It’s the first week in April.  Do you know what significance this week has for your business?  

The first quarter of 2011 is over and it’s the beginning of the second quarter.  The next three months of the quarter can define your company’s success for the year. 

How are sales at your company tracking for the year so far?  If on track, how do you plan to keep the momentum going in the second quarter? If your sales are lagging behind sales projections, what are you going to do to improve sales?  Whatever amount of dollars your sales goals didn’t meet needs to be added onto sales for the second quarter. 

No matter where sales at your company stand in the first week of April, remember this:  You are stone cold broke.  You are starting at zero dollars in sales.  It’s the first of the new quarter and you are starting over.  Whatever happened last quarter doesn’t matter.  You are starting the quarter stone cold broke.

Now is the time to pull out your business plan and review it.  Determine if your sales goals are realistic and if your business plan needs updated.  Without planning and specific goals, how will you have the roadmap to get you where you want to go? 

Yesterday is gone.  What happened in the first quarter is just statistical information now.  Numbers on a page.  You can’t change it or improve upon it.  What you can do is use it to help update, reformulate your business plan for this quarter and the rest of the year. 

In these difficult economic times, it becomes even more important to have a business plan to reach the level of success your company aspires to.  In three months half of the year will be gone.  Now is the time to review your goals and business plan.  Make sure at the end of the second quarter you’ve reached your goals.