Are you planning for 2013?

Under 2 months until the end of 2012 and there are many businesses working very hard to meet commitments and targets they set themselves at the start of the year, how many are taking some time out to plan for 2013?
One of the best things I have learnt this year is the word Clarity. Clarity is essential when you are giving instructions, planning, forecasting and so-on, and it is absolutely essential for staff so they know what is expected of them every day, what their targets are for the week, month, quarter and year, and also how they are going to reach those targets.
Are you building you plans so that all staff know what they have to do when they walk through the door on the 2nd January or will you ‘wing’ it again?
What are your targets for next year? Are they achievable? Do your staff know what the targets are?
 If the answer is yes, then well done, your business will have a good and profitable year (assuming the plans are well designed and accurate).
If you haven’t started working on your plans for 2013 then you still have time to develop them and motivate your team to adopt them as their plans and targets, but don’t waste too much time!
When writing the plans concentrate on what you can change or affect, there is too much happening in this world that you cannot change so don’t worry about political, population or economic changes, but concentrate on what you can change, create and develop.
Concentrate on what you are doing best and think through these questions:
Why do people do business with us?
Why don’t people do business with us?
The 3 most important things to do to grow our business next year are?

 Not much, but it is a start to understand why your customers keep coming back (what you are doing well, different or what nobody else does), why you lose customers (what they can get elsewhere better/cheaper/reliably…) and what you need to do to enhance the good and improve the negative.

 Give it a try, you may be surprised by the results!