Have a Plan

Business Development Bank of Canada wrote an article entitled "The Five Do’s and Five Don’ts of Successful Businesses.” This article says, “Compared with their counterparts, the most successful businesses were far more likely to report that they had thought carefully about where they want to go, devised a plan, and actively monitored their progress.”

Combine this with other statements in the article, including:

• Over 70% of the most successful businesses had some medium-term business plan compared to less than half of the unsuccessful.
• 1/3 of successful businesses had a long-term roadmap compared to 13% of the unsuccessful.
• Contingency planning, or business continuity planning, is something that every business should do to ensure long-term success.
• 65% of the most successful businesses reported that they had three or more business metrics in place compared with just over 40% for their counterparts.

As accountants and business advisors, we are often required to assist our customers in making critical business decisions. How can our customers make good decisions if we are not helping them with planning and looking forward? How do we know if the decisions they make are going to move them toward their long-term goals if we don’t help them develop measurements that track their progress? There is an old saying that “It is very difficult to drive by looking in the rear view mirror. You must look forward to see where you're going.” If we continue with this saying, it is also difficult to gauge our performance on moving forward if we don’t have measurements in place to help us (such as the compass and speedometer).

Many businesses don't take the time to plan for the unexpected; those that do have an important edge in achieving long-term success. As accountants and business advisors, we need to help our customers' businesses step back and ensure that they have a clear direction and goal in mind.

As the article points out, we need to help them:

• Create a clear short- and medium-term plan on expectations as considered in the current economic and competitive environment.
• Create a longer-term roadmap moving toward their goals.
• Create contingency plans for major events (e.g. fire, flood, etc.)
• Create clear measurements and business metrics.
• Continuously monitor the measurements and track progress.