How many times do YOU hit the snooze button? If you're like many of us, fooling that old alarm clock in the morning is a little personal indulgence if you stayed up too long watching an old movie or reading a good mystery the night before. But there's precious little room for that kind of luxury in the business world. "Putting off" planning is like postponing your success or allowing the stage to be set for disaster. Are you really willing to do that?

At M45, we can help make sure that disasters are kept in check and the stage is set instead for a success story with you in the leading role. How? By helping you plan ahead! Maybe you need a hand with a crisis communications plan that just keeps on moving to the back burner because of the "tyranny of urgency" of everyday activities. Maybe you need help looking at strategic market alternatives for a new product or your business overall.

In the case of crisis communications planning, we can help to ensure that if the worst does happen, you're prepared. We can create templates for news releases, keep your media contact list up to date, make sure your communications processes have all the necessary back-up, role-play media interviews with your key people, and be sure you have hardcopy of all materials in case the power is off!

If you're in need of a marketing plan, we can scour the landscape for competitive information, help you make decisions about what to do and what NOT to do, segment your markets and audiences, help determine your pricing, inform your distribution channel, and create a launch package for your new offering that will knock the socks off your customers…and your competition.

But plans don't have to be big to be important. What about thinking through that next employee announcement a little more carefully, with an M45 employee communications pro at your side to point out potential employee morale pitfalls? Or a little extra oomph for your next open house, just to be sure you've made a memorable impression on the clients who visit?

Generally, action is good. But "doing something" without a plan may be just about as effective as doing nothing. So, don't put off planning just because you need to get other things done. Don't think that waiting until you have more info or more time excuses the need for planning. As General George S. Patton said, "a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow" (assuming that there even IS such a thing as a perfect plan, which we don't think is possible!).

2005 is right around the corner, so it's a great time to call M45 to kickstart your planning processes. There is no snooze button in good business…get up and get going!

You might be a procrastinator if...

• You believe every deadline is unrealistic, regardless of how much time you're given to complete the job.
• Your motto is "don't do tomorrow what you can forget about forever."
• You believe that anything worth doing would have been done by now.
• You'll decide not to decide, unless you change your mind.
• You've been meaning to join Procrastinators Anonymous, but keep putting it off.

In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

There are a million ways to lose a work day, but not even a single way to get one back.

Someday is not a day of the week.

Procrastination is opportunity's assassin.

What may be done at any time will be done at no time.

Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday.

"Don't put off until tomorrow..."
An American Management Association survey shows that more U.S. companies have crisis management plans in place today than they did in 2002. Companies of all sizes should be prepared to handle a major crisis through pre-planning. Sites to get you started include:

The Contingency Planning Guide

Contingency Planning and Disaster Recovery: A Small Business Guide (book)

The MIT Business Contingency Plan

And just for fun...
Characteristics of a Procrastinator

Planning Ahead
A positive image and the self-assured reputation of your company are critical to your current and future success. That's easily understood. But how you are viewed during a challenging business situation could determine your relationship with your customers for a long time. When an unexpected crisis hits your business, that's NOT the time to plan how to handle the media and other questions that will arise.

Recently M45 co-founder Marilyn Smit conducted a two-day training for a nine-county area in Illinois for a government agency that encompassed the why's and how's of crisis media planning. Her sessions included active participation from the attendees in the areas of message development, mock interviews, question and answer preparation, how various answers may be perceived and reported, along with determining the strengths and weaknesses of employees who may face the media.

One training participant shared that the most valuable element was learning how to "prepare a key message and to keep it consistent with at least one positive point." Another person shared that her primary interest was in learning how to "stay 'on message' and the value of having that message prepared ahead of time."

Handling the media should be one part of every company's contingency plan, and will be a useful safeguard for insuring that you maintain your excellent standing now and in the future. If you don't want to put off this important part of being prepared as a business any longer, give us a call!