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When did you last sit down to take a hard look at how your business was progressing and strategize for the upcoming year? Sad to say, many small business owners often overlook this essential element of operating a business. We hope you are not one of them and will take the time to plan for 2008. To guide you in this process, here are some things to consider:
- Make an honest assessment of your achievements and shortfalls for the year. Looking at the achievements will help give you a sense of accomplishment and encourage you for the year to come. However, you must also look at what didn't work so well during the year and thoroughly assess what could have caused the breakdown. Were you short on staff? Did you cut back on your marketing? Were there any industry-related problems that affected your sales? Once you identify the problem areas, you can create solutions for the coming year.
- Look at your Return on Investment (ROI) for marketing. We hope you've been tracking the results you've been getting from your marketing efforts. If you are not already asking every new customer how they heard about you, start now. If you have been tracking, evaluate what marketing and advertising campaigns are working and cut out the ones that are not giving you great results.
- Identify what you would like to accomplish in 2008. Where would you like to take your business? Are there new products and services you would like to introduce? Set reasonable goals for 2008 and delineate all the action steps that need to be taken to meet those goals.
- Create a marketing budget. Once you have identified all your action steps, you will be able to set up a marketing budget for the year.
- Pat yourself on the back. Once your plan for 2008 is complete, take a deep breath and pat yourself on the back - you've accomplished something that many small business owners won't do.
