There are more than thirty-four million small businesses in the United States as of 2024, according to the Small Business Administration. Of those small businesses, approximately six hundred thousand fail each year. A crucial key to avoiding being part of that statistic is getting the most out of your business plan in 2025.
Four ways to extract the most out of your business plan immediately exist.
Treat Your Business Plan Like A Living Document
Under no circumstances should you view your business plan as an exercise you merely performed when starting your business to get funding. Your business plan is and should be treated as a living document. That means you should update your business plan regularly and adjust it to fit the most current trends in your industry and the business environment.
Within your business plan, you should establish OKRs (objectives and key results) and KPIs (key performance indicators) that enable you to track your business’s performance monthly, quarterly, and annually.
You may need to adjust your marketing budget, staffing levels, or focus areas to maximize your operating efforts. How do you implement these changes? Dividing your annual target into monthly goals is an easy way to start. You then take those monthly goals and make someone in your organization responsible for achieving one of those goals. After you make them responsible for the goal, train them on how to achieve the goal repeatedly, and finally, hold them accountable for the goal you assigned them.
Include Plans For The Unexpected
If there’s one certainty in life and business, it’s uncertainty. Are you ready for an emergency? Millions of companies across the United States were not prepared for the economic upheaval of the 2020 pandemic. No one knew how long it would last or how far it would spread, but one truth became clear: businesses were poorly equipped to handle disruptive events.
Today, this lesson remains critical. Forward-thinking businesses are incorporating resilient strategies into their plans—contingency budgets, scenario planning, and adaptable operations—to ensure they’re prepared for whatever comes next.
According to the Federal Reserve’s report on employer firms, 94% of US employer firms experienced financial challenges in the 2022-2023 fiscal year. While it’s nearly impossible to predict a black swan event or financial disruption will be coming, there are a couple of methods that small business owners can use to prepare for unexpected financial challenges.
Firstly, run a profitable business. Many small businesses operate on a razor’s edge with very slim margins. Monitor your company’s waste and labor costs to ensure that your employees are maximally productive during work hours. If you provide a service, ensure that your utilization rates per employee hour meet a certain threshold before you hire more employees.
If you own a product-based business and you manufacture, make sure your cost-of-goods-sold numbers are dialed in and are not bogged down by inefficient manufacturing processes or the creeping cost of direct labor.
Secondly, once you ensure profitability, set aside money for emergency savings in a business savings account; this account will allow you to have cash reserves for emergencies like working capital, emergency repairs, or payroll if you find yourself in a cash crunch.
Always Be Refining
As a business owner, you must continue to look for ways to become optimally efficient in every role in your firm. During your annual business plan review, you should monitor the cost of delivering your service or running your business and see where you can reduce bottlenecks.
In this modern age, AI is moving at the speed of light. The adoption of AI is making business highly efficient in many functions. While you may not be too savvy with AI, you may be using software that has already implemented AI in its delivery. Search for a software solution that can do more with less work from your company. Do not be afraid to change CRMs or ERPs if they do not fit the plan.
Without Execution, You Have Nothing
A plan is just ink and paper unless there is action. It would be best if you were involved in every part of your business’s planning. Set the proper elements of the plan in motion and make adjustments along the way. Imperfect action is better than no action at all.
Your employees and stakeholders rely on you to hit your targets, so you must work daily to mobilize the best possible outcomes for your business plan. Remain adaptable to the changing business landscape and constantly monitor consumer sentiment around your industry so you can stay ahead of the changing attitudes and buying habits of customers who purchase your product or service.
The end of the year provides an opportunity to gain valuable insights into what has been working and what hasn’t in your business. Take the last few weeks of the year to nail down an adjusted plan for the upcoming year, and you will automatically be in the 90% percentile of accomplished business owners.
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