Recently, the world has gone through a series of changes and events that have changed several sectors. 2020 and 2021 were marked by the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, which strongly affected the economy, the business world and the daily lives of thousands of people.
Therefore, many companies and entrepreneurs had to adapt to the new reality. It was realized that, increasingly, being one step ahead is essential in a context where everything can change overnight. So, planning is a crucial part of any business.
So, with the arrival of the last months of the year, it's time to do business planning for 2022. We know it's not an easy task! That's why we've prepared this post with tips to help you prepare the plan for your company. Check out:
How to do business planning for 2022?
To make good planning, you need to follow a few steps in order to determine the next actions. Here are some steps that are crucial to building good business planning. Check out:
SWOT Analysis
It is almost impossible to talk about business planning and not think about SWOT analysis. It is this tool that helps to understand scenarios in which the company is inserted. The SWOT analysis, which means “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats”, is a management tool that allows the identification of opportunities, weaknesses, strengths and threats to the business.
Strengths and weaknesses refer to the internal analysis, that is, the strengths and weaknesses of the company or project you want to implement. These factors are generally under the company's control and can be changed by the company.
Opportunities and threats, on the other hand, refer to the external environment, which brings together all elements outside the business that may have an impact, such as market analysis, competitors, suppliers and even the political, economic, social and cultural macro-environment.
Goal setting
With the main aspects of the company mapped out, it's time to define the objectives. For that, it is necessary to consider the internal and external scenarios of the business, also observing the characteristics of the market.
With the information collected from the market and the SWOT analysis, it is possible to understand what should and can be done in the short, medium and long term.
Thus, consider the goals that the company intends to achieve and the time to reach them. For this, also keep in mind the available resources and the projects that will be developed given each objective.
Objectives can be defined by priority or by the time it will take to complete them.
Strategizing
Excellent! Now you have your goals set. But how are you going to reach them? For that, it is necessary to elaborate on a strategy that will be followed for each one of the objectives. It is normal, for those who are not used to preparing a business plan, to confuse action with strategy.
So don't forget: the goal is where you want to get, the strategy is how you're going to get there, and the actions are what you need to put the strategy into practice. Look:
Goal/Goal: Increase site conversions by 10% over the next 3 months;
Strategy: the creation of a new sales page;
Actions: Hire a new professional to develop sales pages.
Create a schedule
With all the previous steps defined and ready, it's time to set deadlines. This step is very important to get a sense of when each project and action will be started and finished, keeping control over what is done within the company.
It is also very important to ensure that all points are put into practice, as, without a defined date, it is very common that some projects end up being forgotten.
Thus, the professionals involved in the execution of each action can organize themselves according to the defined deadlines.
The schedule must contain the planned goals and those responsible, deadlines for execution, performance indicators, necessary resources and other relevant information.
Hands-on!
We know that making a strategic planning for a company is not an easy task. After all, there are several objectives and goals to be achieved. However, by following the steps we've shown in this post, creating a plan is much simpler, as well as providing important insights into the business.
SWOT analysis, for example, offers a complete diagnosis of the company and the market in which it operates. Furthermore, by defining the objectives, it is possible to have a better sense of the business' priorities.