I spend long hours figuring out the next moves in my business along with all the other aspects of my life that somehow have to be mashed around it. Some of it’s on paper and much more is in my head, but rest assured it’s all very real planning. Yet in all that wonderful planning there is a very strong “follow your gut” current. At the end of the day it seems that this current is what really drives things forward and makes it all happen even as well-laid plans fall apart.

I heard Angela Mondou speak yesterday at the Chapter 4 Entrepreneur Week event and she said one thing that stuck out above all else. She was talking about being strapped into the backseat of an F18 fighter on an air combat training mission, wondering what she had gotten herself into as she fought just to stay conscious in the thing. She proceeded to draw a parallel point that went something like “As an entrepreneur you will always have situations when things seem overwhelming and you stop and ask yourself ‘what the heck am I doing here?’”.

That certainly has rung true for me many times (often this is accompanied by overwhelming deadlines or a web server deciding to develop some bizarre quirk), and it’s in this kind of mental wake-up that I look back and wonder how I even got to where I am now. It all moves much faster than the conscious part of my brain can ever hope to adjust to, and that’s where intuition has to be secretly steering it all from the backseat.

What I’m doing with Tilted Pixel feels right and in just a year it’s gone from a name that I was able to snag a .com domain for to something infused with meaning. There’s a certain energy radiating off the name that didn’t exist and I’ve noticed that energy reflect itself in me and in the people that I meet with. Every day this entity becomes more defined and more real. It has hit some amazing goals such as reaching key revenue targets and becoming a federal corporation last August.

I cannot possibly say that the above is the result of a well-laid plan. If anything it’s intuition that determines what the goals should be, and the plan is merely the slave tasked with reaching those goals and making the necessary changes whenever the goals shift.

Running a business is a crazy experience at best, with a billion things happening at any moment. Despite great time management techniques, impeccable organization, and 12 hours of dedication a day, stuff that should be done tends to slip by when its not urgent. Some things you never do get around to and they become hidden friction slowing your business success down.

Perhaps your website still talks about a business location or product that no longer exists or the design needs a facelift? Maybe your bookkeeping need to be updated, preventing you from seeing the sales information you need? What ever happened to that fantastic sales letter you were going to write? Why haven’t you signed-up for that training course that will allow you to offer a new service? When’s the last time you have tested new marketing copy? Have you backed up your data lately?

Devote some time this week to air out the closet and take a very close look at all aspects of your business. Catch those missing items that could be turning customers off, undermining your sales, or waiting to cause a disaster. Something as simple as an outdated copyright date on your website can needlessly hurt your professional image (I’ve been bugged many times about forgetting to update this). Make a nice list of everything that needs to be done and then incorporate the tasks into your action items for the next week or two.

This is a project that I’m participating in this week too. Here are just some of the items that I’ve caught:

• Update About and Contact pages on this blog.
• Transfer all domains to my main registrar account.
• Enter last two months of PayPal transactions into accounting software.
• Check all websites for outdated information.
• Try several optimization ideas.

What weights will you be taking off your business this week?

Two months ago I was introduced to a fascinating technique called Mind Mapping. This is a rather unique way of arranging ideas visually which makes it very easy to understand, work with, and expand on complex data. I have been using it extensively in business planning and software design, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg for a technique that can be used to take effective notes in class, plan events, manage your personal life, plan out a resume or novel, organize feedback, create documentation, establish goals, and so much more.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s an actual mind map:

Click for a larger version. This is a sample map of the college application process, courtesy of the Mindjet mind map library.

Mind mapping is very simple and has the following general structure:

• Start with a single central topic.
• Create topics around the central topic and connect back to the central topic with lines.
• Each topic can have its own topics branching out.
• Symbols and images provide additional information.
• Notes can be added in a callout balloon form or another technique you prefer.

Doing this on computer is great because any good mind map program will continously re-arrange the map to fit all the topics that you are adding. If you are drawing it then you have to make sure to leave enough space to come back and fill in topics. Mind maps are highly visual so having an aesthetically pleasing technqiue or a highly graphical program is a tremendous bonus.

So What’s So Great About This?

Mind maps make it mentally easy to work with large sets of information. Rather than presenting a linear list (which creates a false hierarchy between items on the same level), it creates a balanced set of topics with only their real hiearchy represented. Other articles can do a better job of explaining the scientific theory behind this, but from personal experience I can attest that this is a far easier way to ingest the information presented.

This non-linear representation also applies to how a mind map can be filled out. Topics can be added anywhere as the map grows, creating a wonderfully flexible system for brain storming, taking notes, or creating outlines, all of which are processes that the brain doesn’t perform linearly. To see the difference try out mind maps then try using lists in a word processor for another exercise.

The freedom to add images, icons, and notes allows a single topic to be assigned significant meaning. In the case of computer software, topics can contain entire paragraphs tucked away behind a “has a note” icon, provide links to web pages, and even contain checkboxes to indicate completion. It’s a very flexible format that encourages creativity.

The Business Advantage

Mind maps can be applied in many business scenarios since they are perfect for mapping out a thinking process. From effectively organizing information in a meeting, finding the right vendor, or mapping out the company vision, the technique works. It’s no wonder that the commericial mind mapping applications are so expensive. Customers are corporations that can afford the price tags thanks to the benefits that the technique provides and a lack of lower-priced competition with the same additional features.

I have a lot of gripes with the traditional business plan, including the very structured and linear nature of the usual template. A huge mistake is trying to fill this thing out directly, and having attempted this many times I’ve decided that it’s just not possible to do so in a way that has substance. Such business plans are really just the executive summaries of a long process. It’s what you show to potential investors or your banker. So how do you actually put together the information that will eventually be placed in the Generic Business Template? Mind mapping is one such effective way.

It’s not difficult to imagine how you would layout a business plan with a mind map. Your central topic is your company name, and the next level of topics are all the usual business details:

• Values/Mission
• Product/Service
• Market Research
• Competition
• Marketing
• Sales
• Operations
• Human Resources
• Financials

Each of these would then have as many of their own topics as necessary to map out the business plan outline. You can attach notes and images as you see fit to create a meaningful outline for yourself. You can then turn it into a traditional plan for your banker, but feel free to refer back to the map itself for your own planning needs.

Note: I would attach a vision statement of the business directly to the main topic as a sort of subheading, since everything that branches out from the main topic is being driven by this statement.

Mind Mapping Resources

To learn more about the technique visit some of the links below:

Wikipedia Article: good overview and contains a great list of available software.
Innovation Network: article that demonstrates mind map technique step by step.
Mindjet Library: tonnes of sample maps. Requires the Mindjet software, but the reader is available free. This is a great place to get ideas on how to use mind maps.