Basics of planning for business success

Creating a business plan helps you to act on ideas and assess the impact of new initiatives, including both risks and rewards. Some benefits of planning for business success include:

• Attracting potential investors: Strategic business planning can attract investors and new sources of funding. Investors are able to review your business plan and markers for success to make informed decisions about where to put their capital.
• Defining a path for growth: When you set measurable goals for your business, you can identify what areas your organization excels in and what areas you could improve. Once you set goals, and teams begin working toward them, you can adjust your strategy over time to ensure the company is getting closer to achieving success.
• Improving company culture : When you make a plan for your successful business, you can align your business goals with your company’s mission. Doing so informs current and new company policies, which influences overall company culture.

Best planning practices for managers

Managers who engage in strategic planning for success in business should follow these best practices:

Create a strong business plan

A business plan is a comprehensive strategy that you can use to run your business. A strong plan should include these components:

• Executive summary
• Mission and vision statement
• SWOT analysis
• Competitive market analysis
• Marketing plan
• Financial projections

A good way to begin your strategic process is to create a shortlist of priorities that the business must address in the year to come. Prioritize SWOT analysis, competitive analysis and a marketing plan that drives revenue through strategic initiatives to gain new customers and encourage repeat business. Some examples of marketing campaigns are email lists and digital advertising. Once you know who the competition is and what your strengths, weaknesses and opportunities are, you can use that information to create an informed marketing plan that makes sense for your target audience .

Companies of all sizes should make a practice of reviewing their business plans annually and updating them to reflect new goals and growth strategies.

Related:10 Steps to Starting a Business

Assign metrics that define success

Metrics are values that quantify or qualify what successful business planning looks like in reference to a specific goal. Once metrics are defined, effective leaders will select key performance indicators (KPIs), which are a type of metric used to measure any quantifiable goal and determine the overall success of the company. KPIs can be used for organizations or individuals and teams. They vary by occupation and industry, so you can set your KPIs by determining what statistics are most important to your business and applying them to create metrics.

Ensure quality customer service

Great customer service can set your business apart from others in your industry. It can also turn a negative customer experience into a positive one where the customer feels valued, and their issues are resolved.

When planning for business success, it’s best to follow the motto the customer is always right. While there may be times when your employees have to deal with impossible customers, all customer complaints should be taken seriously, and representatives should always do their best to ensure your customers are satisfied.

One way to provide excellent service is to stay engaged with your customers on social media and review sites. This is particularly useful for responding to negative reviews in a way that incentivizes the customer’s return. This is a common customer service strategy for turning detractors into promoters, and it shows potential customers that you’re willing to go the extra mile to make things right if and when negative reviews occur.

Providing after-hours assistance is another way to ensure quality customer service and overall business success. While it’s not necessary for all businesses, if you run an e-commerce site and sell goods online or if your company provides in-home services, allowing your customers after-hours access if they have a problem is essential when planning for business success. Consider posting an after-hours emergency phone number on your company website or setting up a chat feature so that customers can reach a live person.

Streamline hiring processes

The human resources department drives the growth of a company through its hiring practices. When making a strategic business plan, think about ways to innovate HR practices, such as the hiring and onboarding process. One such way is to invest in platform technology that simplifies HR duties by automating small tasks like screening and separating candidate resumes, scheduling and managing records. By doing so, HR professionals can focus on selecting the best candidates to grow the company.

Related:What Is Talent Acquisition?

FAQs about planning for business success

Here are some frequently asked questions to help you better plan for business success:

How do I write a business plan for success?

Follow these steps to create an effective business plan:

• Collect data and consider your company’s mission: Provide defining information about the company, create a SWOT analysis and complete a competitive analysis.
• Clearly define your organization’s goals, and create KPIs: First, determine which statistics are important for measuring your goals. This will be the foundation of your business strategy.
• Highlight strategies to help you achieve measured goals: Start with your marketing strategy, which should be a robust part of your business plan. Then, complete the financial analysis and executive summary.
• Reevaluate your goals for each period: Regular analysis of goals can help you determine if you’re successful and whether the needs and demands of the business have changed. You can evaluate your goals using reporting tools that help you visualize and understand metric-driven data.

What kinds of metrics show business success?

Here are some common metrics that inform business success:

• Employee satisfaction percentage: Taking employee satisfaction surveys and measuring the results can help you understand how happy your employees are with your company operations and culture.
• New customers:Regularly measuring the number of new customers you acquire can tell you how much growth your business has experienced over a certain period of time.
• Return customers: When you measure return customers, you learn how your customer service is performing to achieve customer retention. Provide surveys to previous clients who’ve used your customer service resources to identify areas of improvement.
• Net profit: This is the amount of profit your company earned after working expenses are deducted, which can be used to measure financial success.
• Potential customers generated: If sales are a key aspect of your business, you can track potential customers or leads generated to learn how many new contacts your sales representatives can call on.

Why is maintaining a high standard of excellence critical in successful business planning?

Maintaining a high standard of excellence is an essential aspect when planning for business success, as the phrase refers to striving for quality at all times. Steps to take to maintain high standards include measuring business success by the work you and your employees put in, taking risks and accepting failure, and creating a positive team atmosphere within your business.

How do I keep employees engaged and focused on the overall success of the business?

Steps you can take to keep your employees engaged and committed to the success of your business include providing rewards or incentives for hard work and continual effort, and encouraging open communication and feedback from your team members on current and potential business strategies. Ensuring your employees feel valued and heard allows them see their contributions as positive stepping stones in the overall success of your business.