Frequently Asked Questions

Questions you might ask about the I CAN Plan Business ACTION Planning Tool

 

What’s going to be different about this business planning tool?
 
There are hundreds of business planning software applications, workbooks and exercises that you can find on the internet or at your local Barnes and Noble. However, you will not find a business planning tool that encompasses ALL of the following into one tool:

  1. Specific to Mortgage Professionals
  2. Web-based application
  3. Provides access to FREE expert coaching advice on business planning
  4. Includes Virtual Coach assistance to assist in your goal-writing efforts
  5. Shares ideas from the business ACTION plans of other Mortgage Professionals
  6. Provides a friendly space to communicate with a community of other goal-oriented, strategic-thinking Mortgage Professionals
  7. ACTION-oriented
  8. Easy to navigate
  9. Contains helpful, FREE business document downloads
  10. Gives you the ability to print your entire plan AND download your goals and action items from your plan, directly into your Microsoft Outlook (or other vCalendar) calendar.

Best of all…

It won’t cost thousands, take up precious RAM or become lost in a file folder or stack of other papers!

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Who is the, I CAN Plan Virtual Coach, anyway?

Victoria Del Frate began her business coaching career in 2006 with Maximum Acceleration, the sister Company to LoanToolbox, following years of experience in corporate America where she managed and trained for a variety of companies, including Fortune 100's such as General Electric and Honeywell International.

Currently, Victoria Del Frate is the President of Success Gateway, Inc. and the creator of I CAN Coaching and I CAN Plan. Victoria has been engaged in all aspects of strategic business building specific to the Mortgage and Real Estate professions and has successfully coached dozens of leaders whose needs have ranged from systems implementation, business plan development, team building, and customer service platform improvements to accountability, time management and life balance concerns.

“My passion is working one-on-one with highly motivated business professionals to maximize their personal effectiveness as they develop their vision, define their goals, take action and build strong foundations to ensure their continued success.”-Victoria Del Frate

Victoria’s clients describe her as a, “stickler for a plan of action,” “an intuitive and creative collaborator” and “a true partner in their success.”

Victoria graduated, Cum Laude from San Francisco State University as an, English major and is also a nationally published poet. She is married and currently resides in Simi Valley, California where she spends her free time, reading, hiking, camping and fishing.

How long will it take to complete my personalized, Business ACTION Plan?

This will of course, vary from person to person and will depend on how many goals you want to work on as part of your plan for the year.  I CAN Plan suggests that you do not focus on more than five goals for each foundation that you select. By keeping your scope manageable, you will be able to sustain your focus and experience more victories. If you do get interrupted or wish to take a break from your business planning efforts, you will be able to go back into your plan and pick up where you left off at any time.

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Will I be able to access my Business ACTION Plan on-line after I have completed it?

Once you have printed your plan and downloaded your goals and action items into your calendar, you will be able to access your plan again. You can change anything for the current year's plan and even copy the plan to the following year. However, each plan is year dependent. That is, you can only do one calendar year at a time.

Note: If you choose to build a plan for another year, you may be asked to write over goals from the previous year. If you use the plan for multiple years, you MUST carefully select which foundations, goals, etc. that you wish for the new year. Make sure you review your next year's plan via the PRINT screens to ensure you have the goals you wish. As always, if you run into problems, contact the webmaster@icanplan.biz.

Once you log off, your work will be saved up to that point. You can always go back and change a goal. Your work is saved.

You will be able to access our business coach-monitored message boards and our business document downloads and any new tools or downloads we make available along the way no matter what step of the process you are in.

Does I CAN Plan offer Technical Support?

Yes, if you are experiencing any difficulties with the functionality of the I CAN Plan tool, simply look for the icon and click on it. You will be able to send your questions via email directly to our Technical Support Team.

Can anyone utilize I CAN Plan to build their Business ACTION Plan for the year?

Yes, any business professional can use I CAN Plan to build their Business ACTION Plan. The foundational principles to building one’s business plan are the same for every Professional.  All Professionals must consider the ten foundations identified in I CAN Plan when setting their goals for the year. They also must prioritize their goals and action items and set deadlines into their calendars to maximize their effectiveness.

However, the example goals and action items contained within I CAN Plan are specific to the Mortgage Profession. Also, the terms and ideas communicated by I CAN Plan’s, Virtual Coach, Victoria Del Frate are also mortgage specific.

We recommend that you check out our “Sneak Preview” so that you can better determine if I CAN Plan is the “right” tool for you.

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Is there any special software that I need to use the I CAN Plan Business ACTION Planning tool?

No special software is required to run the I CAN Plan Business ACTION Planning tool. We do have recommendations for your system before you start. This tool is best used with Internet Explorer 7 but will also run on iE6. This has been tested on Firefox 3.0.4 and works, even though some graphics may appear "off." This tool has not been extensively tested on Safari and no support for Safari is implied.

Videos require Flash Player plugin be installed. This plugin is available from Adobe Inc.

ICP Downloads (optional) are either in Microsoft Word & Excel 2003 format or Adobe PDF. You will need Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel 2003 or higher to use the download tools. There is an open-source, free program that will allow you to view Microsoft Word and Excel files, and use them. The program is called Open Office and may be found here. To view the PDFs, you will require Adobe Acrobat Reader, also available from Adobe Inc.

No support of these Third-Party tools is implied with the statements above; Support of the I CAN Plan Business ACTION Planning Tool is as stated above. Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Excel are all copyright of the Microsoft Corporation. Adobe Flash and Reader are copyright of Adobe, Inc.

The videos seem to run slow. Is there anything I can do to speed them up?

The videos are dependent upon the bandwidth available on your computer connection to the Internet. Slower connections (e.g. dial-up) will have a much harder time watching the video than faster connections (T1 or DSL).

If you are running other programs while doing the I CAN Plan tool, and you find your videos running slower, close the other programs. Anything streaming over your internet connection will slow video speed (e.g. if you are listening to Internet Radio and doing the tool, this will impact your ability to watch videos.)

You may want to ensure you are on the latest Flash Player from Adobe; while this may not help the speed, it may increase the viewability of the video.

Which calendar programs will this tool's final download support?

The final output for this program is an .ics file. This is known as an iCalendar format file and it is normally used with Microsoft Outlook. When you reach the final page of the ICP Tool, you will be prompted to either save or open the ics file. If you have MS Outlook as your normal calendar/office program, you would normally OPEN the file. You may also SAVE it and import it later. For directions on importing calendar files into MS Outlook, you should review the Microsoft Office documentation on the Microsoft web site.

If you use Google Calendar, Yahoo! Calendar, or iCalendar itself, you should refer to your products specific documentation regarding importing iCal files into your specific calendar program.

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What happens when I logoff? Can I save my work? What if I want to make changes?

You absolutely can make changes to the plan while you're creating it. Using the BACK button on your browser, or any of the available links, you can go back and add, delete, or change any of your Foundations, Goals, Action Items, or target dates. Along the way, you'll be presented with opportunities for printing out your work thus far and then be able to use that as a guide to setting up your schedule. Your work is saved from page to page so if there are any technical difficulties, your work is safe.

When you logoff, your work is saved and you can come back to it at any time. You can also make any changes to your plan after you log back in.

If you do run into any problems with your work, contact technical support at webmaster@icanplan.biz.