Business Planning
A great business planning tool to automate and manage ‘double-digit’ growth.!
How The Business Planning Process Works
The Business Planning process is a systemised structure of concepts, when combined together, provide any business with a clear direction and the necessary activities to get there, that is in total alignment, with the Business Core Values, Purpose and Mission.
Learning how to apply this Business Planning Process into your business and actually applying it Annually, Quarterly, Monthly, Weekly and Daily, can be a very inspiring and liberating experience. When applied correctly it will magnify and produce results in your business that you never thought possible.
The Planning process has three distinct, yet interlinked, elements. See the chart below that starts from the bottom and works up;
- Clarifying and nurturing our fundamental core values and purpose/vision
- Planning, measuring, reporting, and reviewing our goals, targets, and actions. Our KRI’s – Key Result Indicators
- Performing the scheduled activities each day of the week, measuring and reporting our KPI’s – Key Performance Indicators.
Our ‘All-In-One’ CRM System with an Integrated Social Media Planning Tool
Our innovative CRM system is not just another tool; it’s a game-changer. We’ve seamlessly integrated a social media planning tool that allows you or our Social Media Planners to develop, plan, and schedule posts across multiple platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google My Business Page, TikTok, and X(Twitter). This integration eliminates the need for other social media management software, centralising all your communications and ensuring you never miss a comment or lead.
Empowered by AI
In addition to this integration, our system leverages AI to assist in the creation of engaging and effective social media posts. This feature saves you time while maintaining a high standard of quality and relevance in your content.
Step 1. Set Core Values, Purpose/Vision
Do yourself, any team you have, your customers, suppliers, and your community, a huge favour by ”giving your business a soul’ by setting your Core Values, Purpose, and Vision. This will be your set of ‘guiding principles as to ‘Why’ and ‘How’ you want to conduct your business. These need to be authentically in alignment with your personal and business values.
We can’t emphasise enough how important this is. When you set these ‘guiding principles’ honestly and correctly, you are giving your business a huge ‘guiding light’ that all can align to and use every day to set your culture and core values. Only then can you set clear Goals aligned with your Purpose and how to achieve them.
Stage 2. Set Goals, Targets and Actions
Once you have your set of ‘guiding principles’ in place through your core values, purpose, and vision, you can focus on planning how to work towards and with them.
Set Goals: We set annual goals. There is no scientific reason for ‘annual goals’ as you could set them over a longer or shorter period, yet our lives are used to the timelines of seasons every quarter and the calendar year (e.g. New Year’s resolutions or goals). So annual goals feel natural to most of us. A goal should be something that is not easily achieved. It is a set of developments and tasks that are beyond your current capabilities to deliver now, yet with some learning/training and some work, they can be achieved. Your Goals must also be aligned to and help you work towards your business purpose and vision.
Set Targets: We set quarterly targets. Our quarterly targets must each help us work toward achieving one or more of our annual goals. We set targets quarterly because some of the actions we set last longer than a month and we measure and set our targets quarterly so that we can adjust our planning activities if we are ahead or behind our required results. Targets can be transactional targets, or financial targets. They are also known as KRI’s – Key Result Indicators or ‘Lagging Indicators’
Set Actions: We plan monthly actions. The actions that we plan to implement must be the actions necessary to work toward our quarterly targets. This is where we start planning the implementation of ‘business development strategies and systems’ to grow the business. These can be strategies to improve transactional results, financial results, improve business automation, or team training/expansion. Planned actions can span over one or more months.
Step 3. Schedule Weekly Activities, Set KPI's
Schedule Weekly: We must plan our scheduled activities every week to ensure we are ‘working on our business at least 5 hours’ every week. We also must ensure we have allocated sufficient time and resources to the necessary activities during the next week to work towards successfully performing all the actions planned for this month. What times during which days of the week is this all going to be done? Commit the necessary time and resources to make this happen.
Set KPI’s: We set daily or weekly KPI’s – NEVER LONGER. What are the Key Performance Indicators – KPI’s, for each of your scheduled activities this week. KPI’s – Indicate to your team what they need to do ‘today’ or ‘this week’, but never longer. Correctly defined KPI’s achieve the scheduled activities this week, implement the planned monthly actions and contribute towards your quarterly targets. You can see some examples of these in the KPI section of this workbook. If in doubt about how to identify your KPI’s reach out to us at Libabun.com for some assistance.
We can’t emphasise enough how important this is. When you set these ‘guiding principles’ honestly and correctly, you are giving your business a huge ‘guiding light’ that all can align to and use every day to set your culture and core values. Only then can you set clear Goals aligned with your Purpose and how to achieve them.
What Are Your Time Commitments To Effectively Plan?
Implementing your business planning system correctly takes work! It takes discipline to open your plan and use it every day. We strongly encourage you to include your whole team in your Business planning, because they are going to have to assist you to implement most of it.
