What Does “Planning” Mean to You?

What Does Planning Mean to You?

Fall is often the time of the year that businesses across the country, large and small, complex or simple, each engage in a similar activity – planning for next year.

The word “plan” is thrown around a lot and is used in various euphemisms…”Fail to plan or plan to fail”…”If you don’t have a plan, you don’t have a clue”…”A dream is a wish tied to a detailed plan”. The definition of the word plan is interesting and revealing:  “An intention or decision about what one is going to do – a detailed proposal to achieve something”.

Hmmm….so planning is really just crystallizing your intentions, putting them down in writing, and then making decisions based on your desired outcome. Sounds simple enough – but the flip side of this word is pretty scary… the absence of planning means no intentions or decisions about the growth of your business – no ideas to review to help set goals or mile markers – no checklist of do’s and don’ts to guide your path in the year ahead.

Regardless of what you think planning is – your business needs it and you need to take action now to form a solid plan for 2017.

If you are struggling with creating a living, breathing, detailed plan of attack for next year, we should talk soon. My “SWOT 2.0 – The Ultimate Analysis and Action Plan Tool!” workshop is the perfect remedy for your situation. This session is done either on site at your business or off site at a hotel or meeting space, and runs either 4 hours (half day) or 7 hours (full day).

You may have done a SWOT before, but not like this one! We dive deep into each Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat of your company, develop Action Steps based on those results and then run those Steps through the SMART goal methodology. The result is a detailed Action Plan with tasks assigned to specific team members or managers with agreed upon completion dates. This Action Plan will form the basis for your 2017 annual plan and will help drive the activities, milestones and results for your company month by month, quarter by quarter, and for the entire year.

The investment is nominal compared to the results you will achieve. Learn more about SWOT 2.0 on my site at www.BradRaney.com on the Sales, Leadership & Management page or contact me at 904-343-0169 or Brad@BradRaney.com. It will be time well spent for both of us!

Here’s to your success in 2017!