LifeManagement101, Issue #008 -- Reviewing your business plan
January 08, 2008
Dear subscriber,

It is essential for your business that you have a route map which shows exactly how you will achieve your business goals. Without a plan you are planning to fail.
The plan that you develop needs to be a living document that is constantly checked and updated. If not done on a regular basis then there is really no point in generating it in the first place. It is critically important that you know that you are actually achieving the plan. If not, then you will need to adjust the plan to accommodate any revisions that occur.

The very basics in a good business plan is to detail the tasks and systems that you will use to progress the plan. You will need to review your plan on a monthly basis initially to ensure progress is being made as planned. You may choose to change the frequency of the review at a later stage when the initial kinks have been ironed out and the planned progress is being achieved.

The initial goals in the plan are usually small in terms of financial profits, but it is just as important that they be achieved on schedule as the larger goals that occur at a later date. Proving that the plan is working effectively in the early stages is essential in demonstrating that the overall plan is achievable. So, check that every detail of your plan is being achieved.

Not everything works out as planned, so you must find out the answers to the following questions:

1. - Did you achieve the financial goals for the period within the timeframe allocated? Maybe you achieved some, but not all of them.

2. - Did the systems that you used to complete the tasks work well? Maybe some worked very well, but others were not so successful.

Analyse the answers that you obtain. For those systems that worked successfully, continue working with them for the future tasks. For those items that did not meet the targets set it will be necessary to evaluate why they did not work effectively. What went wrong? Was the system used flawed? What did you need to do to actually complete the task? You will need to adjust future tasks of the same type to accommodate the revised procedure adopted.

Continuous improvement is essential in a good business plan. Adjusting and tweaking the elements within the future plan based on your experience can only improve the effectiveness of the plan and generate confidence that it can be achieved. Plan your work and work your plan and you will be well on the way to achieving your goals.