Careful planning is essential to sustain business success. It gives you and your team a roadmap for decision making as well as helping you to figure out where to invest in the future. So far, your plans for 2020 may have taken a slightly different course. Don’t be dis-heartened, you can get back on track, whether you need to tweak your current business plan or create a new one, here are some tips for productive planning.
Every business is different, so it’s important to begin your plan by defining your goal. Differing objectives naturally call for different plans so clear goal setting should be right at the top of your to-do list.
Do you know where your business is at? Do your homework… a good plan requires several different kinds of data, so making sure you can provide your plan with that data is imperative to your overall success.
Creating your plan is a huge opportunity to get vital information about what your customers think of your business. Ask your customers how likely they are to refer you and try to find out what they like and don’t like about doing business with you. Doing this will ensure you implement strategies within your plan that will address problem areas that directly affect your customers and the revenue coming into your business.
Knowing where your bottlenecks are is absolutely vital… not sure where they are? Then it might be time to start talking to your team. They know where time and resources are being wasted and they will often spot opportunities for new procedures, products and services before you do. Your biggest resource is knowledge, and who knows more about the day to day operations of your business than your team? Involvement them in your planning process. You’ll be thankful you did!
Now you’ve created your plan and you’ve spoken to your customers, you’ve involved your staff… it’s time to get to it and… BAM… a problem occurs that takes your focus away for a short time! All of that would be fine if YOU’D ONLY WRITTEN YOUR PLAN DOWN! This is the most important part of planning…. Write it down! Make sure everyone knows where it is, make sure YOU know where it is. Keep referring to it every time you feel the day to day running of your business is creeping back in to zap your focus. Make sure that the processes and systems you planned are being used. Keep talking to everyone directly involved in making sure your plan succeeds and make sure you address little niggles and teething problems (and there will be some) before they become plan destroying catastrophies. But most of all, don’t forget… the objective of your plan is to advance your goal, a plan that moves your company forward toward the goal is indispensable.
So, have you created your new plan? If you haven’t and you would like to start straight away, or even if you have but you feel it needs some fine tuning or you’d just like some reassurance in your planning skills, click here to arrange a quick call with Jo
Failure to plan is planning to fail… don’t let 2020 get the better of you!
