September 8, 2016- ISSN# 1545-2646
Now it is back to work!
Well Labor Day has come and gone marking the unofficial end of the summer hazy, lazy days.
From today there are only 74 actual Business days left in 2016.
Now is the time to focus on closing out the plan for 2016 and creating the plan for 2017. In an ideal world, having your 2017 plan in place by late October and no later than the beginning of November will allow you to remain directed in the closing days of 2016 on this years objectives. It will also allow you to simmer on the 2017 plan to see if it will need to be tweaked prior to rolling it out in later December.
For many business leaders this process of planning can take a back seat to the current day pressing issues and challenges. It therefore does not get a high enough priority to finally flip from reactive business management to proactive business strategy and tactics execution.
Your business may not be set up to collect and analyze what is happening in your business in a proactive sense. Yes, your business has the reports your finance person, whether internal or external, provides to you. They are for the most part a look back in time of what happened. You do need to know what happened and why so better forward thinking decision can be made. If all you are working on is the past then you need to begin to shift to the future. The last time I checked we still can’t change the past but can surely influence the future.
This year as you go forward with defining 2017 budgets and sales quotas, don’t just replicate what happened in 2016 and add a desired percentage increase or just call it flat or stable. Analyze what happened and then plot the future and what will need to happen to have an impact on that objective and the associated investment of time, money, people etc..
What new product or service offering might you add to increase sales? When will that product or service be available and your team ready to sell and support? What would be the impact of a delay in launch of the new product or service? Are there added expenses which need to be budgeted for to support this new product or service?
About now some of you might be thinking this is a lot of work and thus another reason some business owners just don’t do it. I view this much like all professions. If you are going to improve your golf game then you take lots of practice swings and buckets of balls. If baseball is your profession then you take swings in the batting cage. All careers and professions require investment in the skills to be your best. Building your 2017 budget and sales goals takes practice and lots of swings so the time is now to get to work.
Need some support to get your plans in place for 2017? Give JKL Associates a call at (313) 527-7945.
Questions or comments – email us at partners@jklassociates.com or call our Office at (313) 527-7945
Copyright – JKL Associates 2016
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