At this time of year there are two types of businesses, those which are the middle of their best sales and distribution period and those winding down for the Christmas break.

Which one are you?

For those of you winding down, it’s the best time to start planning for the New Year. Don’t wait until you need to make a financial plan. It’s now the time to think about what you want to achieve next year. The best way is to split your goals into three, short, medium and long. What you define as short, medium and long in terms of time scale is up to you and depends on your business. However, what is important is you think about them, write them down and communicate them to everyone involved.

The Short term goals are there to motivate you, get you up in the mornings and also ensure the New Year goes off with an amazing quick fire win. So some of these goals should be achieved during the first few weeks of the year, maybe one should be to communicate the 2011 plan to staff, customers and suppliers, it maybe email all your customers to say thank you for their loyal custom in 2010, call your most valued customer and ask how you can do it better.

For the Medium term goals, we are looking at the hard work and this means customer acquisition, increased revenue per customer and reducing costs, i.e. making you business better, faster and more efficient so you can ensure your success in 2011. The target dates for these should be from June through to September.
Your Long term goals should be the great big airy audacious goals which will make sure your business stands out from the rest. These goals will not just make your business a good business but a fantastic one, a business which others in the market follow, a brilliant success. So take a long hard think about them. They (because there should be more than one) may take less than a year but the timing of these is not important, the fact you assign a date to every goal is.

Now you know your hat-trick of goals, it’s time to go and buy the Christmas presents now, knowing that 2011 is going to be your best ever.