Ask a business owner about having a written plan and you’ll get varied responses. Many simply don’t have a plan, some will say it’s in their head (questionable at best!) and for those that do have a written plan, it’s usually filed away, gathering dust! If it is pulled out (once a year) to check progress, quite often businesses are not on track with the plan, and it’s established that plans don’t work.

 

There is another way! If you want to set goals, and hit them, it’s vital to have a ‘working plan’ and this is what 90 day planning is all about. You still need to know what you want to achieve in the longer term (3-5 years ideally), but planning a whole year in detail is a waste of time. A lot changes during a year, and it is far too time consuming to plan a whole year in detail anyway. So equipped with long-term goals, ensure you take one day each quarter to work on a plan for the following one. Stepping outside your business for a whole day allows you to look at the bigger picture, regain focus and clarity by reviewing the past quarter and planning for next 90 days.

 

Key elements of the 90 day planning cycle include:

 

  • Revisiting longer term goals, and deciding which elements to work on in the next quarter.
  • Narrowing down your focus to 5 or 6 key goals, of which half should be about making money! Other goals like staff development are just as important, there should always be a focus on increasing profit!
  • Each goal should be SMART, and broken down into a series of steps that will be needed to implement them.
  • For each step, one person should be assigned as responsible and given a completion date. The whole company should be focused on 90 day goals, not just the senior management team!
  • Repeating the process every quarter!

 

With this level of detail and focus every 90 days, most businesses find that within a year, they’ve achieved much more that they thought possible! Fail to set aside that day each quarter and plans start gathering dust and progress towards goals slows down. This is why we hold a 90 day planning workshop every quarter for clients at all levels to attend. As well as a productive planning day, it’s always a great opportunity to network with other local business owners and bounce ideas off each other!

 

Our next workshop is coming up soon… Friday 5th October at The Bedford Golf Club. Register on Eventbrite…