Can you believe Thanksgiving time has rolled around again?
Thanksgiving is one of the most anticipated national holidays of the year. Airports are crowded with travelers days ahead. Some people cook for days in preparation for the big meal baking pies and other side dish delights to go along with the traditional turkey. Many businesses are closed on the holiday and day after so an extra-long weekend can be enjoyed with family and friends. It’s the official start to the Christmas shopping season. Yes, the holiday season is upon us.
And so is the end of the year for 2011.
How was 2011 for your business?
Is your business ready for 2012?
Now is the time to go back and review your business plan for 2011.
Ask yourself these questions:
How on target was your 2011 business plan?
Did you get the results you wanted for your business?
What worked? What failed?
Or was your business plan just words on a piece of paper in 2011?
Business plans should not be an exercise in creative writing. Nor should they be hundreds of pages. In fact, some business plans are as simple as a one page plan! Business plans lay out step by step what your company needs to do so that at the end of the year you have obtained the profit and success you are looking for.
This may come as a surprise but many CEOs, presidents and business owners don’t even have a business plan! They run their companies literally by the seat of their pants hoping it all comes together and the company makes money. These same CEOs, presidents and business owners probably don’t look at a profit and loss statement either. But that’s another subject for another day.
More than ever in this economy, not only do you need to plan, but you need to constantly review the plan and make whatever adjustments are necessary especially if any part of your business plan isn’t working.
If you think back to January 2011, you’ll say to yourself, how could the year be over already? Where did it go? If you aren’t planning your business for the state of the economy as it is, at the end of next year in 2012 you will not have reached your goals and wonder, once again, about how fast the year flew by yet you don’t see the business results you had hoped for.
There’s no other way to say this except:
Get to it. Think through what you need to do for profit and success in 2012.
No excuses.