The purpose of this post is to help you get organized and make sure you do not only achieve your day-to-day tasks but also you find time to move the big projects that will take your business to the next level.

An annual business plan is the navigation map of the company or the following year. It is how you plan to go from where your business is today where you want it to be.

Start, by making sure you have a clear vision, mission, purpose, and values for your business. The vision is the north star of your business. It is the “what” the company wants to achieve. It should be memorable, ambitious, inspiring and achievable in about 3 to 10 years. Your vision must be:

• Short no more than two sentences
• Specific to your business and should describe a unique result that only your company can provide
• Simple so that people both inside and outside your organization understand it.

The mission is a useful tool for managing a business and for defining why the company exists for its customers, employees, owners/investors, and the community. In other words:

• It should determine what the company does for its customers
• State what the company does for its employees
• Explain what the company does for its owners
• Describe what the company does for its community

Many business owners confuse the mission with the purpose, but while the mission is “why” the company exist for all its constituents, the purpose is “how” your products and services will improve the lives of those your business serves.

Values are the principles and actions in the day-to-day operation that give the tone and the intention to the mission or “why.” Make sure you align yourself with the values you want your employees to exhibit while they perform their work.

Once you have clear the “what” you want to achieve, “why” your company exists, “how” it will transform those that use your products and services and the principles or actions by which you will “give value to the why”, then it is time to start thinking about the focus areas you want to center your attention in 2019.

The focus areas should not be more than 3 to 6 and should be easy enough to remember by any employee.
Some rules to choose the focus areas:

• No more than 5 words each
• Not too broad
• Use simple and without jargon
• Do not include metrics in the focus areas

Then take each focus area and divide it into quarterly goals. To write the quarterly goals you should:

• Start with a verb.
• Include a metric and a unit and a deadline. Example: Expand sales to 3 new states for July 30, 2020.

Last but not least significant, take all the goals for quarter 1 from each focus area and write a 30, 60 and 90-day action plan. Make sure you have a person accountable for the final delivery of each action, and the date and measurement for the final delivery of each action of the action plan.

Always review your 30, 60 and 90-day action plan every month and your quarterly goals every trimester. The success of a business plan is the follow-up.

Start now to plan your future!