Turning Plans into Realities

We’ve discussed some simple steps to getting started on your annual business plan. (see previous post: The Seven Questions of Simple Planning). Once you have the questions answered, you can begin moving towards the actions that transform your plans into realities.

The first two of the Seven Questions ask what your revenue goal is, and what needs to happen for it to be reached.Let’s say the target is a 10% increase, and the “need to happen” is expanding to a new geographic territory. For most business owners, once you have decided to do something, the action items are pretty plain. You just need to write them down.

For a new territory you could make a simple bullet point list of the things that need to be done. It doesn’t have to be complex or detailed. Your staff can get a lot from just reviewing the boxes to be checked off. So it might look like this:

• Define the territory
• Develop a list of prospective customers
• List competitors
• Analyze competitor prices
• Hire a sales representative
• Create job description
• Determine incentives
• Place want ads
• Review resumes
• Hire and train
• Prepare marketing materials
• Launch

You now have a rudimentary sales and development plan for your 10% growth goal.

The third question is about your expectation for profits as a percentage of sales, and the fourth is about improvements in your company. Those can be two separate goals (remembering SMART, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Resourced and Timely from two posts ago) or they can be related. If your increased profitability is going to be as a result of more effective operations, as it usually is, then the steps to your profit goal are likely to be the improvement steps for the business.

The fifth and sixth questions are about your role in the business. Again, the first of the pair is about “what” is going to change, and the second is about “how.” Avoid being duplicative in your answers. “I am going to be less involved in day-to-day operational decision-making” shouldn’t be followed by “I am going to delegate more.” That is redundant, one being another phrasing of the other.

How are you going to delegate? What duties will become someone else’s? Which departments, functions or responsibilities will you hand off? When will you do this? Who is going to take them on? Again, a list of your duties with notations on the changes next to each item is sufficient to start.

The final question of my simple seven is to develop a measurable goal for your personal scorecard. Don’t think this is a throwaway. I will tell the story next week of how that one answer changed a client’s life. For now, just decide what is most important to you in your personal life. What are you going to do about it?

Now ask “How?” If you are going to improve your physical health, what is that going to entail? Are you joining a fitness class? When? If you are vowing to be home for dinner with the kids three nights each week, which nights are they? Specific is the first condition of SMART.

Now you have four goals for the next year (three business and one personal), and four outlines of the steps you need to take to achieve them. One business goal is for growth, one is for improved profitability, and one is for developing your role as a CEO and owner.

You are starting 2012 with a basic plan of action. Is it comprehensive? Of course not. Unless you have a management team more than two deep below you, however, it is probably enough to move forward.

Is it more than 80% of your competitors have? It certainly is.