We always find that those businesses who spend the time on a plan seem to be the highest achievers, have the happiest people, and importantly, are most financially successful.

Want to be among this group of businesses? Here’s our top five tips to get your business plan sorted.

Tip 1:

Take stock of your business by measuring it. Use financial indicators like profit, turnover and salary, plus other key aspects – customers, staff, products and services, buildings and equipment, as well as intangibles like knowledge and culture.

Tip 2:

Ask the hard questions. How are you going? What’s working? What’s not? Stand apart from your business and look at it critically – use an external party to help achieve this if you can.

Tip 3:

The key to achieving your goals is believing that you can, so pick goals that are both motivating and achievable. You do this through both internal and external analysis – such as using a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).

Tip 4:

If you invest in expert advice make sure you act on it, that’s when you see results!

Tip 5:

Once you’ve started implementing your plan, develop a KPI report to measure the overall performance of your business such as a ‘Balanced Scorecard’. This will help you track your success, and act quickly on the areas that are not going as planned.

Use us as your sounding board!

Strategic business advice is often a cost effective way of achieving a significant step forward for your business, mainly because we already know your business. By investing in expert advice, we can often create substantial savings for your business!