Business Planning

Another month sails past and we’re down to the home stretch. There are only five weeks left in 2012. Are you ready for 2013? We’ve been so busy year-end has snuck up on us. But we still have time to set goals for next year and update our business plan accordingly.

Between holiday socials and family get-togethers, that’s what we’ll do. It’s always a challenge to find the time to work on the business – especially when we have so much work to do. However, I truly believe taking time to plan is the most critical difference between businesses that succeed and businesses that fail.

I’ve heard and read the traditional business plan is dead – that it no longer applies in our fast-paced, Internet-charged world. That’s ridiculous. I suspect those who claim business plans are an outdated concept never bothered to update their business plan.

Business plans are not meant to be perfect documents capable of predicting the future. Like budgets they are an educated guess providing guidelines for business decisions throughout the year. And like budgets, you must take time to review your results and make adjustments as needed.

In addition to planning we have the following holiday events coming up:

Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance
Holiday Social
Ritz Carlton Members Club
Wednesday, December 5
5:00pm to 7:00pm

American Advertising Federation Suncoast
Festivus for the Rest of Us
Home Tech Show Room
Thursday, December 6
5:30pm to 8:30pm

Suncoast Technology Forum
Holiday Party – Details coming…
The HuB
Tuesday, December 18
5:30pm to 7:30pm

Milestone Marketing Associates
Fourth Annual New Year’s Party – Details coming…
The Andersons
Monday, December 31
8:00pm to 2:00am

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.