Your 2008 plan for success

anuary 11, 2008 3:28:58 AM PST
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It's a new year, and 2008 can be the best year ever for you and your business. How? Develop an annual business plan. If you're like me, you've got big hopes for your business in 2008. If you want to make those happen, you've got to have a plan.
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Yes, I know- that's not sexy. It's not as exciting as going to a motivational seminar with some wanna-be business guru and purchasing a set of their incredibly expensive motivational CDs.

But while business planning isn't seemingly exciting, it is very effective. You can substantially increase your sales this year with just some simple planning. And making more money is sexy.

It's worked for me. Last year, 2007, was my company's best ever, even though we had incredible challenges. We thrived because of decisions we'd made at previous annual business plan sessions.

Developing an annual plan saves you money as well as makes you money. It helps you decide on how to focus your marketing and development efforts, so you don't waste your precious cash.

Your annual business planning process can be fairly formal, like the one we do in my business, where we set aside a couple of days for planning meetings. But hey, I wrote the book on business plans, so I've got to do the whole shebang.

You can keep it much simpler. Just set aside a few hours or a day for planning. Include your key personnel. Get away from the office or store, and especially the phones.

Here's how to develop your 2008 annual plan:

• Look at the past. Before going in new directions, evaluate what worked and what hasn't. In particular, identify which activities have been the most successful in terms of profit not just income.

• List your goals. Begin by listing all your goals — how much money you want to make, products or services you want to add, changes in work patterns or operations.

• Get specific. Now put details with each goal, especially numbers. Let's say one of your goals is to increase sales. Don't just say you'd like to double your income. Instead, list each product or service you offer, and set a goal of a specific number of customers and income for each.
Develop steps. Identify the steps necessary to achieve each specific goal. For instance, to attract more customers, you'll need to increase marketing. List the ways you'll do this: advertising, trade shows, direct mail, etc.
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• Estimate money. Put a dollar figure next to each step. The more specific you've been with each step, the easier it will be to come up with a range of costs for every goal.

• Estimate time. Things don't just take money; they take time. Next to each step, estimate how much time it might take. For instance, writing a newspaper ad may only take two hours, exhibiting at a trade show might require five days.

• Estimate people. Figure out who will be responsible for each step and how many people are needed. This gives you an overall sense of the total "person-hours" necessary to achieve your goals.

• Prioritize. By now, you've got a list that would take much more money, more time, and more people than you have. So, prioritize your goals and steps. Rate highly the things you must do to survive. Next, choose those activities with the highest chance of success. Don't try to do everything; it's better to eliminate some goals altogether rather than attempting all partway.

• Write an action plan. Based on your priorities, come up with an action plan. Schedule the month, week or day you're going to take action on each step and what that action will be.

• Reality check. Look over your action plan. Does it fit with how you and your employees truly behave? If you plan seems overly ambitious, it probably is. Go back and re-prioritize.

• Get consensus. Discuss the plan with all affected parties (employees, subcontractors, family members). Are they willing to commit to it?

Once you've developed your annual plan, you're on your way to achieving your goals and being a success in 2008.

Rhonda Abrams is president of The Planning Shop, publisher of books for entrepreneurs. Their newest is Finding an Angel Investor In A Day. Register for Rhonda's free business planning newsletter at www.PlanningShop.com. For an index of her columns, click here. Copyright Rhonda Abrams 2007.