Celebrating Business Anniversaries: 5 Planning Points You Should Revisit

Most business owners remember when we started our businesses. We remember the work we put into planning how we were going to earn our money, how we were going to market our businesses and how we were going to do everything else that contributes to a new business being successful. When the anniversary of the creation of our businesses rolls around, we remember all that hard work and celebrate.

As fun as the celebrations may be, though, it can be worthwhile doing more than just throwing a party, though. When you’ve been in business for a year or more, it’s important to revisit all that initial planning you did to see if your original approach to running your business is still working for you. As you run your business, it’s not uncommon to find that assumptions you made during the planning process aren’t entirely accurate or that you’ve ended up moving in a different direction to your original plans. Whether or not you wrote a formal business plan, once a year or so goes by, it’s good to take a look at the plans you made and update them for the future.

  1. Did you meet your original projections? Can you make new projections for the next year? Many business owners start out with an idea of their break-even point, along with some projection on what they’ll need to do to make more. But the more information you have (like last year’s sales figures), the better you can project what will happen in the next year or so.
  2. Is your industry still the same? Lately, it seems like the economy has caused problems in every industry. However, it’s important to take a look at the general shape of your industry, as well as the trends it’s experiencing, if you want your business to keep up.
  3. Do you need to make any big purchases for your business in the next year? New software and hardware come out every year and staying up-to-date is crucial. You may also need to consider any big expenses that would help your business in the coming year, like attending a conference.
  4. Do you need help? When your business launched, you may have planned things so that you could manage everything on your own. But as a business grows, it can be tough for one person to handle everything. Consider whether a new tool, a contractor or even an employee could make things easier to manage.
  5. Are your goals the same as last year? As the business owner, it’s your goals that drive the business forward. That means checking in on your goals and making sure that you setting new ones can be very important to growing your business.

How are you reassessing your business plans?

Photo by Flickr user sandra.., licensed under CC 2.0

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Why the iPad is Right for the Enterprise

loading

Comments have been disabled for this post