What Goes Around Comes Around

One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.

Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe; he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold.

He knew how she felt. It was those chills which only fear can put in you. He said, “I’m here to help you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson.”

Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.

As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid.

Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. The lady asked how much she owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped. Bryan never thought twice about being paid. This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty who had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way.

He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed, and Bryan added, “And think of me.”

He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.

A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her.

The waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn’t erase. The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude. The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan.

After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change for her hundred dollar bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she noticed something written on the napkin.

There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote: “You don’t owe me anything. I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do, do not let this chain of love end with you.” Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.

Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day. That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written.

How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard… She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, “Everything’s going to be all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson.”

Now, experts Agree that more businesses face an unstable business environment. Improvements in data processing and
telecommunications have made major changes in many businesses. Along with this, improvements in transportation and the development
of foreign markets (specifically in Europe and Asia) have created a global market and redefined certain industries. Additionally,
as consumers are exposed to more choices, loyalty is becoming less important as it once was; a marginally better price or a
temporary shortage of stock can easily lead to the loss of customers. Competitors also can change rapidly, with new ones emerging
from out of nowhere (often this means the other side of the world ). With the uncertainty of the worldwide market, it's vital that
you make tactical planning component of your overall business strategy.

Proactive Versus Reactive Management. A couple of years ago, you can establish and maintain a business by reacting to and
fulfilling changes in preferences, costs and prices. This reactive type of management was frequently enough to keep the business
moving. However, today changes occur fast and come from a number of directions. By the time a reactive supervisor can make the
necessary adjustments, he or she might lose many clients -- maybe for good.

Proactive Planning is the expectation of future events. Decisions are based on forecasts of future conditions of the environment
as opposed to responses to several crises as they happen. Proactive planning in an unstable, technology-driven small business
environment is important to continuing success in almost any endeavor. As opposed to reacting to this situation as it changes,
proactive preparation requires you to examine environmental forces and earn resource-allocation decisions. Using this method you
can take your business where it needs to be in the next month, year and decade. Barry Worth, a consultant specializing in small
business management, puts it this way: Today's entrepreneur has to be a company architect. Anything constructed in today's
business environment has to have a step-by-step blueprint or strategy about how best to reach success. The blueprint for the
business owner is a business plan.

The Need To Get a Strategic Plan. Planning plays a significant role in any business enterprise. It can make the difference between
the success or failure of your organization. You should plan carefully before investing your time and, especially, your money in
any business enterprise. The need for a strategy is best illustrated by the following scenario -"A Tale of 2 Firms."

Two franchises (B and A ) were launched by individuals who had worked in direction in much bigger companies. While Franchise A
provided a item and Franchise B a service, the outcome of both franchise systems were marketed exclusively in the USA before the
present owners became involved. The output of both was readily available in several other developed countries as well. The
franchises started about the exact same time and neither franchisee had a solid market presence, nor do they at present. Now
Franchise B is broke. By comparison, Franchise A is promoting products in the Midwestern United States and in Europe.

What was the Deciding difference in the two franchises' success? You probably expect it to be the one had developed a tactical
plan and another had not; howeverit is not this simple. Many factors can influence the outcome of a business venture. There were
lots of similarities between the franchises, but there also were many gaps.

Most notably, Franchise A marketed a solution and Franchise B a service (although this does not clearly limit choices ). Another
variation was that Franchise A had a closely thought-out plan. The investors knew as they looked to get a franchise partner they
desired to locate a product which could satisfy global markets and a franchiser who would support that type of sales campaign.
These investors were based in the Midwest, but negotiated for exclusive rights to export the franchiser's merchandise. After they
had obtained the franchise, and as they began to launch their business domestically, they also started to contact authorities
experts in the U.S. Department of Commerce as well as educators and local managers with international experience.

Clear plans Were developed outlining how they'd position, market and distribute the solution and which overseas markets would be
targeted first. Even as they had been building sales in one European market, they were attending trade shows and planning entry
strategies others.

By comparison, The second investor (Franchise B) started his business strictly because he wished to leave a former employer. Of
course many small businesses begin this way; however, in this event no investigation of franchising options was completed. The
business has been located in an area that, as it turned out, contained virtually no consumers for the type of support being
supplied. When this mistake was realized, it had been too late to move--the investor simply didn't have the cash or the desire to
risk starting back again.

Other examples Further demonstrate the need for strategic planning and for creating a clear business plan. Whoever owns a company
that appeared to be performing quite well in two places was going to start in a thirdparty. The writers were called in to create a
benefits policy and discovered cash flow conditions that could be found only after operations had started in the new site. After
assessing the circumstance, a growth and fiscal plan was designed for the audio locations only. In another situation, the authors
decided that a business had bought more equipment than has been necessary to accomplish the present workload.

After careful Analysis, intends to make additional purchases were put on hold, along with the equipment available was used
efficiently to meet immediate demands.

A business Enterprise is to complicated to assume that failure to come up with a sound business Plan is going to be the cause for
issues Nevertheless, this failure frequently counts One of the variables contributing to business difficulties. As Worth has
stated, "Being a business entrepreneur today takes constant vigilance to be able to Be in a position to benefit from fresh
opportunities and the access to fresh Information and technology as they become." Step one in Doing so is to have a plan.

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