MAKE A PLAN AND STICK TO IT

Investment strategies that make sense

- CHRIS KELLY

A common thread among successful business owners, including charter-boat owner-operators and captains and mates who work for themselves as independent contractors, is the ability to create and follow a business plan and then adjust as required. Business plans identify the goals of a venture and lay out the steps to follow in order to make the business successful. A 1979 Harvard MBA study related to goal setting revealed that 3 percent of the students in the graduating class that year had written goals and plans, but 13 percent of graduates had unwritten goals, and 84 percent had no goals at all. Ten years after the study, the 3 percent of grads who had written goals had a higher net worth than the combined 97 percent of everyone else. It's no secret that setting goals and following a process is extremely important-anyone remotely familiar with working in the fishing community understands this.

THE INVESTMENT-POLICY STATEMENT

In my opinion, the investment-policy statement is the most important document created when an investor and adviser meet to discuss the terms and goals of funds that will be invested.