Your 2014 Business Plan: How To Avoid Being Blown Off Course

Do you have a business plan? Are you braced to avoid having your business blown off course? Are you planning to recover from being blown off course?

How can you avoid having your business blown off course? If you don’t have goals for your legal nurse consulting business, you’ll easily get off course. The business we plan for is often not the business we wind up with.

Last year, in a very big way, many businesses were blown off course by Superstorm Sandy. The news is full of ‘Sandy anniversary’ stories, and if you’ve followed them, you know that business recovery in the Northeast region will take a long time.

It is my observation that many business owners in the Northeast were severely impacted. Their business plan was affected even if they were not flooded out or did not have trees fall on their place of business or did not see their whole neighborhoods destroyed. Buyers stopped buying, clients didn’t renew, customers pulled back on any purchase not deemed ‘essential’. I know several owners whose revenues are down 30 to 60%, a year after Sandy.

Here are three steps to working your way out of the aftermath of stormy times, Superstorm Sandy or another crisis.

Plan ahead

Many business owners plan for the upcoming year, usually in the first quarter of the year. A better business practice is to take a look in 4th quarter–it helps with taxes, with purchasing wisely and with kicking off the New Year in early January rather than mid-1st quarter.

Look behind you

However, many fewer incorporate the best practice of evaluating at year-end how their plans played out, and then blending that learning into their vision for the upcoming year. This year, more than ever, we need to consider what worked and what didn’t, what opportunities are new, and what fundamentals we need to return to.

Anticipate pitfalls

Now, no one could have predicted Sandy. But we did have Irene the year before, and very unusual weather for a few years. And a lot of power outages. What else could you anticipate, beyond the weather, that might affect your business in the coming year?

Lorette Pruden PhD is a small business consultant and speaker who has teamed up with Pat Iyer to share her expertise on planning. She presented a one hour webinar: Your 2014 Business Plan: How to Identify the Important So You Don’t Spend Too Much Time on the Urgent. Order to watch the replay at your convenience. To find out more about Dr. Pruden’s books and services, including workshops and mastermind teams for small business owners, visit Team Nimbus NJ.