As the leaves change color and we dust off our heavy coats, we await the year end with anticipation, and perhaps some anxiety. If you’re a business owner or manager, by now you’ve gotten a very good sense of how the company is doing and whether you will meet your goals for 2015.
It’s also a perfect time to start your year-end planning, making sure everything can be done to make it a really strong year – and springboard into a solid 2016. It’s much like the final quarter of a big game, when strong momentum can not only win the day, but carry over into the next field of play.
Large public companies do more advance planning, usually by necessity or the requirements of being publicly traded. But many small- and medium-sized businesses don’t, and should be strongly encouraged to think further ahead. If you do not plan for where you want to go, any road will take you there!
A great start is to call up your key customers and vendors and invite their sincere feedback on how you’re doing, where the business relationship needs improvement and any untapped opportunities. This could help you improve aspects of the operation that you didn’t know were lagging, or open up new possibilities for revenue and growth.
It’s also a good time to step back and take a macro view of things – the national and regional economy, trends within your industry, geopolitical events that could impact your operations.
After taking a look at the broad picture, next examine the internal infrastructure of your business – especially your human resources. Do you have the right people in the right positions? Have you done performance evaluations, highlighted their strengths and weaknesses, and helped them think about the individual goals to set for themselves in the new year?
This is a great tactic for weaning your team onto a planning mindset, so they can think about how their role fits into the overall team’s success.
You should also take the opportunity to make the hard comparisons – between your company and competitors, and with industry averages in the nation and state. Focus on things like financial reporting, sales, profitability and other key performance indicators. This will help spot weakening areas so you can make the appropriate modifications before it becomes a critical problem.
Fall is your fourth quarter, the time when the game is decided. Work on your game plan and strategy, so your team can find its way to the end zone, now and in the future.
If you need help formulating or implementing your fourth quarter game plan, please call Eric Woodruff at (317) 613-7850 or email [email protected].