Guidelines for a business action plan

Financial goals

In this section, write some short dot points setting out your financial goals. For example what are your main Financial goals for 2022 (remember, keep it simple, no complex calculations here! This is the big picture.) What are the broad brushstrokes of your budget for the coming year and what would you like your business to look like this time next year?

Internal goals

This is where you reflect on your team and what worked well and where there is room for improvement. Just a few short points before the year gets started makes such a positive impact on individual and team performance.  Here are some prompts to get you thinking:

• How is your team working at the moment? How would you describe team dynamics and the atmosphere in general?
• What would you like to see improve? What are some simple actions that can be taken to make these steps?
• Are there team members who may need extra focus? What is required? E.g. coaching, training, regular check-ins
• How would you like your team to look in 2022? If you’re looking to grow, when will you start the recruitment process?

External goals

This section is about how the world sees your business, what you’re offering and your clients. Here you will take a good look into how your portfolio is looking and how you might expand it. You can further deepen your understanding of what your current and future clients are facing and what they may require support with in the year ahead.

Some suggested action points for this section. Ask:

• Who are my Top 10 clients? Do you want to expand your service and how do you want to achieve this? If you have not been in contact with clients on this list, take the time to get in touch and schedule a time to do it. It’s about listening and connecting. No hard sell.
• Who would I most like to be new clients in the coming year? List your Top 3-5 and make some short action points to reach out to them and make a connection. An excellent place to start is to explore your network as to who might be able to help you make that first contact. Then during Q1 you have a targeted list to work through and start building the relationship.
• Products and services – scan the current environment for latest developments. The current exceptional circumstances present fertile ground for creating new opportunities. Think about if there are new markets to penetrate, opportunities for positioning your strengths as a specialist and where new products are called for.

The key to this exercise is to keep it simple. Too often we see complex business plans full of great thinking that get lost in complex actions. We want to see your strengths directly translate into excellent results, and that all starts with clear direction and concrete actions. And this one-pager can be what ensures that this time next year you will be celebrating what you set out to achieve.