Tweet

Are You Ready for 2011? – Planning Your Business

Guest post by: David Liddell

Article Overview: Business planning for the new year.Effective planning drives success and mitigates risk. How to get started and top ten topics for discussion.

Are You Ready for 2011? – Planning Your Business

The holidays are ideal for spending time with family and friends. A good holiday break will recharge your batteries and get you excited about the coming year. The holidays are also an appropriate time to prepare yourself and your employees for the coming business year. Business planning helps you craft a clear, integrated plan of direction and brings focus to goal setting, decision making, accountability and daily business activity.

Planning is often viewed as one of those "important" but not "urgent" tasks. It is easily set aside when things are busy - and especially when business appears to be running smoothly. But remember, planning doesn't deal with the here and now; it deals with the future. Effective planning drives success and mitigates risk.

So, back to my question... Are you ready for 2011? If you're not thinking about planning for the coming year, you should be! The good news is that it is not too late.

How to Get Started...

• First, think "quick and efficient". There is no need to overdo it. Set aside 3 to 5 hours (total) of planning time. Adjust as needed depending on the size and complexity of your organization.
• Involve others in the process. It is impossible to single handedly execute your plan; you will need buy-in and help from other key influencers. Get them involved early and place a high value on their input.
• Set an agenda. Develop and communicate your planning process in advance. Most people need time to prepare themselves mentally.
• Pre-work. A brief questionnaire prior to the first gathering is a good idea to stimulate thinking. "What worked especially well in 2010?" "What has been our biggest weakness over the past 12 months?" "What's the most important thing we need to accomplish in 2011?"
• Avoid group-think. Remember the old cliché, "great minds think alike, but only fools always agree." So align your attitude for optimal group dynamics. Encourage creativity, openness, and vigorous dialog to surface real issues, potential solutions, and new ideas.

Top 10 topics for discussion...

1. How did you measure up against your 2010 goals? What did you do well to reach your goals? What impeded your progress? What are the major gaps that need to be addressed?
2. What must you do in the coming 12 months to respond to the demands of the marketplace?
3. What adjustments are required to remain competitive or improve your competitive standing?
4. What new capabilities, products, or services need to be developed?
5. What can you do to improve customer satisfaction and retention?
6. What operational adjustments will be needed?
7. How will you measure success? What are your goals and objectives?
8. What leadership and team performance characteristics and behaviors are required?
9. How should you align your marketing and business development resources?
10. What are the key organizational initiatives necessary to close gaps and drive performance?

Put your plan into action...

• Start with a plan that is well written and concise. It should be condensed down to primary goals, objectives, key initiatives, and responsibilities (you need a way to assure accountability).
• The plan needs to be communicated in a consistent fashion to all employees through "all-hands", department, and team meetings. The point is to ensure that each and every employee understands how they will contribute to the plan and how their success will be measured.
• Every key initiative requires an executive sponsor (or champion) to steer the effort; however they should involve employee teams and be driven by their input and work. Include as many people as is reasonable. This promotes engagement and professional development.
• Monitor and assess progress. Key initiative teams should report to the executive team on a periodic basis. The executive team should hold quarterly planning update meetings to measure progress, assess goal attainment, and ensure continuity.
• Be agile and make adjustments as needed.
• Take the time to celebrate successes!

Consistent attention and a disciplined approach make the difference between a relevant plan that drives business success and a group exercise that results in a dust-gathering written report. So get 2011 started on the right foot. Make planning an integral and regular part of how you run your business; not an unconnected event.

Related Articles
  Planning for 2011
  The Gravity of I Can't
  Year End Strategic Planning - To Plan or Not to Plan - That is the Question\"
  QuickBooks 2011: It's Here!
  How to set successful goals and New Year's resolutions
  QuickBooks 2011: Improvement to Closing Date Functionality
  Leaders - Sometimes Their Own Worst Enemy
  Franchising Outlook Report Offers Further Proof 2011 is the Year to Become a Franchise Owner
  As Era of \"Extend & Pretend\" Ends, More CRE Shopping Begins
  Courageous Strategies For Your Business Recovery
  How much Planning is enough - Use Lean and Standardize
  2011: The Year of Mastered Self-Expression
  How Obama's tax credit helps/hurts IT spending
  Medical Practices Beware! Time is Running Out To Avoid Electronic Medical Records Stimulus Penalties!
  Watch Your Language - Medical Sales Training
  Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 8 of 12
  Winter/Spring 2011 Book Fairs and Book Festivals Authors & Book Lovers Should Attend
  The Importance of International Tax Planning
  2011 Consumer Retail Trends
  3 Easy Ways to Shape-up Your Relationship This New Year

