Time to Reflect, Adjust, and Forge Ahead! Evaluate your first-quarter business performance against your business plan to ensure your success.
We’ve all heard the phrase, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results.”
Why is this so applicable to your business? Most people keep running like a hamster on a wheel and don’t stop to review their business every quarter to see how well they are progressing.
Reviews don’t have to be lengthy – they need to be consistent and effective.
WHY? If you don’t stop and check the pulse of your business, you could be veering in all sorts of off-kilter directions and not even realize it. Also, if you are veering off in all sorts of different directions, where is your money veering off to? You need to check your business plan on a regular basis or you may WRECK your plans for success!
It is definitely time to conduct your first-quarter review. And to simplify your process here are 5 easy steps:
STEP 1: Schedule TIME away from the day-to-day activities to review the 8 facets of your business.
You can do this by yourself, if you are good at holding yourself accountable; otherwise, do it with a peer partner, provided they aren’t the type that distract you or help you make up excuses to not get the review work done. Or, do it with a coach on the phone or in a face-to-face meeting.
Remember what works best for you is the COMPLETION of the review. What have you accomplished the first 3 months of this year?
Anchor yourself by acknowledging the progress that has been made, rather than always focusing on what hasn’t been done. We call this purposefully planning with a positive mindset. You will move your business forward faster by having clarity and a sense of hope for better things to come.
This process will take you through Awareness, Acceptance and Action of a Leader.
STEP 2: Be ruthless and look at your top 6 business goals FIRST.
If you did your Snapshot Business Planning in the 4th quarter of 2018, then you have all your goals and achieve-by dates clearly articulated.
Review the progress on each goal and ascertain what has to change if progress hasn’t been made. Do dates have to be adjusted, or do different people need to be involved on the execution of the goal? Make decisions on what to change and document them.
STEP 3: Next review the balance of your other business goals in ALL facets of the business.
Determine where you might need adjustments. Follow the same procedure of reviewing, making decisions, and documenting changes on your Snapshot Business Planning Goal Summary sheets for the following 8 facets:
- Financials
- Products & Services
- Marketing
- Team Growth & Development
- Sales Systems
- Customer Retention
- Technology & Equipment
- Office
STEP 4: Communicate with others in your business on the next steps.
Always remember, your job as the CEO is to envision what is best for the company, make the decision to move forward and surround yourself with the right people to move things forward to completion.
STEP 5: Plug into the Process.
Once the review is completed and you have communicated it to the applicable people, get on with moving forward. Napoleon Hill states that once you have visualized what you desire and created an organized plan of execution, then simply Take ACTION.
At the end of each quarter, commit to repeating this process and making the necessary changes. REFLECT, ADJUST, AND FORGE AHEAD!
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