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I’m not really sure why the term Black Friday caught on in the retail world, but I do know that it’s an important day for retailers to gauge what the holiday, and to some degree year, is going be like.
For years I’ve marked the weekend following Thanksgiving with my own holiday I call Rosy Monday. Rosy Monday is the day that I typically take a good long look at what I’ve accomplished for the year, relative to my goals, and a first pass at my vision for the next three to five years. It’s my forecasting day.
Whether you choose to pick this same day or not, I believe it’s absolutely crucial for small business owners to step back at least one day out of the year and, with total focus, chart their course, correct their course, or create a much grander course with a true rosy sense of “what’s possible.” In big companies they call this strategic planning, but I’m talking about doing something that will energize you and your staff - call it what you like, just do it.
My feeling is that if you never access some quiet time and lock yourself away for a day with this kind of focus you will always be slave to the whims of the squeaky wheel. Every small business I’ve ever come across has lots of maddening, noisy wheels.
Shut out all of the noise for just one day, give yourself that gift, and come out swinging with a crystal clear picture of where your business is headed, what action steps are required and what’s got to change in order to make the picture real.
So, what’s your version of the Rosy Monday?
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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 25th, 2007 at Nov 25, 07 | 9:55 am and is filed under Vision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Black Friday is sort of an obvious name since it’s the one day every retailer can be assured of being “in the black” or turn a profit.. At least they should be able to since it’s the largest shopping day of the year..
The internet side has been trying to come up with a Black Thursday, or some such silly name, for the few years..
I do agree that an overall strategic planning day is crucial to the success of any business.. Ours happens to be in August where we determine what our “Black Thursday” plans will be along with our Christmas marketing plan.. We also have a “how did it go” strategic meeting shortly after Valentine’s Day which usually signals the end of the jewelry season.. This is where we set goals for the August meeting etc..
Being in retail our regular meetings are far more regular than most, but these are our two most important meetings of the year..
John-
I love visionary thoughts! At my firm, we set aside the first day of the new year to pass on my vision for the firm, short- and long-term (actually I just posted on this at my blog).
Your blog is great, and I appreciate the thoughts behind Rosy Monday (real visionaries make up their own holidays - pretty cool).
Thanks, Jason M. Blumer
Rosy Monday is Strategic Planning Day
What a great idea! With all the talk about Black Friday for shopping, John Jantsch suggests Rosy Monday for planning: For years I’ve marked the weekend following Thanksgiving with my own holiday I call Rosy Monday. Rosy Monday is the
Hi, John -
I think it’s something in the air.
I was just writing about the notion of deliberating focusing on a plan of action for our businesses. (Granted, I didn’t come up with a nifty name like “Rosy Monday”.)
It’s so easy to get caught up in the holiday hype that finding quiet time to focus a plan of action can be a daunting task.
It’s all about finding focus.
Thanks, John.
We do one of these in the summer, getting everyone who needs to be there in from our Houston office. We take a couple of days, have the discussions that need to be had about what’s working and what’s not, how we can improve, where the business is going.
Then we have a follow-up a few months later, around the new year. It’s so helpful to just have this as an agenda for a day or two. I like the idea of having it on a certain day every year!