By Alvin E. Terry, MBA / Business Consultant
Dynamic Business Builders
As you look back on the progress that you have made since the beginning of the year to the present day, have you accomplished what you projected in your Business Plan? Have you achieved your gross revenue projections for the New Year? Was your Business Plan realistic enough to put you on the right track? Or, did you just pull those numbers out of thin air? Did you do your research? Did the “economy” perform as you had wished, or were you surprised? Did your personal life situations affect you more than you had anticipated? Were you surprised by the market share that your competition gained? These are just some of the questions that bring home reality in the world of business.
The experiences that we encountered this year are unique to each of us as individuals. I have had mine, too. Those experiences that we all have had are inextricably interwoven.
Since my main focus is on the art of doing business, I will highlight the activities that are supposed to make us better in our quest to be successful. Turning your dreams into reality requires a lot of work, not hard work, but a focus on the tried and true basic guidelines that we all read about. If you read books about business, and you should, you should know that these words are repeated countless times across the spectrum. These words of wisdom have been echoed before. Whether you have practiced these guidelines and principles correctly may be directly reflective in the results that you are experiencing today.
As practicing business professionals, you should have established projected sales revenue for the entire year. With the correct market research coupled with historical performance data, your assumptions should be a roadmap in which to operate with. Your individual business plan or business model should have milestones and benchmarks to track the progress along the way. Someone has to be the “bean counter” in order to help navigate through the maze you are encountering with every step. In growing, persistence is an everyday thing.
If you are perplexed about why you are not on track with your projections and cannot pinpoint the reasons why, then you may need to consult with an outside source, whether it may be a consultant or mentor to put some extra objective eyeballs on the situation. Sometimes it may be an adjustment in the way in which you are looking at things. Sometimes it may be that you cannot see the forest for the trees, meaning that as you are caught up with the daily operations of managing the business, the bigger picture of keeping on track and guiding the business down the right road may become blurred and out of focus because you are standing too close.
I know that there is a lot to do – been there, done that, still doing that. It never ends unless you do. Embrace the proper people and engage the proper mind set.
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You can contact Alvin E. Terry, MBA at [email protected] or directly at 713-392-9107.
