Plan, Plan, Plan . . . Plan
If your business is going nowhere or not in the direction you want, maybe a lack of planning is the problem. Planning is the primary management task, the importance of which can never be overstated. To go into business without a business plan is extremely foolish; to try to continue in business without one is even worse.
Planning is a pre-determined course of action for reaching agreed goals. In other words, it involves deciding in advance (i.e. NOW):
- What to do (i.e. setting goals, targets or objectives),
- How to do it,
- Who will do it, and
- When it will be done.
The benefits of planning are many, and greatly exceed the time and effort (and therefore the cost) of doing it. Planning can:
- improve both efficiency and effectiveness in all we do;
- improve decision-making and management;
- increase the probability of success with a loan application;
- be a guide or blue-print with priorities for future action;
- help replace uncertainty and chaos with order;
- help identify strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities;
- enable controls to be used to keep things ‘on track’ to achieving goals;
- enable better integration of complex activities;
- give the business clear direction and focus;
- help avoid unwelcome surprises, ‘fire-fighting’ and crises;
- reduce errors and stress;
- increase motivation and confidence; and
- greatly help dealing with change.