Business Growth – How to Plan
Business growth is paramount if you want a successful, profitable business that provides for you and your family.
Have you booked time into your schedule to plan next year yet?
Mid October is my time to start thinking about our business growth and what we are going to achieve next year.
I approach it quite differently to most people I meet.
You see, I have always thought it was absolutely crazy waiting for my accountant to tell me how well or poorly my business did once it had happened. It’s like driving forward and only looking in the rear view mirror.
Having a retrospective view means what's done is done. I’ve either accomplished what I set out to do or not.
This is fine for dealing with the tax man, but it’s no way to drive business growth forward.
By looking at things this way you could end up with nothing in your back pocket for a whole year's worth of effort. Absolutely crazy!
That’s why I start with the end in mind.
What do I want to accomplish?
More freedom? Better lifestyle? Increased wealth? - All of the above!
My family and I sit down and try to visualise all the things we want to accomplish in the next year.
Four really nice holidays - check!
Any upgrades on the cars - check!
Any home renovation projects - check!
Top up the pension pot - check!
Over pay the mortgage - check!
You get the idea… Now we try to assign a budget to each. Add in a little overrun and the normal yearly family “overheads” and I have a number that my business needs to give me next year in order to make that happen.
Now I get creative...
What products or services do I need to sell to make this happen? How many units and at what price?
How many marketing campaigns will I run?
Will I need to develop new products to make it happen?
I’m sure you can see where this is heading.
By spending a little time in October planning everything out, I have my entire marketing and business growth development plan mapped out for the next 12 months.
It’s common sense to me, but I see so few people using this method to properly plan their next year for success.
Of course once you’ve planned, you need to ensure you’re on track and know when you’ve veered off. If you can monitor this then you can easily steer yourself back to the path of success or make changes if your initial plan falls short.
I’ll cover both these points in upcoming articles, so keep an eye out.
In the meantime, I’d love to hear your comments below on this planning approach.
How do you plan? Do you have any other tips you could pass on to help others.