Article Tags: business planning, business success, effective planning, topics for discussion



Related Forum Posts
Books for Women Entrepreneurs - There's a thread for good books in the Resources folder, but it doesn't target books for businesswomen particularly, so I figured I'd start such a thread here. It doesn't matter how successful you are in your business - it's always possible to learn something new. In subsequent posts I give Table of Contents and brief descriptions for various titles - most of them devoted to the businesswoman - and sometimes a review. If anyone else has read a review, or has read the book and found it useful, please comment! 1. The Old Girl's Network 2. Mother's Work 3. The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful Women 4. Pitch Like A Girl 5. Workplace Warrior 6. Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the Modern Consumer 7. Contingency Planning & Disaster Recovery 8. She Wins, You Win 9. Napoleon On Project Management 10. Why Good Girls Dont' Get Ahead, But Gutsy Girls Do 11. Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart your Career even If you Haven't Had a Job in Years 12. The One Minute Millionaire 13. Talking From 9 to 5 14. Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambitions 15. 101 Best Home Based Businesses for Women: Everything You Need to Know About Getting Started on the Road To Success 16. Work With Passion: How to Do What You Love for a Living. Revised and Expanded 17. Fail-Proof Your Business: Beat the Odds and be Successful 18. Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End 19. Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide 20. Millionaire Women Next Door: The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen 21. Start Small, Finish Big: Fifteen Key Lessons to Start - and Run - Your Own Successful Business 22. Rewired, Rehired or Retired: A Global Guide for the Experienced Worker 23. The Martha Rules: 10 essentials for achieving success as you start, build or manage a business 24. The Essentials of Entrepreneurship: What it takes to create Successful Enterprises 25. Net Ready: Strategies for Success in the E-conomy 26. The Promotable Woman 27. Leave The Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro shows you how to do more in less time and feel great about it 28. The Work At Home Balancing Act: The professional resource guide for managing yourself, your work, and your family at home 29. Secrets of Six-Figure Women
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Merry Christmas everyone! - I'm just waiting for my son to wake up to start our Christmas traditions and I wanted to drop a quick note here to thank everyone for your support of the forums. We've have an exciting year and hopefully we can reach and help even more entrepreneurs in 2011! I hope you enjoy your families and have a fantastic holiday break... and then get ready to kick some butt with your business in 2011! Merry Christmas everyone!
Seek Venture Capital & Funding - Hello, Greetings from India. I am Seeking Venture Capital for Offshore Software Company Start-up. Need advise along with Business Model Sample. I have a basic outline for an offshore company. 1. Technology - like Microsoft Dot Net, Java, LAMP 2. Talent Team - Found Good Technology Developers. 3. Where I can get the leads/potential customers - Leads have been identified who are willing to move forward offshore projects. 4. I do not have resources like funding. It is a very critical factor to me Industries: Manufacturing, Real Estate, Retail, Insurance, Distribution & Logistics, Healthcare, Industry Associations and Software Product Development, Agricultural Industries and Etc. Services: Offshore Software Development Company. Offices to be located: Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India and USA. Products/Services/Applications in areas like POS & Billing, Sales & Distribution, Production Planning, Material Management, Inventory Control, Plant Maintenance, Purchasing, Accounting and Logistics. Dynamic Web Programming with Database Driven Content Management Systems, Online Stores for E-Commerce, B2B Solutions, Community Portals, Website Redesign and Development, Custom ERP with Enterprise Wide Functional Modules such as Marketing, CRM, Accounting, Inventory Control, Sales & Distribution, Production Planning, Purchase & Stores, Logistics and Supply Chain. Seek your further questions and help. Thank you, Best Regards, Jayapratap.
Re: How do you make the most of your day? - Planning, To Do lists, and deadlines all help me. Also being self critical of my own time management helps me raise the bar. I still check email too often though.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

You Have A Website What Now

12 Principles to Spark Innovation

How To Improve Your CTA (Call To Action)

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.