What’s Your Plan ?

Business Planning is not about producing a slick document for the bank manager to review, nor is it that First Plan you developed with an idea of how you wanted your business to grow.

What is an effective Business Plan ?

An effective Business Plan is a living, breathing document that you refer to every month to tell you whether or not you are on track with what you want to achieve that year. If you are actively doing this you are already on track to growing your business significantly.

Proactive business planning is about getting everything out of your head and onto a clear plan that you can share with others who are going to help you fulfil your goals. Imagine taking out a map and marking your path to your destination, taking note of the roadblocks, junctions, diversions and breaks you will have to take along the way.

If you begin with a very clear vision of what you want your business to look like in the end, then you can start to put together a practical business plan detailing the opportunities and challenges in front of you.

At the end of the day it’s all about the numbers!

Think back to your first Payslip, do you remember where you looked first when you received it?  That’s right, the bottom right-hand corner to find out how much you were going to be paid.  In fact, you already had a pretty good idea in advance what that number ‘should’ be didn’t you?

The same should be true in business. Rather than opening that ‘Payslip’ in surprise, your Business Plan should be a very clear Plan on how much you will sell each month, at what rate, at what cost and at what profit.  You should know and plan this in advance each month.  Throughout each week and month you should check that you are on track to achieve your forecasted profit, because that’s what it’s all about isn’t it?

Know Who You Want

Be very clear on exactly who you want as Customers.  Ask yourself :

  • What problem are you solving for them?
  • How do you get them to become your customers?
  • What do you need to keep doing to keep them coming back?
  • Reasons why they may not buy ?

Your Team

Understand and plan on the premise that, for your business to grow it must become attractive to the best people out there.  You must learn how to induct, train and develop your Team so that they stay and contribute to yours and their own prosperity and dare I say happiness and fulfilment.

For your business to grow you must learn how to grow your people, because they grow your business.

The Final Part

Proactively planning to systemise your business and create strong efficiencies and therefore higher profitability is the final part of an effective Business Plan, whilst keeping an eye on the competition and planning to adapt, adjust and innovate as necessary.

Effective Business Planning is an on-going process of continual planning and improvement.  If this is not occurring your business is effectively going backwards.

Some great questions to ask yourself as you go into next year :

  • What revenue do you already have promised for next year?
  • What is your monthly break-even requirement in terms of revenue per month/week?
  • How much revenue is required to make a profit each month?
  • What is the gap between what is planned to come in each month and what you need to achieve?
  • What strategies are you planning to apply to bridge that gap?
  • Who is responsible for each action or strategy ?  Do they have the time and resources to get their job done?

What is the easiest way to plan ? 

  • Break the year into 4 x 90-day periods, then break each 90-day period into 3 x 1-month periods.
  • Getting some help to keep you on track and focused is also a good idea.
  • Create a proactive Business Plan that gets you to your destination with a business that is firing on all cylinders.

Remember, failing to plan is planning to fail, or at the very least just existing on the edge.

So, what’s your plan?

 

 

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For more advice and tips on Business Planning speak with Jeff Williams, Business Coach to arrange a complimentary strategy session 01244 515533  jeffwilliams@actioncoach.com