Last week in the post Will Your Business Grow This Year?  I asked some very tough questions to get you thinking about what’s necessary to assure you’ll hit your business goals for this year.  Have you asked the questions yet?  And is your Q4 plan ready to get you there?

Looking at this year is a first step in planning for next.  In fact, it is step 6 in the Business Success Process that was outlined back in January this year in the post titled SUCCESS – 6 Step That Get You There Faster!  This business success process is the cycle that our clients have applied time and time again with fantastic results.

The 6 steps of the business success process are pretty simple:

  1. Define personal success for yourself.
  2. Establish your business’ vision from your definition of success.
  3. Assess currently available resources to apply to your vision.
  4. Maximize available resources using action plans toward achieving your vision.
  5. Monitor regularly the effectiveness in executing your action plans
  6. Check back to #3 quarterly or at least annually.

You can apply the business success process yourself just by downloading the Do It Yourself Guide to Small Business Growth and applying the learning objective in the Guide to your business.  This is a good test of where you and your business may already be in the success process.  It will also give you an idea of how easy the process is to use.

If you feel like more outside input is needed, then seek the assistance of a business coach or executive consultant.  They can provide an unbiased review of your plan and provide you with other idea and strategies that you may not have considered.

If coaching or consulting are too cost-prohibitive.  Then I would suggest our DIY High Impact Business Planning Guide.

Planning is critical to your business’ success.  Remember businesses with a plan are twice as likely to secure funding or grow their business according to a study done by the University of Oregon, Department of Economics.  So, heed the research and begin applying the business success process toward your success now!