2023 – A year for resilience?
Firstly, we wish all our clients a healthy and prosperous New Year!
In 2022, despite the troubles with the economy, we have been amazed at the resilience of our clients and how they have energetically moved their businesses into new areas, products and services. Many of our clients have redesigned delivery and payment systems, moved their entire processes digital, accepted remote working and adopted to new technologies to survive and indeed prosper.
You have demonstrated to us how we can all readily adapt to a change in circumstances and have given us inspiration and optimism for the future. We hope that by this time next year we will be back to where we want to be, and the economy will return to some kind of normality again.
For January we are encouraging all clients to take time to prepare a 2023 Strategic plan and set up your targets for success!
“A sailor without a destination will never get a favourable wind”
It is easier to get to your destination with a plan. We all know this simple truth. If you are driving from A to B it helps to know where B is and the direction you need to take.
If you have a vision of what you want your business to look like when it is “complete” then you are able to drive your business towards the vision and you can monitor how you are doing as you go along.
If you do not have a strategic plan, you could get blown around like flotsam in the sea, “this way and that way”, without any control.
If you agree it is hard to accomplish anything without a plan, let’s start thinking about putting one in place. A plan looks at all the things a business could do and narrows it down to the things it is actually good at doing. A strategic plan also helps you determine where to spend time, resources and money.
How do you do a strategic plan?
Take time to review your own personal objectives – the business is there to provide you with what you want from life; do not forget this.
Look at where you are now: your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, so you have a clear understanding of your position in the marketplace, the competition, your systems, the way you do things, what you are good at, and what you are not.
Focus on where you want to be (say) in 2 years: what you want your business to look like when it is running profitably and successfully. Then you can determine your priorities – the big issues that you need to focus on. This is the strategic plan
Write down your vision and define what you must achieve and the actions you need to take. Monitor how you are doing each month, noting which actions have been completed and what needs to be done to keep you moving forward.
Allocate responsibility for taking the actions.
Review and adjust your regular activities to keep you on track.
We have useful tools and checklists to help you analyse where you are now, set a strategy, agree actions, and monitor them. Please talk to us about how we can help you achieve your goals – we have helped many other businesses grow and succeed!
