As the first decade of the second millennium comes to a close, many businesses look back with a sense of amazement. In the past five years we’ve never seen so many spectacular profits, nor such unimaginable losses.
It would be nice to just coast into 2010 thankful to have survived. However, those who succeed in the second decade must not relax, but plan. You must take the time to plan what your business will look like in the coming year, the next three years and the next five years.
Twelve months to Recovery
Your initial plan should be only twelve months long, but it must be comprehensive. Look at all aspects of your business. Do you have the number of employees you need and are they performing the job that your require? Consider if you would benefit from a renegotiation with your suppliers. Develop a plan to keep your current customers happy and get new ones. Create a calendar of speeches, articles and appearances to keep your businesses name in the forefront of the market. Write down the advantages and disadvantages you have against your competition and combat them. Take a fresh look at your offices and consider how to update and refresh them. The last month of the decade is not a time to look back, but a time to look forward.
Five years will seem like a dream
Five years from now we’ll all look back on this year’s recession and say, “I remember when…”. Can you imagine what your business will look like in five years? What do you want it to look like? Be honest. Is your goal survival or growth? How will you get there? How many employees will you need? Will you need more space? Less? What will your technological requirements be? How will you finance your plans? Perhaps retirement is in your plan or you have children to put through university.
What has to happen to your business to make your personal goals happen? If your business is still successful, will you continue in it, or sell? How much involvement do you want to have in your business at that point in your life? Do you still want to be hands-on in every detail, or could you restructure your business to allow more time for fishing? It’s never too soon to think long term.
While everyone else has a holiday focus it’s a great time to plan.
Not really relevant to this article but here is a little example of good/bad customer service. My friend recently asked me which brand of car to buy. He went and test drove a Lexus, then thought he’d try Audi. He made an appointment with dealer to have a test drive. But when he showed up on the specified date/time they said to him “Which person was your appointment with?”. He replied “I wasn’t told a particular person/name I was just told to come on this day and time”. The person he was talking to said that actually the car he wanted to drive wasn’t available, so he just walked out. He then went to Volvo, where he had bought his wife’s car. They remembered him and told him they would look after him, threw in a car seat for his toddler. He probably didn’t even get a bargain but he bought the Volvo. Both products were probably equal in quality and price. He didn’t really care which brand he bought, Volvo got the sale purely based on customer service and Audi lost the sale purely based on poor customer service.
Another car story. A friend of mine drives a Porsche Boxter. When he took it in for a service the the main (and at the time only) Melbourne dealership he mentioned he was interested in upgrading to a 911 (a $230,000 car by the way). They lent him a green one with yellow seats and then rang him to say they needed it back. He said to them he hadn’t really had much of chance to drive it and could he have it for another day, they said no. A few weeks later he was in Brighton buying a BBQ and noticed a new Porsche dealership had opened up there. One of the sales people was standing outside, he styruck up a conversation and bought the 911 from them. Melbourne Porsche has lost a customer for life and now they do have a competitor.