Planning for Small Business Success in 2010

We all know the old saying “If you’re failing to plan, you’re planning to fail”. And we know it’s true, right? My own experience has proved that the
best way to MAKE things happen—versus just hoping they will—is to know where you are now and where you want to go, then make a plan to get
there.

Yet I’m amazed at how few small business owners have any kind of marketing, sales or business plans at all. I’d say maybe 5% of the entrepreneurs I talk to do any kind of planning at all. Most can’t even tell you their net or gross revenues unless it’s tax time. And while they might be able to tell me how much they want to make, when it comes to achieving that goal they’re just winging it.

Do that and chances of hitting your goals are not high.

Since we’re getting ready to roll into a new year, there’s no better time than now to spend a little time planning for your future success. Below
are 6 simple steps you can take now, that are sure to make a big difference for you in the year to come…

1) You have to know where you are now, or you can’t plot a course to somewhere else.

This means your first job is to take a look at your books and see where you stand. You should know:

• Your gross revenue
• Your net revenue
• How many clients or sales you had this year
• Average per sale value
• Average annual value of one customer or client
• Total number of employees
• Your total expenses
• Your marketing expenses
• Your own take home pay
• The number of hours you worked

If you aren’t using Quickbooks or something like it, I highly recommend you start. Bookkeeping software makes it much easier to track these
important numbers.

2) Choose your destination.

Now that you know where your business is today, you need to decide where
you’d like it to be in 12 months.

• Projected gross revenue
• Projected net revenue
• Projected take home pay
• Projected number of hours worked
• Projected per sale value
• Projected annual client or customer value
• Projected number of new clients or sales

3) Now, based on these numbers, work backwards to determine 3 milestones (smaller goals you need to hit to achieve your big goals). These could be weekly, monthly or quarterly goals but they should give you what you need to reach your bigger goals.

Keep in mind that in any business there are only a handful of ways to increase revenue: reduce expenses, get more clients or sales, or increase
the average per client or per sale value. So set goals to do one or more of those three using specific numbers.

4) Make a list of objectives for reaching each milestone. For example, if one of your milestones is to make 4 additional sales per month, you
need a way to do that. So your objectives might be to send 10 follow up letters to past clients each week, attend at least one networking event
each month, and add e-commerce capabilities to your Website.

5) Create task lists for making each of your objectives a reality.

Just jot down every step you need to take, from writing letters and buying stamps, to finding networking groups and creating a better elevator speech, to writing product descriptions and hiring a new Web developer. Put dates and deadlines on these so you get them in a timely fashion.

6) Take action! Nothing happens until something moves.

And as I’ve recently learned, much like a big ship, it’s impossible to change course if you’re still sitting in port. You have to be moving in some direction. So don’t worry about everything being perfect, or the time to be right, or for you to know everything about what you’re trying to do. As Nike said “Just do it”!

It’s your job as a business owner to be the captain of your ship, do the planning and set a course towards success. Plus, once you have a plan complete with tasks and milestones, it’s easy to see what worked and what didn’t. That way you can make changes and achieve even more success each time.

So carve out 30 minutes, grab a piece of paper or sit down at your computer, and crank out a simple one to two page plan. Then get to work.