The "Right Plan" - An excerpt from the "Build a Leading Business" Blueprint

Posted on February 04, 2025 by Alfred Unger, One of Thousands of Entrepreneurship Coaches on Noomii.

An excerpt from The “Build a Leading Business”™ Blueprint
Alfred Unger
© 2025 Empowering Returns

Dedication:
This book is dedicated to you, the entrepreneur. You have taken a bold step and have begun a
journey that will change your life in many ways. Good ways. Hard ways. Exciting ways. I’ve
been there too. The lessons in this book are a compilation of lessons I’ve learned – some
through very difficult circumstances – and others through observation. My hope is to pass on
what I and others have learned, so that your path will be a little easier.
I wish you the very best in this wonderful endeavour.
Alfred Unger
21 Falcon Crescent
Sylvan Lake AB T4S 1Z2
Canada
alfred@empoweringreturns.com
www.empoweringreturns.com

About the Author:

Alfred Unger is a compulsive builder & problem-solver who has the heart of a teacher, and is
committed to helping other entrepreneurs prosper. He’s helped large and small clients build
thriving operations.

In the corporate world he has helped his clients save millions of dollars per year, by developing
more efficient processes and creating risk management software, that they’ve used across
North America.

In small business he’s helped entrepreneurs avoid bankruptcy, and has mentored others
through potentially crippling circumstances.

Alfred is a seasoned businessman who has experienced the many highs and lows of the
entrepreneurial journey, and is committed to helping others thrive in a business they love.
We look forward to serving you from our beautiful home office in Sylvan Lake, Alberta.

The “Right Plan”
An Excerpt from The "Build A Leading Business” Blueprint
Introduction:
Imagine waking up each morning, excited to go to work, doing exactly what you love to do. It
will be at a business that is thriving, and it will be at a business that you own!
If this is your dream, this program is for you!

In these pages you will find sage council that will help direct you through and around the many
pitfalls that destroy many businesses and many dreams. The wisdom contained in these
chapters can make your dreams come true.

If your dream is to own your own strong and healthy business, one that you love, this system is
for you.

Working through these pages may raise questions you have never considered. Important
questions that can be pivotal in your success. Questions, whose answers will guide you in your
journey ahead.

Thank you for joining me here.

This program is designed to encourage you and to equip you in your journey. As we begin we
need to look at some sobering facts.

Introducing The Six Pillars of a Leading Business
Did you know that 50% of new business ventures do not survive for five years? Worse, of the
remaining 50%, half will not survive their next five years in business? That’s a new business
mortality rate of 75% within the first 10 years.

I’ve heard these numbers many times but they are still shocking to me when I think of the
impact they are having in the lives of so many.

Now this isn’t about sales or marketing. There’s lots of training you can get for that. We’re going
to go much deeper into the key reasons so many businesses fail.

I want to help you beat those odds by sharing the lessons I’ve learned, so I am inviting you to
join me on my own journey, where it all started. This happened more than 20 years ago, but I
remember it like it was yesterday. It made that big of an impact on me.

Imagine you and me sitting in an ordinary hotel banquet room, along with about 75 other
entrepreneurs. At the front our facilitator is standing behind a lectern, with a large white board
on his left.

“How much do you know about business?” he asks.

Well, if only I had known the answer he would give, and applied it earlier on in my business life,
it would have saved me tens of thousands of dollars and a world of heartache.

Today I want to share his answer with you.

I’ve made more than my share of mistakes and I’ve learned some tough lessons – most of them
the hard way. Today I want to share some of what I’ve learned with you, so that you can benefit
from my experience.

You are reading this today because you are, or want to be, an entrepreneur.

The good news is that roughly 80% of new businesses will survive their first year, but as I
mentioned earlier, only about 50% will survive their first 5 years. (Forbes Oct 2018)

So, what about the other 50%, the ones that don’t survive? Behind each one there is a story, a
story of dreams that died despite all the hard work. A story of families disrupted. Sometimes a
story that claimed the lives of those who dared to try, of those who stepped out from the crowd
and believed they could.

This is what motivates me. I am committed to equipping you to beat those odds. Because I think
you can.

Let’s get back to that session 20 years ago.

Our facilitator called up two individuals. One had only recently started her business; the other
had been in business a long time. His instructions were, “Draw a circle that represents how
much you know about business.”

