5 Important Areas To Consider In Your 2011 Business Planning
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By: John D. Laslavic, LPBC Most business owners I have met consider the New Year as a time to get a fresh start. It is usually a time to reflect on the business’s past year’s successes and failures. It is also a time to compare the planned results of the previous year’s business goals to the actual results achieved for the year. Once the evaluation is completed, new goals are usually established by the business owner with the management team and a strategic action plan is developed and deployed.
Knowing that perfection is never actually achieved but a constant state to strive for, the most successful business owners are never satisfied with the current state of the business and are constantly striving for improved results.
Here are 5 important areas for business owners to consider when establishing the Strategic Business Action Plan!
1. Decide what you want for 2011! Have you determined what you want your business to be? Are you making the needed adjustments to help the business be the best in serving your market, prospects and clients? Are you setting realistic goals and objectives?
As a business owner you might want to consider the maturity of the business and if your desires for the business reflect what the business really needs. In your planning are you anticipating the areas that may be the weakest links in the business that could inhibit your business growth? What areas might need further developed in order for your business to continue to grow and prosper?
2. Benchmark your business! Are you comparing your business to other similar businesses in your SIC or NAICS codes? What can you learn by the comparisons and apply to improve your business performance?
I have a successful client that had always planned for annual revenue growth of 15%. He wondered why his peers around the country were growing much faster than his business. When we benchmarked this owner’s business against his peers, we found that his peers on average were growing revenue 46% annually. Using this data and adjusting the business owner’s action plan to more aggressively pursue more aggressive business growth, the business owner with renewed confidence achieved a 39% growth the following year. A great result for a change in perspective of the owner now not satisfied with a mere 15% annual revenue growth. ThistleSea Business Development has access to financial benchmarking tools to assist our clients in performing peer comparisons to assist in establishing realistic goals for growth and to identify actions to strengthen your business performance.
3. Find and implement the best business practices! What business best practices can you apply to avoid making the mistakes of others? How much more efficient and effective can your business operate, not to mention driving a more profitable business by applying the best business practices available.
You might want to consider a Business Effective Evaluation by a Licensed Professional Business Coach to help you begin the process to identify your strengths and weakness to help develop your Strategic Business Action Plan.
Find what works for you and your business but avoid continuing use of those practices that might feel comfortable but through an objective evaluation are costing your business and not giving you the return needed to be successful.
4. Put your Strategic Business Action Plan in writing! By developing your Strategic Business Action Plan for the New Year and putting it in writing, you will get closer to success than 99% of those who don’t put their plans in writing. So how do you develop the action plan for the New Year and to meet the needs of the business owner and develop a plan that will provide the business what it needs to grow strong to deliver for the business owner?
5. Envision your success and practice! Successful business owners see the future of business success in advance of achieving the results. They understand that a lot of small parts of the business add up to achieving this successful vision. They and their team members practice the actions that lead to the success envisioned. They understand and lead their team to understand that continual training and education on a patterned basis is required to keep the organization on track and relevant. This education and training is required to maintain a leadership position with their customers.
While a business owner can successfully move their organization forward on their own, engaging a Licensed Professional Business Coach will help you, the business owner to clearly and objectively evaluation your current situation and build a Strategic Business Action Plan. The ThistleSea Licensed Professional Business Coach also provides clients with tools, best practices, an objective perspective and the accountability needed to take those action steps to achieve big results.
About the Author John D. Laslavic is a Licensed Professional Business Coach and a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach. John is the President of ThistleSea Business Development, LLC (www.thistlesea.com) which includes the CNICUS Buying Group.
John and his team of Licensed Professional Coaches work with successful business owners in the Greater Pittsburgh Area, Western Pennsylvania Region and across the United States. John can be contacted at ThistleSea Business Development, LLC by calling 724,935.1930 or email at info@thistlesea.com.
Contact us if you are interested in a no-cost initial meeting to discuss how a ThistleSea Business Development, LLC coach can help you achieve the success you desire for your business.
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