In a year like no other, the final two months have become crucial to setting up 2021 for success.
Whether your business is thriving or just surviving, planning now, not just for the Thanksgiving and Christmas break, but for what comes after can be the difference between a good and a great new year.
So, what is your aim for 2021? To work less? To earn more? To Increase sales? Something else?
We all hear that Aims/Goals are important, and should be phrased as S.M.A.R.T (Specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and timebound). But more than this, they need to be communicated clearly for those in your team to act upon.
The one area in goal setting that is often misunderstood is the realistic portion. This is not a “shoot for the starts and hit the moon” effort, but an understanding of the resources you have available (the Plan) and where best to deploy them in terms of what to start, stop or change (the strategy)
It’s a common misconception that you set a strategy, then plan to achieve it. In actual fact, Planning comes before Strategy in the hierarchy.
In a year like no other, the final two months have become crucial to setting up 2021 for success.
Whether your business is thriving or just surviving, planning now, not just for the Thanksgiving and Christmas break, but for what comes after can be the difference between a good and a great new year.
So, what is your aim for 2021? To work less? To earn more? To Increase sales? Something else?
We all hear that Aims/Goals are important, and should be phrased as S.M.A.R.T (Specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and timebound). But more than this, they need to be communicated clearly for those in your team to act upon.
The one area in goal setting that is often misunderstood is the realistic portion. This is not a “shoot for the starts and hit the moon” effort, but an understanding of the resources you have available (the Plan) and where best to deploy them in terms of what to start, stop or change (the strategy)
It’s a common misconception that you set a strategy, then plan to achieve it. In actual fact, Planning comes before Strategy in the hierarchy.
This is because is once you have an aim for your enterprise, you must build a plan of resources available that could help meet your aim. You can then build a realistic strategy to use those resources more effectively.
From a financial planning and strategic management point of view taking assessing your resources in a plan is important now more than ever. Resources are commonly grouped in three areas:
- Tangible – my stock, plant, cash available
- Intangible – my Brand and customer loyalty
- Human – the people I have available to me, both in and outside the company
Taking stock involves doing an inventory – to achieve this we can ask some clarifying questions:
Tangible
- what cash do I have now, and what is my projection of future cash (cashflow forecast)?
- What sales pipeline do I have now, and how am I expecting this to change over the coming months?
- What stock, plant and facilities are under or over utilized?
- What products or services are under or over utilized? More or less Profitable?
Intangible
- What is the health of my customer base? How happy and profitable are they?
- How well am I known in my marketplace, and what evidence do I have of this?
- What is my rate of repeat sales?
Human
- Are my people productive (utilization) and effective (are they doing a good job?)
- Are they happy and in the right roles?
- Where am I underutilizing my staff, or over utilizing them?
- What more help do I need?
Answering these questions needs to include facts (evidence) to back up any assertions. If planning is done effectively, then strategy can be formed and implemented much more quickly. Think of it as slowing down to speed up.
Once you know what resources you have to work with, you can quickly build a strategy that makes sense, and can be communicated to your team and the market.
So, what’s the call to action here? Make time for planning NOW. If you need help, guidance or external accountability then Estmere is here to help.
If you’d like help to further understand how to best use this resource, please schedule a free 30 minute call with us here. We won’t try to sell you something, but we will try to help with clarity.
