Every small business owner sets out to make sure their operation becomes a success. While your product may be a hot commodity, you can't rely only on good fortune for sustained success.
It is crucial to develop a plan and marketing strategy well ahead of time. These plans will range in a variety of lengths, but the importance remains the same. According to The Houston Chronicle, business plans define your target audience and how you'll market and sell your product or service [1]. You must also clearly define how you will go about achieving your goals. Doing so will attract outside executive help, investors and conveys the organizational structure of your venture.
To ensure your business plan is heading in the right direction, here are four signs to monitor.
No. 1 - You can predict strong revenue months
Your business plan should determine your strong revenue months, while also finding opportunities for repeat business from customers. Likewise, you should always make an effort to ensure your company's current reportings exceed previous ones.
Furthermore, the business plan should account for growth opportunities. Focus on adding new customers by developing a strong marketing plan to attract new customers and keep them coming back.
No. 2 - A regular SWOT
A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis is another important component of any business plan and identifies key aspects of your business:
- Strengths. Characteristics of the company that give it an advantage over others.
- Weaknesses. Traits that place the business at a disadvantage.
- Opportunities. Factors that be used for future growth.
- Threats. Elements that can cause harm to the business.
No. 3 - Three month goal
At the start of every new year, you should create a 30-day sales goal for the first three months to provide you with a defined metric goal, and can help you make decisions to achieve that goal.
Profit and sales and the conversion rate, are two metrics to closely monitor.
No. 4 - Insights are important
Insights, whether positive or negative, will help guide you moving forward and allow you to make smarter business decisions.
Successful insights will help your business increase cash flows, keep profits low and increase marketing efforts.
If your business is faltering, don't get discouraged. Your business plan can always be revised to account for new strategies or to improve on existing ones.
Source:
[1] How to Write a Sales Business Plan, Houston Chronicle
