For Best Results, Start Your Strategic Planning Early

Empty asphalt road and New year 2018, 2019, 2020 concept. Driving on an empty road in the mountains to upcoming 2018, 2019, 2020 and leaving behind old years. Concept for success and passing time.

Time flies when you’re having fun — and running a business. Although it’s probably too early to start chilling a bottle of bubbly for New Year’s Eve, it’s certainly not too early for business owners to start doing some strategic planning for next year. Here are some ways to get started.

Begin with your financials

A good place to find inspiration for strategic objectives is your financial statements. They’ll tell you whether you’re excelling or struggling so you can decide how strategically ambitious or cautious to be in the coming year.

Use the numbers to look at key performance indicators such as gross profit, which tells you how much money you made after your production and selling costs were paid. It’s calculated by subtracting the cost of […]