The young woman drew a circle about the size of an orange.

The young man who had been in business much longer walked to the board with great
confidence and proceeded to draw four short lines – one in each corner – representing that his
knowledge captured all of the white board and more – except for only small corners at the
edges.

Two thoughts raced through my mind.

First, “That seems pretty arrogant. He pretends to know almost everything?”

And second, “What’s our facilitator going to do now? His illustration has fallen apart.”

But he was unfazed. After the volunteers had returned to their seats, he calmly looked at the
board and said, “Do you see those two circles? Each circle represents what you know about
business. Everything you don’t know, lies outside of the circle.”

“Everything you don’t know, lies outside of the circle.”

Stunned silence. Suddenly, the circles weren’t so big. In fact, the size of the circle became
irrelevant. Our focus changed to everything outside of the circle, and the edges of the
whiteboard were no longer the boundaries of what could be known.

Here’s my point: Regardless of how big your circle is, there is always more to learn, much more
you still need to discover. (This, by the way, holds true for every aspect of life, but that’s for
another conversation with your life coach.)

There’s more to learn than you can imagine.

Why does this matter?

Because it’s the things you don’t know that will jump up and take you down. I thought my circle
was pretty big. As it turned out, it was smaller – much smaller – than I had imagined.

Please understand. I’m not trying to discourage you. Of course you must be confident in your
ability. Of course you have to believe you have what it takes to beat the odds and to succeed. If
you didn’t, you wouldn’t even start this journey, but an inflated ego will destroy your business!
Always, always continue to learn. Never be satisfied that you know enough. Not only will this
attitude help you develop your business, it will give you a huge advantage over your
competitors.

I work with my clients to help them build a strong and healthy business so they can stack the
odds in their favour, to thrive in a business, doing what they love.

In the following pages, I want to share with you one of the 6 pillars that a strong, healthy,
business needs to support its ongoing success, but first, let me take a moment to introduce the
other five pillars.

1. The Right Business. Not every business will be a good fit for everyone – even if it’s a great
business! It may simply not be a great business for you. In our system, we delve into
discovering the best business fit for you.

2. You also need the Right People with you. This includes partners, employees, confidants,
clients, and mentors. You need the right people around you. Surrounding yourself with the
wrong people can cripple your business. Make sure you’ve got the right people supporting
you.

3. You have to take the Right Risks. Life includes risk in everything we do. Running your own
business is no different. Some risks are acceptable. Others are not. Learning to determine
which risks to take and which you must never take, is absolutely critical in order to survive in
business. And you can’t thrive if you don’t survive!

4. The fourth area is something far too many entrepreneurs avoid; Controls. Having the Right
Controls in place will give you freedom. It’s like having a rudder on a ship. A rudder controls
where the ship is allowed to go. Without it, you’ll find it impossible to navigate.

5. Ethics. Every business is governed by values and operates on certain ethics. Choosing
these values, and creating the ethics your company will operate by, will give you a “guiding
light” when you, and/or team, are faced with difficult decisions.

These five pillars, along with the sixth one that follows, are vital to the long term survival of any
business, and are worth revisiting from time to time, to ensure you stay on track with your own
vision.

These are the secrets to building a leading business that you love! We deal with each one in
depth, when we coach our clients through the “Build A Leading Business” System.

Goals, Priorities, and Focus

Just before we dig into Pillar 6 The Right Plan, let’s take a minute to look at one important skill
you need to develop.

Let’s talk a bit about Goals, Priorities, and Focus.

First, a word about Goals.

Before you begin any journey, you need to know where you want to go. It’s the same in
business. Without a clearly defined destination it is virtually impossible to create a strategy that
will get you to where you want to go.

If you don’t know where you are going, it doesn’t matter what road you choose. But once you
have a specific destination in mind, you can begin to chart your course effectively. Goals are like
destinations; end points in your journey.

Once you have identified your goal, spend time writing it down. Be as specific as possible. The
very act of writing out your goal (singular) gives it power. It becomes a defined target.

Every journey also has a starting point. Define your starting point. Write it down.

Once you have a clearly defined starting point, and a clearly defined end destination, it is
possible to create a strategy that will get you to where you want to go.

