How to Plan for Quarterly Growth

 

As a small business owner, you probably have an overarching vision to guide you over the next five years but do you have a plan for the next 90 days?  It can be easy to lose sight of your goals during the fiscal year with all of your day-to-day duties.  However, if you take the time to prepare and analyse your monthly financial reports and create a quarterly business plan, you’ll be able to know where you stand and use that historical data to optimise your performance for future growth.

 

Here are a few tips to help you stay on track:

 

Dedicate the Time

 

Three months might seem like a short period but a lot can happen to your business during that time.  For that reason, you should make sure you’re putting in at least 6 to 8 hours to go over your reports and formulate your three-month plan for growth.

 

Break Down the Numbers

 

Numbers never lie and if you want to identify new opportunities or avoid previous mistakes, you need to break down your financial data.  Gather all of your financial reports from the previous quarter and look for any trends.  This could mean declining sales, increased expenses, etc.  We also recommend creating visuals like charts and tables to help you quickly see at a glance how your business changed over the last quarter.

 

Get to the Root Causes

 

Those that fail to learn from history are destined to repeat their mistakes.  This adage also applies to the business world and if you want to experience accelerated growth next quarter, you need to figure out what went right and what went wrong last quarter!

 

Whatever the trends were, you should understand what caused them, good or bad.  Did you have trouble with customer service in the last quarter?  Were you able to implement a loyalty program that boosted return visits to your store?  Whatever the cause, if you were doing something right, keep doing it.  If not, find ways to change.

 

Set Your Goals

 

What would you like to achieve in this next quarter? And does this fit into your longer term goals? To keep your business on track, you should have clear, actionable goals with rigid timelines.  An example of a good goal could be “Increase sales by X% in the next quarter.”  From these goals, you can break them down into objectives and tasks that you can do each day to ensure you reach your goals.  Add them to your quarterly plan and adjust your tactics accordingly.

 

Create a Practical Plan

 

While setting your goals, you want to keep a practical perspective in mind.  You should set your goals high but they must also be realistic and achievable.  Not many businesses can grow by 300% in one quarter, so if you set your goals this high, you’re setting yourself up for failure.  Make your goals SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time based) and you will have a much easier time reaching them in the next quarter.

 

We’re Here to Help

 

If you don’t already have the right numbers in place, you can save time and money by hiring ABJ Business Solutions to keep track of the financial details and forecast where your business is heading.  Send in your existing accounts and we’ll get them up to date and keep them current!

 

Contact us today for a no-obligation, free consultation or email admin@abjsolutions.com.au

 

Joe Boyd & Tony Barakat

ABJ Business Solutions

 

M: +61 401 991 495

E: jboyd@abjsolutions.com.au

 

M: +61 405 534 934

E: tbarakat@abjsolutions.com.au