Where are you now?
Where do you want to be?
How are you going to get there?
Would you believe that those three simple questions are amongst the most powerful tools that you’ll ever use as a business owner? They are the fundamental strategic planning questions and when used correctly can be the key to a thriving, growing business. And increasing your business’ performance is just one part of that growth.
So how does the ABC of business performance work?
It’s easy – just take ten minutes to reflect on your day and answer the questions below for a roadmap to improve your business’ performance tomorrow.
A. Where are you now?
Stop and think about how your business performed today. If you have a business plan, you’re a step ahead of business owners who don’t, because you have goals to measure your performance against. But even if you don’t have a plan, you can still look at today’s performance – in both financial and non-financial terms – and make notes about where you are. Some things you could think about, for example, are: What did you do today? Was a productive use of your time? Did your staff excel? Could you have been more focused and productive? Which time wasters did you fall victim to today? Would your business have achieved more today if you’d had systems in place, or better trained staff?
B.Where do you want to be?
In strategic planning, we use this question to develop a 3-5 year vision for a business. But developing a vision of where you’d like to be in 3-5 years is not helpful in driving your business’ performance right now.
You need immediate answers to an immediate issue!
So answer this question in present day terms. What would you have liked to have achieved in your business today? For example: Made a sales phone call? Followed your to-do list more closely? Streamlined a procedure? Completed more in less time? Attended an educational or networking event?
C.How are you going to get there?
The next step in the ABC of business performance is to answer the activity-based question, “How are you going to get there”? Consider your responses to the first two questions and make a to-do list to implement tomorrow – then commit to following it!
If you apply this process daily, the ongoing reflection, visualising and planning that it involves will improve your focus and accountability, helping you to drive your business performance beyond your expectations.
The ABC of Business Performance – three simple questions to drive your business to new levels!
