now, you know I love a well-written business plan. I encourage my [business advisory](https://www.jpabusiness.com.au/business-advice) clients to write things down, even in a summary sense, because it’s a good way of pressure testing your objectives and communicating them to your team. Despite my penchant for written plans, **I do know successful business owners who don’t write things down** and still manage to be supreme at operational and business planning. They do, however, employ a number of other important techniques, some of which we’ve summarised in the following cheat sheet: [![How to plan when you hate planning cheat sheet](https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/3.%20Infographics%20and%20cheat%20sheets/How%20to%20plan%20.png?width=600&name=How%20to%20plan%20.png)](https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/hubfs/3.%20Infographics%20and%20cheat%20sheets/How%20to%20plan%20when%20you%20hate%20planning.pdf)   The final technique – 'Communicate your plans' – is particularly important for those who are not formal planners. The key to success in this regard is to **have a good team in place that complements your skills and can do the rest of the planning**, once you have shared your objectives and actions. In terms of communication, you need to develop: - a** clear, concise, transparent and consistent** communication style - an **inspiring and trusting, yet questioning and inquisitive,** management style - a** sense of monitoring and mentoring** in terms of how you communicate with your team, both internally and externally. Using these techniques should help you create a planned and organised business, even if you’re not naturally a planner and organiser.   [![New Call-to-action](https://hubspot-no-cache-ap1-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/default/2108706/10c9c2ca-5462-49a8-b6b9-2279abf4367a.png)](https://hubspot-cta-redirect-ap1-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/redirect/2108706/10c9c2ca-5462-49a8-b6b9-2279abf4367a)   JPAbusiness can help [develop plans for your business](https://www.jpabusiness.com.au/business-advice), including: - 1, 3, 5 and 10-year Strategic Plans - Annual Business Plans - Marketing Plans - Business Development Plans, and - Succession Plans.  To learn more about these services, [contact](https://landing.jpabusiness.com.au/contactus) the team on **02 6360 0360 **or** 02 9893 1803** for a confidential initial discussion.   [![New Call-to-action](https://hubspot-no-cache-ap1-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/default/2108706/e7529cfa-b38f-4c58-b933-f43670b7fc93.png)](https://hubspot-cta-redirect-ap1-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/redirect/2108706/e7529cfa-b38f-4c58-b933-f43670b7fc93) Share this Article Share this blog post on Twitter [mailto:?subject=Share%20this%20blog%20post&body=https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/blog/how-to-plan-when-youre-not-a-natural-planner-cheat-sheet](mailto:?subject=Share%20this%20blog%20post&body=https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/blog/how-to-plan-when-youre-not-a-natural-planner-cheat-sheet) Copied to clipboard Topics - [business planning ](https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/blog/topic/business-planning) - [cheat sheet ](https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/blog/topic/cheat-sheet) - [business management ](https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/blog/topic/business-management) - [running a business ](https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/blog/topic/running-a-business) - [strategic planning ](https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/blog/topic/strategic-planning) - [business plan ](https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/blog/topic/business-plan) About James Price | JPAbusiness James Price has over 30 years’ experience in providing strategic, commercial and valuation advice to Australian and international business clients. James’ blogs provide business advice for aspiring and current small to mid-sized business owners, operators and managers. #### Related Blog Posts ### [How to plan when you hate planning [cheat sheet]](https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/blog/how-to-plan-when-you-hate-planning-cheat-sheet) If you’ve been reading my blogs for a while now, you know I love a well-written business plan. I encourage ... [Read more ](https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/blog/how-to-plan-when-you-hate-planning-cheat-sheet) ### [How to create an annual business plan](https://blog.jpabusiness.com.au/blog/how-to-create-an-annual-business-plan) **You can’t plan for every eventuality**, but **you can plan to withstand shocks**. Having ... 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