Now that you have clearly defined the starting point and your destination, begin to identify the
tasks necessary to move you from one to the other. Don’t worry about getting them all down.
Just list the steps you can see right now. As you move toward your goal, more steps will
become evident.

Writing these steps down is helpful because it clears your mental “memory bank”. You won’t be
constantly trying to remember what you have to do. This is a discipline that is easy to neglect,
but it is important.

Secondly, let talk about Priorities.

Setting your priorities can be a real challenge.

Multiple priorities are distracting. Not everything can be first. If everything is a priority, nothing is
really a priority. You could even argue that it’s not possible to have multiple priorities simply by
the definition of the word. A priority is that which is first.

Organize your list into those things that must precede others, but always remember that
priorities can shift as necessary in the moment as long as they continue to serve you in moving
you closer to your goal.

Priorities are not written in stone. The key is to continue to focus on the end goal.

So then, let’s talk about Focus.

Once you have identified your goal and some of the steps needed to reach that goal you are
ready to begin moving.

Now I want to share something with you that I learned in a high level mastermind from one of
my mentors, Lisa Sasevich, and she has given me permission to share this with you. It has
profoundly shaped the way I approach my business strategies even though it is deceptively
simple. (You can check her website at www.lisasasevich.com)

Ready? Learn to ask the question, “What is my Best, Next Move?”

What do I mean?

Your Best, Next Move is the move that is best in this moment. It’s the best immediate action, to
solve an immediate problem, in the time and resources you currently have available, and inside
the larger strategy to move you towards your goal.

Pick one of the steps (or micro-steps) and complete that task. Don’t make it too big. Just choose
“Something you can do, and will do” (borrowing from the words of Jordan Peterson).

Some tasks need to be done before others, but keep moving forward.

Focus only on your Best, Next Move, and you will be surprised how far and how fast your
business will advance.

Let’s look at an example: Let’s assume that your goal is to grow your business by 50%.
To accomplish this, you set a priority to create an email list of 1000 qualified, potential
clients.

Your Best, Next Move would be to identify exactly who your ideal clients are.

Once you have completed that step, Your Best Next Move would be to identify where they
are.

Then, how to best contact them.

These are three consecutive Best, Next Moves.

Remember to continuously take small incremental steps toward your goal. Don’t worry if these
steps seem insignificant. They aren’t. They are moving you toward your goal.

What about those “Quantum Leaps” you sometimes hear about?

You want the truth? I’m sure you’ve heard the quote, “An overnight success takes ten years!”

Don’t worry about “quantum leaps” forward. They can and do happen, and sometimes they are
necessary to seize a fleeting opportunity, but even quantum leaps are the result of a lot of
previous work. Most growth happens slowly over time. An oak isn’t grown in a day. Things that
grow up overnight, often disappear overnight as well, and you never hear about the quantum
leap that ended in disaster!

Make your steps count by being intentional as you focus on your Best, Next Move.

In this introduction we’ve taken a 30,000 foot view of the six pillars you need to build a strong
and healthy business you love. Now let’s dig into each one more deeply. Make sure you
complete all the exercises along the way, so that you get the most out of this work. Just reading
it will be of limited value.

Ready? Let’s get started!

Pillar #6: The Right Plan

This last of the six pillars that we discuss The “Build a Leading Business” System. The plans
you have in place will, and need to, change as your business moves through the various stages
from initial startup through to becoming an established business. At each stage there are
different things to consider. Let’s look at those now.

Managing the Pre-Revenue Phase

It is during this time, that you will set the stage for much of the future of your business. There
are many important things to consider in this phase.

Things Always Take Longer And Cost More

Remember that establishing your business will take twice as long, and cost twice as much to
start, as originally projected. Remember that your idea isn’t the exception to this rul. This isn’t
meant to insult you. It’s meant as a warning. It’s meant to caution you. Clearly it is a
generalization but in most cases it is the reality entrepreneurs eventually face.

In one instance, I was delayed in opening my business by several months due to construction
delays. The building I had leased, simply wasn’t complete and I couldn’t move in. But the
expenses kept coming even during this time while I waited.

Likewise, it could be the result of things completely out of your control.

For the moment, let’s assume that this statement is completely true. How does this impact your
cash flow projections?You may not be delayed by a construction project that is running behind,
but there will be other delays in your revenue stream. How will you survive that extra time?
What about the extra unexpected expenses that surprise you?

