I openly stan for Pinterest. It is easily my favorite social platform. I found so much clarity when I started using Pinterest as more than just a home to my pretty pictures and miscellaneous articles. In chats with my accountability partner, we both realized we needed to take some time to look at the big picture and set realistic goals for our businesses. Given that we were both contract attorneys at the time and I was already in a full on love affair with Pinterest, I thought we could use it as a tool. It has been INCREDIBLE. As a person who has written her fair shared of business plans, Pinterest proved to be a much more palatable solution than opening a word doc and filling in headings.

1. It gets to the why. One of my favorite quotes by Eli Weisel is  “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” You don’t want to be a millionaire. You want financial freedom. You want to travel. You want the flexibility to stay at home with your children. Whatever your goals, it’s the why underneath that will  keep you going when the how, life and circumstances, feels so lofty. Pinterest gives a visual manifestation of the why.

2. It narrows you. For instance. I always knew I wanted to have my own office space. Right now, I work out of my home, and I intend to do so for at least another year. So for my short term goal board, I put beautiful home office ideas with space for one other person, like an assistant or intern. For the next chapter, aka my 5 year plan, I added an actual office space outside of my home with space for about 5 people. It made me think through my ideal number of employees and how large I want my company to grow. I hate working for a huge corporation and never intend to be at the helm of one. I wouldn’t have been so clear about that but for seeing it.

3. It breaks down your plan. The dope thing about planning this way is you set yourself up with a series of goals, not that one BIG thing or idea. Reaching the one big goal can be overwhelming. By parsing it out into pieces, it is easier to make it actionable. I can say “I want to have a consulting firm” or I can pin I want a consulting firm that hosts brunches and mastermind groups, or mastermind brunches, and I want to write about these beautiful experiences. Hosting a brunch or a mastermind group with friends is a hell of a lot easier than saying “tomorrow I’m going to start a consulting firm.” What does that even mean?

4. Avoid plan paralysis. Plan paralysis is when you attempt to plan every little detail, analyze every what if, and become overwhelmed to the point of inaction. It is of the devil and I find highly analytical people, read: attorneys, fall into it more often than others. The best part of Pinterest is there aren’t reeeeally a whole lot of words. Disengaging that overly analytical lawyer brain that thrives on what we can make words do is a BENEFIT for starting a business. There are no words to analyze, therefore there is no plan paralysis.

5. It’s never finished. The objective is not to complete your board. It is to use the ideas to fuel your business. As the business grows and changes, you can adjust your board accordingly. I love brunch and know I want it to be a part of my business strategy. So not only did I put a brunch on my 2016 board, I created a separate brunch board, complete with recipes and table settings.

6. You’ll revisit it. One of the biggest reasons business plans are ineffective is because you don’t revisit it. You get stuck in the trees and forget about the forest. By the time you even remember to breeze over your business plan, its feels more like chore than a privilege. With a platform as engaging as Pinterest, you will want to go on and add to the plan. Plus, the plan is all one succinct board so it’s not laborious to review.

7. It’s fun! Business plans are boring. I usually get stuck somewhere around the financials. And after spending all day looking at words and documents, the absolute last thing I care to do is look at more words. Tell you what I don’t mind – pretty pictures.

The power of visualization is so real. That is the power of Pinterest – figuring out how your goals look in real life and figuring out ways to get there.