Time to revise your business plan. I’m pleased to bring you this post – I do need to let you know that I have been paid to publish this post – I think you’ll find the information really helpful. See my disclosure policy.
Ensure Your Business Plan Is Fresh & Not Just A Quick Update On Last Year
Making any business plan is difficult but once you are a few years into running your business it will be key to make sure you are not just tweaking the numbers on the previous years plan and actually looking at what the current state of the business is as otherwise the business plan will be next to useless.
Take Into Account Any Changes In Your Industry Including Competitor Analysis
It’s important to take into account any changes or trends in your market sector to make sense of trends in your own business. This can include seeing if you are growing at the same rate as the rest of the market and if you’ve seen unexpected growth is this down to you or is it just representative of an upturn in your industry. This also means you can see if your share of the market is increasing or decreasing, this can show trends that will warn you if the market-place is becoming more crowded and you might need to diversify or change strategy.
Make Updates Throughout The Year
It’s important to make updates and monitor progress throughout the year to see if your plan is on track, this is particularly important if your business is seasonal as you can see if your financial projections for that time period are correct. You can then adapt and work with any issues before getting to the end of year and finding yourself in a big financial hole.
Ensure Your Website Is Up To Date & Current
A current and up to date website is essential for the business, it’s key to make sure all your products, offers and information is up to date as this could cause upset to customers and adversely affect your reputation. It’s always important to change things from time to time anyway as rewriting content makes sense for many reasons such as improved SEO and to keep the website fresh for readers to avoid getting tired and bored of reading the same old content all the time.
Look At Financial Trends Over The Last Few Years
It’s important to look for trends in the finances over the last few years to see what parts of the business are performing well and which areas not so much. If it can be found that you are putting a lot of resources and marketing expenses into one area where the profits are slowing down then you’re basically wasting the time and effort in that directions and should consider pulling back from it and concentrating on other areas.
Identify Opportunities For Expansion
In contrast to the above scenario if there is an area of the business that is performing well then it may be a good idea to consider expanding that side of the business. It is key however to do thorough research when expanding including what costs there would b, which extra resources are needed and would this justify the extra profit that the expansion would bring and, if so, how long would that take.
