Here’s to Planning for a Successful 2012!

This year, let’s all be smart and actually take the time to set plans that will maximize our success.

We know this paper is “going back to the basics,” yet we also know many well intentioned business people get crazy busy and do not get their business planning done.

Why do we need a business plan?
Larger companies have already developed their business plans, likely along with their 2012 budget. Yet business plans can be just as helpful for mid-size and smaller businesses and, frankly, for us as individuals in business, whether we are a sole practitioner, an entrepreneur, or if we work in a company or not-for-profit organization.

Does a business plan assure success? Certainly not, but it does give us a strategy and a road map. Then it is up to us to use it. It must be a working document, for example, that we refer to each month.

If we are part of a company, whether as a very senior executive or an up-and-comer, it is most effective for a team to write a business plan together. It will be more powerful, and likely more creative, and our team members will feel ownership and work with more passion.

We want our team members to feel as if our business plans are shared promises to one another.

How to get started
Planning helps us look ahead. Take a few minutes to actually write down your answers to each of the following questions. 

Be specific. Details will help you identify action items and potential challenges.

1. What is our vision?
2. What is our purpose?
3. What are our goals for 2012?
4. What are our challenges for 2012?
5. Who is our competition?
6. What are our target markets?
7. How are we different and better than our competition?
8. What is our competitive advantage, now, and what would we like it to be in three years?
9. What are our needs?
10. How do we strengthen client relationships?
11. How can we help our colleagues do their best work?
12. How do we strengthen our team?
13. How do we increase teamwork?

These are samples of purposeful, important questions we should ask ourselves and take the time to answer, in writing. If you can answer these questions, you have started your business plan!

Fill in the blanks
Are there any that you can’t answer? Do you need to gather input from others? If so, from whom? Please email me if you are stuck on anything above, and I can point you to helpful resources or help you make a plan.

Other elements: finances and marketing
In addition to fleshing out answers the questions above, financials must be part of our plan – our revenues, expenses, profit, learning and self-development investments, as examples.

Clearly the success of a great many businesses depends on marketing success. Some include their marketing plan as part of the business plan.

We actually favor writing our business plan first and then a separate marketing plan, which will address how we gain visibility, become known as a quality provider for the help, service and solutions we bring to our clients, get our people and our purpose recognized by our target markets,

Today, a great many are very focused on social media marketing, and we definitely need to do that well. However, we also have to network, engage with people, use our contacts, write and speak, and give away value. This is essential!

To be effective, both our business and our marketing plans need to be well thought out, in writing and used regularly as working documents.

The final piece: accountability
We must be accountable to someone executing each of these plans. Accountability will absolutely increase the likelihood of success or we risk being crazy busy and putting off our good intentions.

Here’s to our being well prepared and understanding our priorities to have great success in 2012!