I am told that there is a lot of planning that goes into weddings.
Twenty years ago, when I got married, I don't remember there being so much planning. Yes, I had to go here and there and look at stuff, but as far as I was concerned, I was planning to show up on the day and that is all that my wife to be Margaret needed to worry about.
The truth is Margaret is great at organizing and did a lot of planning, organizing and preparing, with her friends and our families, to ensure that the day was just perfect. And perfect it was. I can still remember it!
Event planning is not rocket science. In fact, when I was doing my MBA at UNBC, our project management instructor, Balbinder Deo, likened event planning to a wedding.
There are a lot of details for the wedding to take place on time and on budget. It is great to be able to plan a wedding, a party or an event. But what about planning for a whole year?
How about making a plan on how to change what is not working in our business, so that we can reduce our stress? That takes another type of planning.
In order to do that planning we need to think differently than we do when we run our business day to day.
This "strategic" planning means that we are going to come up with a framework that will ensure that we move our businesses forward. We want to change our businesses from how they are operating today to a more ideal operation in the future. That change should allow us something too.
Perhaps that change envisions for us more money, more time or less stress. Ideally if our business works as planned in the upcoming year, it should be a little bit more of each of those.
In order to plan strategically for our business, we need to consider a few things.
The primary item that as owners we need to consider is how do our personal goals and plans, both short term and long term, fit with the vision we have for the business.
Are there changes we need to make that will allow us to live the lives we should be living? We also need to consider what is working in our business, what is not working, and what needs to be changed. Additionally, we need to understand how we want to measure our success in the upcoming year, what needs to happen for the year to be successful, and who is going to be accountable for those results.
Many business owners drift from year to year and some are successful despite themselves. Most successful businesses prepare for the coming year by looking at the threats, the opportunities, and the changes that need to transpire. If you are a drifter and this has worked for you in the past, congratulations.
If you are ready for change or if the times have changed, perhaps you need to do something different, you might want to consider coming up with a plan. Strategic planning doesn't need to be time consuming or expensive, but it does need to be done to ensure that your business is focused and ready for events both planned or unlikely.
Dave Fuller, MBA, author, professional business coach can be reached at 250-617-7467 or by email at [email protected]