Implementing the Business Planning process is quite simple really, unless you are planning some major capital expenditure, such as buying a new building or major machinery, etc; then quarterly planning will suffice for every business. This plan is an operational business plan, not a strategic one. You will want to allocate 1 extra day a year to set your Annual Goals so that you have something to aim for when you format your Quarterly Plans and Targets.
The Fundamentals Of The Business Planning Timelines.
Annual Planning
Annual Planning is your ‘Goal Setting’ compass for the year. It involves setting transformational goals and transactional strategies that align with your business’s long-term vision. In this section, we focus on teaching you how to craft a robust annual plan that outlines your primary objectives and the key result indicators (KRIs) needed to track progress toward these goals.
To start planning for your next year, it’s also vital to review and learn from what you did in the last. Analyse the past year’s results, understanding what worked and what didn’t. Then, use this to set goals and start building out your next year.
Quarterly Planning
In the Quarterly Planning section, we dive into dividing your annual goals into more manageable segments. Here, you’ll learn to identify specific milestones and KRIs for each quarter, ensuring your annual plan is on track. This step is crucial for adjusting strategies and responding to changing business environments.
You will also need to review and reflect upon what you achieved in the previous quarter to see what worked etc and adjust accordingly. Then we will break down our Quarterly Targets into Monthly Actions to plan the delivery of the results we seek.
Monthly Planning
Monthly Planning brings a sharper focus to your quarterly goals. This section teaches you to break down quarterly objectives into monthly targets, with specific KRIs to monitor progress. By the end of this module, you will be adept at creating monthly plans that are both realistic and aligned with your broader business strategy.
Again, reviewing and reflecting upon what was achieved last month is required and adjust accordingly. Then you can ensure that the monthly objectives contribute to the achievement of quarterly and annual goals. This alignment guarantees that every month’s effort is strategically focused.
Weekly Planning
Weekly Planning is an integral part of effective time and task management within a business context. It provides a short-term, actionable framework that aligns with the broader monthly, quarterly, and annual goals.
Moving into Weekly Planning, you’ll discover how to translate monthly goals into weekly tasks. This segment emphasizes identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) that drive your progress towards the monthly KRIs. Weekly planning is about prioritizing tasks and maintaining flexibility to adapt to immediate business needs.
Begin by evaluating the outcomes and achievements of the past week. Identify what tasks were completed, what goals were met, and where there were shortcomings or delays. Reflect on lessons learned and areas for improvement.
Ensure that weekly plans are directly contributing to the achievement of the monthly goals. This step helps maintain a clear focus on the broader objectives while managing weekly tasks. Define specific, achievable goals/tasks for the week. These goals/tasks should be realistic, given the time frame and available resources.
Daily Planning
Daily Planning is about fine-tuning your focus. In this part, you’ll learn to distill your weekly plans into daily actions and KPIs. This approach ensures every day is structured towards achieving your weekly and, subsequently, your monthly and annual goals. Your Daily Planning tells you exactly what you need to do ‘Today’ to be on track to achieve your weekly goals!
Your Daily Planning and subsequent actions are the most important part of your Business Planning. Today is the ‘Point in Time of Empowerment for us all’. You get to actually do and control your outputs Today and every subsequent day to directly move towards the achievement of your goals. Do everything in your Daily Planning today, then repeat this tomorrow and every other day and you will achieve and even exceed your Annual Plans.
Business Planning Measurements
Result Indicators
In the Result Indicators segment, you’ll learn to distinguish between KRIs and other performance metrics. This differentiation is crucial for focusing on the indicators that truly matter for your business growth and success.
Key Result Indicators (KRIs)
The Key Result Indicators section delves deep into identifying and understanding the metrics that signal progress toward your strategic goals. We cover how to select relevant KRIs and the importance of aligning them with your business’s vision and objectives.
Performance Indicators
Finally, the Performance Indicators section provides an in-depth look into various metrics that, while not as critical as KPIs, still offer valuable insights into your business performance. Understanding these indicators can help fine-tune your strategies and operational efficiencies.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Key Performance Indicators are the heartbeat of your operational success. This section teaches you how to identify, measure, and interpret KPIs that directly influence your KRIs. You’ll learn how to use KPIs to make informed decisions and steer your business on a daily and weekly basis.
Not surpisingly, Key Performance Indicators are also precisely what the name implies, the Key ‘PERFORMANCE’ Indicators. These are activities that will tally to determine the outcome of your KRI’s. KPI’s are also known in the business world as ‘Leading Indicators’
Note: KPI’s are the main activities you have to perform today or this week, NEVER LONGER, that will affect the tally of your KRI’s. These KPI’s are the ‘Drivers’ within your business, they focus on the ‘Performance’ of you and your team. They are a fantastic way to give your whole team clarity, purpose, and direction as to what they need to focus on each day. Everyone in the business should have a minimum of 1-3 KPI’s to focus on each day.
