After a couple of unpredictable years, things are looking up, and now is the time to re-review those business plans and set some attainable goals for the next year ahead.
A plan is a pivotal tool to keep you and your team accountable for reaching your KPIs, goals and milestones for your business’s success. Without a plan you are essentially driving the vehicle blind with the hope you’ll arrive somewhere and never really knowing if that was the place you were meant to reach.
A plan also fuels motivation. Your team has clear objectives of what you want to achieve over an outlined period and provides your team with incentives to reach certain phases in the process.
When creating your business plan for the next year, you should consider the following aspects:
- Are my goals realistic?It’s great to dream but if your goals aren’t attainable just yet, you are going to feel deflated, which can lead to quitting altogether. Small steps build great things, so don’t forget to include the small wins in your planning to keep the team morale and momentum on the right track.
- Is there accountability?Don’t be afraid to delegate responsibility within your business. Each department, or individual (in smaller businesses), should have a clear direction on what their role is in creating the bigger picture. This is where KPIs can be included if you are a sales heavy business. Productivity, resourcefulness, efficiency can also be measures of success. This can even stem into each individual’s professional development plan, to strengthen weaknesses that will improve business performance over time.
- Do these goals help shape my business mission and vision?It’s all well and good to have a set of business goals to achieve profitable revenue, brand exposure or exponential growth but what do these things mean to your business’s overall purpose? At the start of any new business goal setting and planning it’s worth reviewing your business’s mission and vision statements, and remembering why you went into business in the first place.
- Evaluation of your plan through data and performanceReviewing where your business is currently to give you a baseline before you embark on the next phase of planning is a critical component of the process. Google Analytics is a great place to start to review what is working and what needs more attention in the digital landscape. Social media insights, and overall sales and performance – either via your bookkeeping software or bookkeeper – will allow you to forecast correctly based on this data. These same metrics are what you should be reviewing at the end of a planned performance period, which we recommend reviewing monthly to keep on track.
Hot tip
Marketing is at the core of your business plan and advertising is what will bring in your sales. However, having a strategic marketing plan in place is what provides a solid foundation to set your business up for the success you want to achieve. .
