The last few weeks and days of any calendar year are very often opportunities to both reflect on the past and to plan for the New Year ahead.
Learning and building from past experiences, and, planning for the future is a discipline that all business owners and managers should master and exercise regularly. Budgets should be set and monitored on a monthly basis. However, as we approach the end of 2011 and look forward to 2012, I have listed below a ‘to do list’ to help your business plan for, what we all hope, will be a successful year.
Marketing
Value your customers. Without them you simply do not have a business. For your existing customers, focus on the key areas; quality, unique selling/buying point (USP), value, exceeding expectations. Don’t under estimate the value of communicating with your customers; welcome feedback, find out what your customers want from you, and tell them what you can do for them. They just might not be aware of all the products/services that you offer.
Accept that markets change. Explore the opportunities out there in the market place. Understand that there are often new markets and new products/services that we can take advantage of to further add value to our businesses. Maybe it will be helpful to you to adopt the following grid, and, together with your team, fill in the boxes as you plan for 2012 and beyond.
Markets
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Existing
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New
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Products
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Existing
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New
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Finances
Cash is the key resource. It is important that your business is profitable and it is just as important to ensure that the reported profit for your business turns into cash. Setting monthly budgets and cash flow forecasts is therefore vital for short, medium and, long term business survival.
Ensure that you can accurately estimate your business fixed costs and overheads. Ensure also that you know how much it costs to sell each unit of product or hour of service. Know how much you need to sell and generate to break even. Set profit targets, how much sales and mix of sales you are going to need to achieve the profit target and agree with your team exactly how the business will find these sales – This is called STRATEGY.
It is equally important to measure the actual performance of your business against your forecasts. It is therefore important to ensure that you adopt an adequate accounting reporting system so that you can record both income and expenditure; identify the working capital of the business and quickly ascertain the bank and cash position.
Your team
I believe that people work best when we work together. If the team has not captured and taken ownership of your vision then the journey will be a difficult if not impossible one. It is better to stop production for a day or two to bond together as a team; share dreams, and fears, set objectives, build strategy together, encourage each other, agree budgets together, build confidence. Bring forward the ones who are being trained up – your academy or bench; use them. For those who have been part of the main team who may not be performing or whose performance has become stale, pull them back onto the bench. Why? To drop or criticise them? NO! Only to build them up, to encourage and refresh. It just may be what they want and need is a new challenge either within or outside of your organisation. Help them whichever it is.
Just a few ‘to do’s’. Whatever you do in 2012, I hope that it will prove to be a successful one in terms of health and prosperity and that it will be a happy one aswell; don’t be afraid to celebrate and laugh as you go through the year too.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
