Onwards and Upwards!!
So, it’s nearly Christmas and nearly the end of the calendar year. Well, before you start all that Christmas partying spare a thought to strategy planning for 2013.
Before you can plan for next year, however, it is really useful to review 2012. Ask yourself difficult questions such as ‘Did I get where I wanted to be? Am I on track for my 5 year plan? If not, why not?’
Look at what worked well in 2012 – were there particular marketing streams that brought results or did that IT upgrade bring dividends? Look at your budgets – where did you overspend/underspend?
Just as importantly though, is being honest about areas where perhaps the company didn’t fare so well. Explore what happened and use it as a ‘lessons learned’ opportunity! Only by trying things out can we judge whether they work or not!
Analyse your customer demographic. What type of people used your product/services? Who were the repeat customers? Why do you think that was?
All these questions work towards defining your strategy for next year. It will help you identify who are your target customers (preferably those who will come back time and time again!) and what you can do in the next 12 months to attract them. You will also have identified by now what marketing strategy to adopt along with areas for development for the business. With last year’s figures, it will be easy to see where you could save money or budgets that need expanding as well as helping you to get on top of projections for next year’s spending.
Review your 5 year plan again. Is it still a realistic possibility and, perhaps more importantly, is it still where you want to be? Remember, you can be flexible and change your plan as your company grows as long as you don’t do it so often it becomes impractical to achieve.
By the time those parties come along, you’ll know what sort of shape your company is in and how you are going to make it even better in 2013!
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