Without a business development plan, your company won’t be healthy and may get sick and die. However, many small business owners don’t do the necessary planning due to time constraints. How many times have you thought that you should do some planning – if you weren’t so busy running the business!
But business planning doesn’t have to be a burdensome, time-consuming task. In two sessions lasting from two to three hours each, you can lay the groundwork for a business development plan that will energize your company throughout the entire year.
Preparing for a Business Development Plan
Set aside time on two separate days for two business planning sessions. (The days do not have to be consecutive, but they should be close together in time. You can choose to have the planning sessions a week apart.)
If you are someone who prefers to work in a group, gather with one or two like-minded friends who also run a small business. You’ll find that the shared brainstorming process will be easier with the input from others and will be more enjoyable as social events. However, your planning group should be small; no more than three people. (The smaller the group, the more each individual’s contribution matters.)
Session 1: Reviewing the Vision Statement
Your company’s vision statement is the starting point for any business development planning, as it provides the foundation for inspiration and motivation. Do you see yourself needing a lot of business to the point that you need to hire help? Do you want to double your sales? Do you want to be known locally as the best company of your kind? Do you want to expand and become a franchise? Let your imagination soar. How would you like your company to be in the next year? In three years? In five years?
Draft your company’s vision statement for each of the time periods mentioned above – and write three vision statements for your company. Don’t hesitate to craft a vision statement that truly reflects what you want your company to be and what you genuinely want to get out of your company. The vision statement is for you, not for your clients or customers.
Assessing Your Company
This second step of the development plan involves examining the current state of your company. First, the easy part. What are three of your company’s greatest strengths right now? And what are three of your company’s areas of weakness? For more information on this topic, you should read about how to conduct a SWOT analysis for your company and this example of a SWOT analysis.
Now it gets a little harder; you need to tie these strengths and weaknesses to your vision statement for the coming year. How will the three strengths you identified help you get closer to where you want to be next year? And how will the three weaknesses hinder you?
Think about these points and/or discuss them, then write down the three aspects of your company that you believe are most important to focus on in order to achieve your vision statement for the coming year.
For example, let’s say that my company’s vision statement is to double my sales next year and make my product known nationally. Let’s also assume that my company’s strengths are the attributes of my product (people who use it see it as a superior product), a solid customer base (the product is well positioned locally and I do a lot of repeat business), and a distribution system (I have no problems fulfilling orders or delivering the product to customers).
On the other hand, my weaknesses are that it doesn’t seem to attract a large number of new customers, the product isn’t well known outside the local area, and my marketing efforts are not successful.
After examining these points and comparing them to my vision statement for the coming year, I wrote: “Salesforce. PR. Marketing.”
Stop
you to stay on track and make necessary adjustments along the way. Schedule regular check-ins with yourself and/or your team to review your progress and make any needed changes to your action plan. You may want to revisit your goals every month or quarter, depending on the nature of your business and the goals you’ve set.
الختام
بمجرد أن تبدأ في تنفيذ خطتك وتقييم تقدمك بانتظام، ستبدأ في رؤية النتائج التي كنت تأمل فيها. تذكر أن النجاح في الأعمال يتطلب التزامًا، ومرونة، ورغبة في التعلم من الأخطاء. لا تتردد في تعديل خطتك إذا كان هناك شيء لا يعمل كما هو متوقع. استمر في العمل نحو تحقيق رؤيتك، وستجد نفسك تحقق أهدافك بمرور الوقت.
The dates included in the goals, but you also need time to review your progress in the action plan in your timeline. What will work best for you? Will you review your progress in your action plan once a week? Once a month? Every three months? Some people find it very impactful to start each day with a business planning session. This keeps your goals in sight.
Whatever your choice, select your dates now and log them with reminders in the timeline system you use. Evaluating your progress in the action plan may take anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour.
Again, conducting business planning with a partner or small group is very beneficial at this stage; as you will assess what works and what doesn’t when adjusting the goals (and it’s interesting to see how your partner or group members are implementing their own action plans).
The second session of the business development plan ends here. You have now chosen your direction for the coming year and established a specific action plan to take you where you want to go. You have also determined how and when you will sit down and assess your progress in your plan.
Make It Happen
There is only one thing left to do – implement your action plan! Hopefully, these two business development planning sessions have ignited your enthusiasm and prepared you to start working on making your vision statement a reality.
Source: https://www.thebalancemoney.com/quick-start-business-planning-for-small-businesses-2947989
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