As a business owner you need to be vision-casting, motivating your staff, and planning.
Here are the top five areas you should be planning:
1. A business plan: You need this before you start! It should include a market analysis, a competition analysis, an industry analysis, and a financial analysis, among other components.
2. A marketing plan: This should be constantly updated to reflect your growing business. It should have samples of your marketing with ideas for the future.
3. A financial plan: This is part of your business plan, but also can stand alone if necessary, to help you anticipate and control income, expenses, and profits.
4. A customer satisfaction plan: You'll want this to make sure you're creating policies and structures that keep your customers happy.
5. A contingency plan: This is something you do in case your business succeeds more quickly than you imagined or in case it fails. Both can be disastrous but you can come out ahead with careful planning. Don't forget to plan for emergency contingencies as well.
Do you have each one planned? If not, get out your planner and plan to plan!
