Now that you have completed your narrative business plan,  there are three more things to consider to ensure the plan remains relevant and the planning process gains momentum.

Once the action plans are completed, it’s a important to review how you track your progress and how your company is organized.

First, a brief work about Key Performance indicators:

We all like to know how we are doing, from the CEO to the sales team, the service reps or the admin group. The business plan provides the reference point to measure your progress

Take a look at what you are tracking. Is it relevant and meaningful?  Look for the activities that drive the business, that have the most impact on results. How are you tracking those activities?

Make a list of these “key performance indictors” and review the list on a regular basis. You will soon learn what is important to your success and what isn’t.

A word about Organization Structure:

As you assign responsibilities for the action plans, questions may arise around how the company is organized and what people or other resources may be needed to get the job done. This is a good time to review your organization chart, and make changes that will support the plan.

Once you are clear about your goals and the action plans, planning future changes to the organization structure is a fairly straight forward task.

One way of doing this is to draw the current org chart, and then a second one that reflects changes you may need to make over the next year.

Even the smallest companies should have an org chart, although the names in the boxes may be repeated because of share responsibilities. It will help you visualize the importance of balancing the need to drive new business concurrent with working on existing projects.

Now, The Final Step:

Schedule your Business Plan quarterly review sessions and put them in the corporate calendar.

Make this information public and stick to the schedule.

I’ve learned that 90 days is the natural cycle for refreshing your plans. Our world is constantly changing. If your plans are left beyond 90 days, clarity turns to confusion and energy starts to be wasted.

Get into a 90 day habit. Each revisit to your working business plan will add more insights. You will soon get very efficient at this work and begin to look forward to it.