June is a great month. It has to be the best time to sit down and plan for the coming financial year. The most important document I have in my business is our One Page Business Plan. Gone are the days of a 50-page business plan. My business partners (yes my family – the beauty of a family business) and I go through the process every 6 months and I would love to share the advantages of doing it:
Everyone is on the same page– with 4 business partners and 9 staff covering 3 different locations, having everyone on the same page is critical to the success of our business and I am sure your business would be the same. It’s a simple to read document where everyone in the business can in vision where the business is going.
Purpose– have you ever written down why you are in the business you are in? What keeps you waking up in the morning and heading to work? Sure money is a factor, but I believe there needs to be something else. For me, being a business accountant is one of the most fulfilling jobs going around. I love helping my clients achieve their goals– both financial goals and non-financial
Core Values– setting your business’s core values is one of the most rewarding exercises I have done. Once you have these on paper and embedded in your business, any team member can make a decision for the business– it just needs to be in line with your core values.
The numbers– without planning what you want your business to look like in a certain period of time, you will just go through the motions and you will end up where you end up. I believe you need to look forward 10years and find out what numbers you want your business to achieve, work it back to 3 years, 1 year and then break it down to find out what your 1st quarter goals are.
Key Actions– Once you determine the numbers you want your business to look like, you need to brainstorm the top 4-5 things you need to accomplish to hit these numbers. Again, start with 3 years, 1 year then your 1st quarter. Once you have these key actions, if they truly reflect the most important things you need to do, if you tick them off your list as you go along, your 10 year goals will just happen. That’s the beauty about planning.
Quarterly Themes– once you have found out what the most important thing to do this quarter is, you need to make it front of mind for all team members in the business. Quarterly themes are a fun way of doing this. Pick a target for the quarter, make a theme around it, have 3 levels of results with 3 matching rewards for achieving each result. Decorate the whole work environment to remind you of the theme and then do regular activities to keep it front of mind. And of course, measure your progress along the way! Here’s one to get you started: > Theme – "Friends" > Target – Top target = 100 referrals from friends for quarter – Middle target = 75 referrals from friends for quarter – Bottom target = 50 referrals from friends for quarter > Reward – Top reward = Hunter valley winery tour for team members and 2 friends – Middle reward = Fancy dinner at Garfish in Manly for team members and 2 friends – Bottom reward = movie night at home watching old series of friends with pizza and popcorn > Decorations – buy Friends (the TV Show) posters and hang them around the office. Every 2 hours have the friends theme song play in the office. Every second Friday take everyone down to the local café for coffee and brainstorm ideas on how to get more Friends. Get a whiteboard in the middle of the office and track your progress of daily referrals!
Once you have completed this, you have your goals of where you want to take the business, you have the key actions you need to achieve to get to your goals, all you need to do now is to take action and tick the action items off your list. One important thing to note here is you need to regularly report on your numbers, whatever they be. You need someone to keep you accountable to those numbers. That’s what a business coach is best for.
If you would like a free copy of the One Page Business Plan, shoot me an email and I will forward one to you. It’s truly an amazing process.