It’s very easy to fall into the trap of spending money setting up your business perfectly, instead
of going with “Good Enough For Now”. This is another lesson that I learned in my mentorship
with Lisa Sasevich. Get started, even if you haven’t got all the pieces perfectly together. Watch
where and how you spend your current resources. You will undoubtably need them later. Guard
your cash! Be thrifty. Buy used. Get it free. Do without if you can. Remember to go with good
enough. You can always make improvements later. But get started with earning money. Don’t
spend all your time setting up your business. (That’s an easier trap to fall into that you might
think.)

What About A Side Hustle?

If you are in the very early stages of your business, you may need a side job to keep you going
while you start your business. If your business is established, and you are looking to expand,
you may need to look at other areas of revenue generation to fund your expansion, even if they
aren’t your favourite thing to do. Maintaining a solid cash flow, can carry you through many the
many dry seasons that every entrepreneur experiences.

Build In Resiliency

In the game of baseball, a player strikes out in three swings, that do not result in a hit. As a
result only the best players ever succeed in the major leagues. But what if you changed the “3
Strike Rule”. What if you could set the game up so you could swing until you hit? Obviously it
would change the game of baseball and the chance of success would increase dramatically.
What if you could implement the same kind of change in your business?
How can you structure your approach to business so that you can keep swinging even if you
miss repeatedly?

More than one entrepreneur has told me that it takes much longer than they originally thought it
would. Prepare for that. Make a plan that will help you survive even if it takes much longer and
you make more mistakes than you expect.

Make a plan so you can stay in the game!

Staying Flexible

Everything changes. Your business environment will not stay static. Nothing has illustrated that
more clearly than the last few years (2020 – 2021) although that was more drastic than normal.
But even without international or catastrophic events, subtle shifts will change your business
landscape.

For me, it happened this way. I was in a business that was going very well. It was stable and
consistent. I had my program running across North America. And then… Then the company I
was contracting with made an internal change, and my business ground to a halt.

The enemy wasn’t the business I was contracting to although I wanted to blame them. The
enemy was me. I had become complacent. I was coasting. I didn’t really think the ground
underneath me would shift and leave me high and dry. But it did: And I was angry. It took a long
time for me to reconcile that in spite of what had happened between us, it was my decision and
my complacency that set me up for the crash of my business.

You’re either growing or shrinking. You’re either moving forward or moving backward. No
business stays static, even if it feels stable.

How can you prevent this? Ask yourself the questions, “What would happen if I lost my biggest
client?” “What would happen if the market shifted?”

Markets and business environments are always shifting. Stay flexible. Some changes will be
devastating even if you do everything you can to prepare. There are some things that are
beyond your control. But you can minimize the impact of most changes by being prepared. The
better you can read the winds of change, the better prepared you will be when those changes
come. Recognizing that the winds of change will come, makes you aware of the subtle changes
that signal their arrival.

Balance Total Commitment With Cautious Advancement

We have already addressed this earlier, but it’s worth a reminder. You have to be committed to
your mission, but advance with caution. Find a partner or confidant who will balance your
enthusiasm for new ideas with caution. Remember there is always a chance that things will not
go as you plan. It’s another reason to stay flexible, even as you execute the plans you have
made.

Don’t get caught in a business dead end, where there is no chance of recovery if your plan
doesn’t work out. Keep some options open. Plan your strategy to stay in the game.

Work Life Blend

Remember your “Why?” Remember the reason why you got into the business you are in. What
was your motivation? Do not lose sight of that. It’s easier than you might think.
Priorities can be lost due to the everyday pressures we face. We lose sight of what is important,
and one day we realize that we’ve been chasing something we never really wanted in the first

place. Our real goal has been lost and replaced with other demands that keep screaming for our
attention.

Remember to keep your priorities in line.

Working to win at all costs, isn’t worth it. There is a price that is too high to pay. Many have
reached the pinnacle of their businesses and their careers, only to find they are isolated and
alone. They have sacrificed everything to get there.

And the price was too high.

We work to live. We shouldn’t live to work.

Evaluate:

Where is my business vulnerable if things were to change? What changes would devastate my
business? What changes do I need to make, to protect myself and my business, to ensure it is
sustainable? Where am I sacrificing or risking too much? Is my life in balance?