Next Week’s Plan

If Next Week Went Completely as Planned, What would you get finished?

Wow, that’s a loaded question.  I have trouble with the if part of that sentence as when would suit me. I’m a glass half full gal and I also like having a plan, both short-term and long-term and that requires having goals.

Next week’s plan is to complete my annual planning and gratitude project.  That’s one of my annual goals.

Evaluate your plan from Last Year

Every year I spend November and early December looking back so I can go forward. I ask myself a series of questions and write answers in my journal so I have them for future reference.

• What were my greatest successes from the past year?
• What were some of the things that didn’t work or didn’t work as I had hoped?
• What hurdles did I have that are still an issue?
• Did I find any strategies, actions or tools that helped with the struggles?
• Is there anything I want to totally ditch moving forward?
• Is there anything left over from this past year that I need to finish before I can move on?

When I’ve answered those questions I write down what I’d like to do this year.  What ideas do I have for this year?  What new product do I want to add? And other questions that pertain to my specific business. I’ll add goals and strategies to these later.

Look at your plan Numbers.

Then I start finishing up posting business income and expense so I can see what our profit or loss was for the year.  Then it’s inventory time. Making sure I’ve recorded all purchases and closing inventory count on spreadsheets by Vendor makes it easy to track.  Every additional order during the year gets added from invoices and damaged or stolen items get deducted.

Once I know what is selling I can decide what needs to be ordered.  Some items will remain the same volume during the year, others will be increased and poor movers will be not be recorded.    This simple method can save you thousands of dollars each year.  It’s amazing how we think we know what sells, and the numbers tell us differently. 

Follow your plan numbers.

With that information I can create a budget for each Vendor, which vendors need more shelf space and who less.  Once I have those numbers I can plan a calendar of events, promos and new product announcements.  I’ll write content based on those shipment arrivals and focus on the new items.  Thus, I’ll have the material I need to create my content strategy, monthly, quarterly, and annual goals and strategies.

Gratitude Cards and your plan

Only one thing left to do – write Gratitude cards.  Yes, using good old snail mail, I send out between 24 and 36 Gratitude Cards to vendor reps, customers, and peers expressing my gratitude for their help, support, and encouragement this past year. 

I order three dozen and sometimes need more, depending on what occurred during the past year.  Amazon offers the best choices, but many times I can get packages of 6 at Walmart. I don’t always get them out before Thanksgiving, but always by the end of the November, because I don’t send Christmas cards. 

To recap:

• Evaluate last year
• Look at the numbers
• Follow your numbers
• Gratitude Cards

That will finish up November and take some of the stress off December, both in the store and at home.  May your holiday season be filled with many blessings.

Until next time  - - -