You may have heard that planning is an essential step in ensuring that you meet your goals. This can’t be summed up in a more straightforward way than: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Thus, if you want to achieve your business goals for the next year, you need to plan. It would be best if you had it ready even before the year begins.
This also ensures that you smoothly transition into the next year as you will already be on the path to achieving your goals. So what can an entrepreneur or business leader do to plan for the upcoming year effectively? Here are a few tips that can help you with your business planning at the year-end:
Analyze your current standing
If you want to plan for the upcoming fiscal year, you must first look back at the previous(current) year. Firstly, check whether you have completed all the tasks that were planned. Make a checklist and tick-off the tasks that were completed, and note down whether they were completed on or before deadlines.
Next, analyze your incomplete tasks. Note what went wrong and why the tasks weren’t finished. Have a review or analysis session with your employees to get the report from ground zero. Based on the analysis, create a detailed report to evaluate your businesses’ performance. This should include the overall performance of your business as well as the performance of individual employees.
Here’s an essential checklist you can use to evaluate your performance
- Achievements
- Failures
- Expenditures
- Business goals met
Complete pending tasks
Now that you have completed your assessment, you have a clear idea of pending tasks. Thus, your next step should be to meet them at once without compromising on quality. For that, assign your best employees to tasks that need to be completed on an urgent basis and have high business value. Since it’s the year-end, complete your pending financial tasks with utmost priority. Another excellent business planning tip is to organize your tasks, financial and non-financial included, with the help of the Eisenhower Matrix.
You will need excellent cross-functional collaboration with other individuals to complete all the pending tasks on or before time.
Review your accounts
If you’ve taken the help of the Eisenhower matrix, you must have realized that it’s your financial tasks that need your attention the most. So, foremost, spend time reviewing your accounts thoroughly. Have a detailed check of the accounts payable and receivables. Check for inconsistencies and errors in financial reports, if any, and make sure you correct them at the earliest.
Next, contact your clients for pending dues and ensure that they are paid before the year-end. Also, pay any bills that are due from your end. The end-goal for the account review exercise is to ensure that your finances are in order at the end of the year.
Create a budget for the next year
Once you have reviewed your accounts, you can efficiently plan the budget for the following year. Your financial goals should be aligned with your budget. Also, ensure that spending is minimized and wayward spending practices of the previous year are not repeated in the upcoming year. The right amount of finances should be allocated to activities.
Additionally, budgeting should be broken down into smaller periods, like monthly or quarterly. Keep an eye on your expenses periodically to ensure that the spending is in line with the allocated budget.
Assign roles to your employees
The roles and responsibilities of your employees should be defined precisely before the start of the next financial year. Promotions for deserving employees should be decided well in advance. Employees will, therefore, have a clear understanding of what their role will be in the upcoming year.
It is advisable that by the end of February, you are completed with assigning all the hierarchical roles. Employees usually face difficulty with a new job position. Hence, planning should be done in advance. This ensures that you have a smooth transition into the following year, and there aren’t any hindrances in your business operations.
Set upcoming goals
Now that you’re completely done with your projects for the year, you can set your next year’s goals. Based on your analysis of the previous year, plan your goals for the upcoming year. Preferably, divide them into short-term goals and long-term goals. Why, you ask? Short-term goals are essential to help you move towards your long-term goals step-by-step.
These pointers can ensure a smooth transition to the following year. Year-end financial planning is a must, or else your upcoming year will be filled with confusion, low confidence, and lack of clear vision for the forthcoming year, which is not suitable for your business.
