Last night I was watching the news thinking about our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The generals say they need more troops and our current “commander in chief” is taking a “wait and see” attitude. Maybe you’re related to one of those soldiers, and they’re working for a commander who doesn’t have a plan for success in their theatre of operation. How would you rate that commander…who doesn’t have a plan? A commander who squandered blood, sweat and tears without a strategy?
As the Commander of your company, what is your battle plan for 2010? Do you even have one? Economically, next year should be slightly better than 2009. Credit will still be tight, there won’t be much growth in the economy and your competitors are doing everything they can to take your market share because they need the revenue to keep their doors open. If you struggled in 2009, it won’t be much better in 2010. Do you have a BATTLE PLAN for 2010? Are your chances of success much greater if you do have a strategy or do you believe in the “wait and see” strategy by commander Obama?
Hopefully, you will be one of the 15% of business owners who believes that your chances of succeeding in 2010 are much greater if you do have a battle plan for next year. If so, here are 31 questions that will help you succeed in 2010:
- Where are we likely to finish (sales/cash flow/profits) in 2009?
- What went right this year?
- What went wrong this year?
- What should we have done in 2009 that we didn’t do?
- What did we do in 2009 that we should not have done?
- What are our remaining three biggest sales problems?
- What will be the consequences if we fail to overcome them?
- What new initiatives (sales, marketing, organizational structure, cash flow, financing) should we explore?
- Besides solving problems and launching new initiatives, what must we do better than we’ve done in the past?
- What can we do, for example, to insure that we will attain 100% of our monthly revenue targets?
- How can we increase margins?
- How can we reduce account receivables on a monthly basis?
- Where are we wasting and/or spending too much money?
- What can we do to maximize non-traditional revenue streams?
- Where is our largest “growth market”, how are we going to identify that target market, and how are we going to sell them?
- How can we do a better job of prospecting for new customers?
- How can we improve the revenue from our regular and biggest-spending accounts?
- How can we up-sell smaller accounts with big-account potential?
- Should we consider any changes in organizational structure?
- What additional people do we need for 2010?
- What additional other resources do we need for 2010?
- What additional training do we need to improve performance?
- What “unique expertise” that is not available from our competitors – can we offer our customers?
- What standard of performance have we set for our salespeople?
- How do we get the sales staff to buy into our 2010 goals and strategic game plan?
- What can we do to better manage each salesperson for the good of the company?
- How can we make our employees jobs more enjoyable?
- What monthly profit targets should we set for 2010?
- What monthly cash flow targets should we set for 2010?
- Does this management team believe our goals are realistic and therefore achievable? Why?
- Am I willing to commit, without reservation, to hitting my targets and planning for them?
Create a plan of action based on your answers, and you’re on the path to great success. My monthly business owner workshop can help you work through these issues. I take 10 business owners, just like you, who are going to thrive in 2010. This is a hands-on monthly workshop that will help you create the battle plan that will drive you to greater success. Call 765-644-8887 or email Dan@DynastyBuilder.com to reserve a spot in the next group.
I am not sure if I agree with your post here. See you do make the best point, I don’t think you have actually given a large amount of thought to the opposite side of the argument. Perhaps I could do a guest post or a follow-up, just tell me.
Is Obama’s Leadership Reflective of Most Business Owners? | Dynasty was kind of helpfull, but business financing could be more in detail. Averall, was good info about business financing