You must have often come across a quirky quote trending on the internet - if one fails to plan, one plans to fail. This quote is bang on if you try and analyze the failure stories of any business or individual. Think of the many resolutions that you must have vowed upon, only to miserably fail at achieving the target, simply owing to the lack of planning!
What is Planning?
The definition of Planning, loosely put, is the process by which future goals are defined. It provides the clarity of the missions to be achieved and the resources required to get there. In an organization, the process of planning can actually become the management process. To sum up the concept, planning is something that Always has a purpose. Planning is
- Food for thought
- Tool for better management
- Focus towards goal orientation
- Key to continuous improvement
- Futuristic
- Decision enabler
Why Plan At All?
If you are thinking that planning does not help you to chart a plan for the future, and this is a waste of time, then pause and re-think. Contrary to what most people believe, planning is not at all a herculean task. Proper planning helps organizations to execute the various steps of the strategy accurately. This in turn prevents the mistakes which at times can prove to be too costly for the business. Planning optimizes business functions and enhances efficiency. With the help of effective planning, timelines for accomplishing a task can be set and this, in turn, helps in the measurement of performance at individual as well as organizational levels. After all, anything that's measurable, gets done.
What's The Outcome Of Proper Planning?
1. Provides a guideline/timeline on how to maintain goals and how to reach them, it is almost similar to a navigator.
2. A plan can be always revisited and modified if needed, mostly to suit the changing business environment.
3. Planning has a direct impact on the long term and short term financial parameters. By careful planning, businesses can actually contain the budget within limits, leading to minimum wastage and optimum usage of resources at hand.
GrowthX believes and fosters the importance of Planning at every aspect of the business journey. It inculcates the essence of planning in various ways eg., through individual coaching, through focussed groups, or the regular meets (more commonly called Planning Club and Growth Club). GrowthX directs the business owners towards effective planning by encouraging them to arrive at SMART objectives and thereafter a strategy to actually achieve them. SMART decodes as
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Realistic
T - Time-bound
Welcome to the Planning Club
GrowthX's Planning Club program is a form of coaching which entails a reciprocal and energetic nature of the workshop. In such workshops, the mentee/clients are guided to develop an all-inclusive plan with the help of an advanced and realistic business plan. This includes projections for revenue, costs, profit, cash flow growth, owner's salaries, linked goals to achieve results, strategy implementation. Following areas are covered under the Planning Club sessions
- Executive Summary
- Business at a Glance
- SWOT
- Analysis (Industry, Customers, Competitors)
- Marketing Plan
- Sales Plan
- Operations Plan
- Financial Plan
- Strategy for Improvement and Action Plan
- Actions to Take
- Appendix Information (Historical Financial Reports)
Welcome to the Growth Club
Growth Club is workshop that is held every Quarter workshop. These quarterly workshops aim at preparing the senior leadership teams to plan for the next 90 days. During these sessions, the primary focus is on the assessment of the trend in which the business has behaved in the last 90 days, as well as to draw up an action plan for the next 90 days.
Planning is an effective tool to give life to your business ideas and steer your business in the desired direction. Merely having ideas is not enough if you do not have a plan at hand. It is based on the strength of your planning that you can face the change and adapt accordingly to the market scenario. At GrowthX, this is exactly what we help businesses attain through a focussed approach of guidance and mentoring.
Connect with GrowthX today, https://bit.ly/38q1i12 for assured business results for the future.