by Jim M. Allen

It's the end of the first quarter, time to sit down and take stock of your business goals. Did your business grow like you wanted it to the first 3 months of this year? How close are you to meeting the goals of YOUR business plan for this year?

If the answers to those questions are that you're not close -- or worse yet, that you really don't have a business plan specific to this year now is the time to sit down and do some serious evaluation and even more serious planning.

Questions you need to answer include:

--Did you increase revenue this quarter? If not, why not?

--Did you increase PROFITS this quarter? If not, why not?

--What is the ROI for each of your current marketing tools? Which ones are not profitable?

--Are there less expensive/more profitable marketing tools you could be using?

--Are there opportunities for joint (fusion) marketing partnerships with other businesses in your area?

--Are the profit holes in your company that need fixing?

--Where can you cut expenses?

--Where can you improve your margins?

--How much profit do you want to make in the next 3 months? 6 months? 9 months?

--How are you going to reach those goals?

Now is the perfect time for serious number-crunching and evaluation. Pull out your business plan, review it, and up-date it if necessary. Better yet, create a 1-year plan outlining what you want to accomplish in your business for the next 30, 60, 90, and 120 days! Outline your marketing plan, your marketing tools, your projected profit month by month, and how you intend to meet your annual goal.

Some serious effort today, reviewing you business plan, focusing on ways to improve your profits (not simply your revenue) can make the difference between barely making your profit goals for the year. or wildly exceeding them.

©2002 Jim M. Allen

Credit:
Jim Allen, the Big Idea Coach, helps small businesses profit through creative
low- and no-cost guerilla marketing techniques. You can get more ideas by
visiting http://www.CoachJim.com .

Related Information:

How-To Create A Business Plan

Building your Business for Success in 2002

Start-Up Planning: Prepare Your Business For Opening Day

Reprint of this article does not constitute an endorsement by the National Business Association; the article is for informational purposes for our members and viewers of our Web site.