{"id":31532,"date":"2019-01-16T13:33:45","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T18:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?p=31532"},"modified":"2019-01-17T13:18:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T18:18:25","slug":"business-report-why-you-should-have-a-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/01\/business-report-why-you-should-have-a-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Report: Why You Should Have A Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_31533\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31533\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-31533\" src=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/01\/cruz-c-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/01\/cruz-c-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/01\/cruz-c.jpg 432w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-31533\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Cruz, president of Lighthouse Advisors LLC in Queensbury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\">By Michael Cruz<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Good business planning must start with Visualization.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Unless you want to finish next year exactly where you are today, it is important to think about where you want to be. And then write it down. Visualization starts with a thought process. What do you see your company headed? Sales goals? Customer satisfaction goals. Do you want to add new products or services?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Planning adds urgency to those goals. I worked with a client years ago that needed more space to reach their growth goals. We worked to define what that facility would look like. He described the building he wanted to move into. And, a year and a half later he moved into a facility that exactly matched the picture he had in his head.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">It highlights the magic that came from his created visual. And he has exceeded his growth goals that came with the new facility.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">After you have the big picture, get your team together. Often, I act as a facilitator for that exercise. The purpose of facilitation is to have an external person get the team to talk about the tough issues. Our desire to \u2018work together\u2019 often leaves the tougher topics unspoken. Start with the vision\u2014the big goals. Next, perform a SWOT analysis. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The SWOT identifies things you want to build upon (strengths). Then, things you want to work on (weaknesses). It also helps you identify things you have less control over (Opportunities and Threats).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Make sure you discuss with your people who are helping you grow? Who might be holding you back?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">From this, you can build action plans\u2014with timelines. Don\u2019t get too granular. Stay within a quarterly framework. Everything needs to be written down and shared with your planning team. The goals should also be shared with the entire company.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The absolute key is to review your status regularly. That means monthly chats with your leadership team. And perhaps, quarterly formal reviews. Stay on track, but adjust as necessary. By doing this, you will achieve your goals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Planning is like using a road map. There are only a few times you don\u2019t need to use a map. That is when you don\u2019t care where you are going. Or, when you are going where you have already been.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Michael Cruz Good business planning must start with Visualization. Unless you want to finish next year exactly where you are today, it is important to think about where you want to be. And then write it down. Visualization starts with a thought process. What do you see your company headed? Sales goals? Customer satisfaction [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":31533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Business Report: Why You Should Have A Plan - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/01\/business-report-why-you-should-have-a-plan\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Business Report: Why You Should Have A Plan - Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Michael Cruz Good business planning must start with Visualization. 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Customer satisfaction [&hellip;]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/01\/business-report-why-you-should-have-a-plan\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-16T18:33:45+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-17T18:18:25+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/01\/cruz-c.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"432\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"648\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/01\/business-report-why-you-should-have-a-plan\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/01\/business-report-why-you-should-have-a-plan\/\",\"name\":\"Business Report: Why You Should Have A Plan - Glens Falls Business Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-16T18:33:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-17T18:18:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/01\/business-report-why-you-should-have-a-plan\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/01\/business-report-why-you-should-have-a-plan\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/01\/business-report-why-you-should-have-a-plan\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Business Report: Why You Should Have A Plan\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/\",\"name\":\"Glens Falls Business Journal\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86\",\"name\":\"Jake Van Ness\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8083519989e12032abdd06a668982ef4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8083519989e12032abdd06a668982ef4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jake Van Ness\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/author\/jakev\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Business Report: Why You Should Have A Plan - Glens Falls Business Journal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/01\/business-report-why-you-should-have-a-plan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Business Report: Why You Should Have A Plan - Glens Falls Business Journal","og_description":"By Michael Cruz Good business planning must start with Visualization. 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