Milestone Chart. Scheduling tasks required to achieve your mission is easy with a Milestone Chart. This chart used, by businesses large and small, traces its origin to the use of “milestones” or markers placed along highways to reassure travelers they are on the right road, how far they have traveled and the remaining distance to the desired destination. Using the Milestone Chart you can readily establish daily, weekly, and quarterly milestones for measuring progress in completing various tasks. Business Blueprint. You will also see how this single piece of paper can become the blueprint to help you successfully manage your business. Your Milestone Chart will describe each task to be completed, when it is to start, how long it will take, when it is to be finished, who will perform each task, and time variance between estimated and actual time. It will enable you, and your staff, can see at a glance how well you are progressing, where you need to put your emphasis, and quickly gain and share insights about your business operation. The Milestone Chart shown above has been developed in MS Word and is easy to modify and update. Tasks are numbered and briefly described as developed in Step 7 of your Roadmap to Success. Inverted triangles (Wingdings 3 letter “s”) represent expected start and end dates. Blacked-in inverted triangles (Wingdings 3 letter “q”) represent actual start and end dates. In the example below, Task 1.1 started late but finished on time. Task 1.2 started on time and finished on time. Task 1.3 started on time, and actually finished early. Other tasks are simply blackened in when they are started Initials of the person(s) who are to complete each task have been placed on the Milestone Chart thus completing this portion of the scheduling activity that answers questions of What, When, and Who. Next time we will discuss how you can easily add financial budgeting information to the Milestone Chart, thus providing the ideal tool for developing and managing your on-line book store.