The start of the 2016 year will be a great time to reflect upon your achievements in 2015, take stock of your business, identify areas where you didn’t achieve your goals and take action to ensure that you achieve them in 2016.  Here are some tips to make your business planning Perth more productive.

Get your team involved

Business planning works best when it’s a team effort.  Involve your key staff and advisors such as your accountant, your mentor (if you have one) and others who can make a meaningful contribution to the planning – e.g. an IT expert if you envisage a major website overhaul.

Organise a business planning meeting and ask your staff to bring their ideas along; also, try to hold the meeting away from the business to avoid getting caught up in daily activities or other interruptions.

Review your business

Start with a review of your business as it currently stands, focusing on these key questions:

What’s working well for us at the moment that we should continue doing?

What’s not working − what should we drop or do less of?

What has the most business potential for the future?

Decide on changes

Your combined sharing of ideas may identify some required changes – e.g. you may need to adapt your existing products and services, seek new markets or distribution channels, or change your business model entirely.

These changes are more likely to occur if there is a consensus.  Bear in mind that resistance often arises when people feel that their comfort zones or their jobs are threatened.  Address these issues right from the start to allay any concerns.

Figure out capacity

Some of the agreed changes may require the business to invest in new equipment, products, services or staff.  If so, you’ll need to know how much extra business must be generated for a reasonable payback and whether you’ll need a larger credit line or new capital.  Ask your accountant to assist by completing a return on investment (ROI) analysis.

Get everyone on board

Once you’ve established where you want to take the business, concentrate on the next 12 months by setting some end-of-year goals, then create stepping stones to achieve them.  Your role now is to get all staff on board by clearly communicating the plan to them.  Once you have done this, you’ll be on the way to succeeding with your business planning Perth strategy.

Consensual goals are more motivating than imposed goals, so at least get your key staff involved in the goal setting process.  Immediate goals are easier to focus on than longer term goals, so make sure each person understands what they’ll be required to do.

Follow up

A major challenge with all business planning is that it is often done at the beginning of the year when optimism and motivation levels are high.  However, this can quickly fade as staff become caught up with their daily activities and/or tackling new projects.

Business goals won’t be taken seriously unless you set regular dates to review progress – e.g. every 90 days.  Once your staff know that you’ll be asking them to report at regular progress meetings, they’ll be more motivated which, in turn, will keep your planning on track.

If you would like help with business planning Perth for the year ahead, talk to the team at BSN & Co.  We can help you identify key objectives and how you can achieve them in 2016.