Using a Team of "In-house Experts to prepare your business plan

Over the next year I will be sending out a series of blogs that will help you improve your business’ profitability, cash flow and value. The first blog explains why you should involve your Team in preparing your business plan.

I am a passionate believer in the value of business planning. Before the end of each quarter we shut our office for half a day to review and update our business plan. Everybody is involved and at the end of the session everyone has a task assigned for them work on. It is rare that tasks have to be allocated, mostly Team members volunteer for specific tasks.

AT GTC Financial we have been running these Planning Sessions for so long now they are a part of our fabric, we couldn’t imagine not doing it.

There will be articles covering, Using KPI’s to monitor your business, Managing Risk, Succession Planning.

I would really appreciate your feedback and any ideas you may have for future articles. I want to make them as valuable for you as possible.

Yours Sincerely,

Neville      

Using a Team of “In-house Experts” to prepare your business plan. 

If you haven’t completed your 2017-18 Business Plan yet, here’s an idea that may help you to get it completed.

The concept of using your Team  to help prepare your business plan surprises most small business owners.  The questions most asked are:

• What would they know about business plans?
• Why would my Team want to help?
• What about confidentiality?

Your Team’s contribution to your business’s success is often underrated and the benefits of including your Team to help prepare your business plan include:

• Your Team really know what is happening in your business, what works well and what doesn’t. They know which customers are unhappy & why and they will see things that you haven’t.   
• Better still many of your Team will have ideas on how to fix the problems or may have even seen opportunities that you’re not aware of but just lack the confidence to speak up.
• Including your Team in the business planning process can also be useful in other ways too, it gives them an understanding of the goals you are trying to achieve and if they have been part of the goal setting process it can make them more committed to achieving them. It also strengthens your teamwork and reinforces how much you value them.
• In these uncertain financial time where job security is an issue, your Team has a vested interest in making the business succeed which is why they will also be keen to help.

So how do you include your Team in the business planning process?  

At the very least your Team should be part of the SWOT Analysis (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) session. 

Your plan will come by  developing the issues and ideas that come from the SWOT analysis session.  Give your Team time to  prepare  by sending out a questionnaire in advance. Using an experienced facilitator to help organise and run the SWOT Analysis session will help you get the most out of it. They may recommend you run the session away from your business to avoid disruptions and also include some fun activities which will encourage everyone to participate.                    

Once you have listed out the actions get your Team help implement them. Do this by allocating tasks to each Team member, doing so increases their engagement and improves the chances of success. Just make sure you give them adequate time to complete the task and check their progress to help them overcome any obstacles they may be encountering.