Christmas is a time for planning, what to eat, what to buy, where to spend the festivities.  It’s also a time to spend with family and loved ones and thank them for supporting you in your business for the last year, time to sit back, relax and recharge for the New Year.

Our MD is no different, she has lists for everything, and each task or item is meticulously ticked off, each list gets smaller, until a new list appears.  Why does she make lists? If you ask her it’s because she has so much to do and remember that she doesn’t want to forget anything.

One item on the list(s) is to spend a day or two planning the first quarter of the year in regard to the business, growth, marketing, staffing, office location, cash-flow, profit and loss.  All the things that are on our business plan, you see, we wrote a business plan and each quarter we update it with what has happened, what we want to happen, we use it as a working document, it helps us know and understand OUR numbers.

This philosophy has seen a growth of the team from 3 to 5 in the last quarter of this year, this growth has seen us planning for an office move in 2018, buying new equipment, updating our IT, none of which would be possible if we didn’t know or understand our numbers.

Whilst you take the time to spend time with your family and friends, remember to take the time to plan 2018 in your business too, it will make your business year a success.  If you don’t know where to start, pull out that business plan from the drawer you put it in, dust it off and measure where you said you’d be against where you are.

Have a great December, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.