Planning

December 8th, 2006 by John Herman, under planning, strategy. No Comments

Planning is one of the most important things you can do to make sure your business succeeds. Everybody’s got an angle when it comes to planning and everybody’s get a different plan for every angle. People will tell you that you need a marketing plan, a business plan, a financial plan, a personnel plan, a growth plan, a succession plan, and on and on. Basically you need a plan to figure out how to do the plan. It doesn’t need to be that difficult. Planning can be as simple as sitting down with a piece of paper and pencil and listing where you are now, where you’d like to go, and where you’ve been. Those three areas tell the story of your business. Where you’ve been is how you started. It includes your goals, your dreams, your mission, your vision, and your objectives – your reason for being in business. Next, look at where you are now. Maybe you’ve got several clients and business is booming. Maybe your business has hit a wall and you’re not sure what to do next. Maybe you’re growing too fast and aren’t sure where to turn. Planning will help in all of these situations. For instance, if business is booming and you’re successfully signing clients, take some time to look at what has worked for you – why are you as successful as you are at this point – and then plan to do more of that! If you’re business has hit a wall, a plan can help you get back on track. If you’ve documented successful approaches, you already have a place to start. If not, well you really need to start planning. Now if your business is growing out of control that requires a totally different plan – but a plan none-the-less. Finally, always remember where you’ve been. Only then will you be sure to get where you are going. So often business owners become so overwhelmed in the day-to-day operations of their business that they lose sight of what is and isn’t working when in comes to advertising and marketing. Tracking successes and failures provides important information for future campaigns, but unless it’s utilized, it’s useless! So as corny as it sounds, it’s really true – you don’t plan to fail, you fail to plan. Learn from your mistakes and capitalize on your successes and you’ll be taking steps to make sure your business is succeeding.