It’s December which means it’s nearly the end of the year. Some of us currently do last-minute Christmas shopping, while others work tirelessly on our business. While I don’t want to ruin your festivities, make sure not to forget about your business and your planning for 2023!
That’s because the next year could be your chance to grow your business to new heights. However, that can be a difficult task to do. So if that sounds like something you’re struggling with, keep reading.
Why Planning for 2023 Is Essential For Every Small Business
If you don’t plan your next steps, you’ll never reach your desired heights. Even worse, you could go bankrupt.
Think about planning like this. Two people want to go from Seattle to New York. One of them has an old banger minivan, while the other has a Ferrari. Which would get to their destination faster if there were no speed limit? You’d say, Ferrari, right?
Wrong!
The thing is, it doesn’t matter how fast your car is. What matters is if you have your travel route set out. You could be in a Ferrari and drive as fast as possible, but you’re not guaranteed to get there – you could get lost if you don’t have a map.
And the same goes for your business! If you haven’t started your planning for 2023, you won’t even have a chance to get close to your business objectives!
What Makes a Good Business Plan
So how do you create a great plan? That mostly depends on you and your business, but here are some things you should have in your 2023 plan:
- Your Business Objective – That’s the most critical step. You cannot create a plan if you don’t know where you want to go. But when choosing your goal, don’t make it vague, like “I want more sales this year.” Instead, make it specific, like “I want £150,000 by the end of 2023”.
- Business Milestones – To reach your business goal, you must cut your objectives into multiple milestones. That helps you to see if you’re on track with your plan.
- Business Strategy – Writing down goals and milestones is one thing. The other thing is figuring out what to do to get there. That is one of the most challenging planning tasks, so if you need it, get someone to help.
If your plan incorporates these three aspects, you can be assured that your business plan is better than the average one.
2 Tips That Help You Succeed in Implementing
By now, you should have a better-than-average business plan. That’s great, but if you want to ensure your plan succeeds, I have two tips for you to help ensure that you get results.
Tip #1 – Review Your Plan After a Few Days
Once you’ve completed your plan, I suggest you leave it aside for at least 24 hours. That will help you freshen up your mind and find any problems with your plan. Once you’ve taken a considerable time gap, it’s time to review it again.
Look through everything and brainstorm anything that could go wrong, and do your edits. If you can, make sure to get others involved with it. For example, discussing the plan with your team can help you set more realistic expectations. Also, you could schedule a consultation call with me so that we can revise your business plan together.
Tip #2 – Track your progress weekly
One of the worst mistakes most small business owners make with planning is not having a way to monitor their progress. If you don’t track it, you’ll never know if you’re actually moving the needle.
So find some data you can track. For example, if you’re an eCommerce business, and your goal is to get a certain amount of sales, try monitoring your add-to-carts, conversions, clicks, and other vital metrics. Then every week, look through your data and find solutions to your problems to get back on track.
Conclusion
And that’s why planning for 2023 is so important. Without planning, your business will either stay where it is or fail. And if you need any help with your ambitious plans, then I’d love to help you out. Just schedule a call with me, and let’s see how we can grow your business.