In an ever-evolving business landscape, intentional strategic planning is necessary to stay ahead of the curve.
As we step into 2024, it’s time to start thinking about how you’ll future-proof your business through setting up goals and implementing systems to reach them.
Here are eight annual business planning strategies for 2024 to build a small business roadmap for success in the coming year.
Annual Business Planning 2024: Why You Need It
We hate to break it to you, but “winging it” is not an effective business strategy. All businesses, no matter the size or industry, need to have a comprehensive plan for success.
There are so many moving parts in a business—employees, customers, marketing, products, market conditions, finances—that leaving things up to chance can be risky.
Instead, creating an effective annual business plan for 2024 can help you determine where you want to go and how you’ll get there. More specifically, business planning can help you:
- Optimize efficiency in your business which, in turn, optimizes revenue.
- Plan for and navigate changing industry demands.
- Grow or scale your business.
- Attract and retain customers.
- Find what you love to do and do it well.
- Hire the right talent to support your business.
- Recover from challenges more easily.
8 Strategies for Success in 2024
There are lots of ways to plan ahead for 2024. Depending on your personality, business, and goals, your planning process will look different than someone else’s.
However, there are some universal best practices that set the stage for a successful 2024. Here are eight strategies to try today:
1. Dedicate Time to Planning
The first thing to do is dedicate time specifically for 2024 business planning. You want to give it the attention it deserves, so be intentional about it. Trying to tack business planning onto your already busy day is not the most effective use of time.
Consider these strategies instead:
- Time block: Block a half or full day each week for 2024 business planning. You can also go on a weekend retreat (solo or with your team) to dive into business planning.
- Peer support: Meet with friends or colleagues and “cowork” your business planning by doing it at the same time.
- Accountability: Join a mastermind group or work with a coach to complete your business plan.
2. Reflect on 2023
During your intentional business planning time, reflect on 2023. You want to have a clear idea of how this year went before turning your attention to next year. Here are some things you can think about:
- Financial overview: Were your revenue and profits what you wanted them to be? Do you have money to support your future goals?
- New products and services: How did the launch go? Were they successful introductions?
- Team dynamics: How did you work together? What was your employee retention? What would you do differently?
- Job satisfaction: How did you feel throughout the year? What did you love doing and what didn’t you love so much?
This is just the start, but use it to start reflecting on the past year to determine what worked and what didn’t. This will help inform where you want to go in 2024.
3. Set Clear Goals
Using your reflections from the last year, start setting clear goals for 2024. The SMART goal-setting model is useful—aim to set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Goals can be related to:
- Growth and expansion: Goals to open a new location or expand into a different state.
- Finances: Revenue or profit goals.
- Clients: Number of new clients you bring in, average spend rate, and retention goals.
- Offerings: New products or services you want to launch.
Don’t be afraid to dream big here! Having lofty goals is great fuel for inspiration and motivation in your business. Allow yourself time to dream up those big goals, and then bring them into reality by setting some realistic parameters for them.
And remember, just because it’s not realistic to achieve XYZ goal in 2024, it might very well be in a few more years! So, focus on what’s possible now, knowing you can set bigger goals each year.
4. Understand Market Dynamics
Part of setting realistic and achievable goals is doing your research to understand market dynamics. External factors will always impact your business and each year brings a new set of things to consider. Understanding what’s going on around you allows your business to become more adaptable and resilient.
Here are some areas of focus for your research:
- Industry trends: What’s happening overall in your industry? Is it growing or contracting? What’s the outlook for 2024?
- Customer needs: How are your customers shifting or changing? Is there a growing customer base? What are the demographics of the people you serve?
- Competition: Who else is in the same industry space as you? What are they doing that’s different and unique? What sets you apart?
- Economic outlook: How do economic trends impact your business? What government policies are related to your work?
Know how your business fits into the macro picture so that you can position yourself accordingly.
5. Allocate and Manage Resources
Take some time to evaluate the resources at your disposal. Think about:
- Human resources: Staff, suppliers, contractors, partners, colleagues.
- Finances: Revenue, grants.
- Technology: Hardware and software, online tools (like these essential business management tools).
For each category, what’s working? What isn’t working? You want to go through each area and look at ways to optimize efficiency.
This may include purchasing an online organization tool that helps keep you on track. Or, you may need to hire someone to take over one section of your business.
On the other hand, you might be paying for multiple software subscriptions that you aren’t even using and can cut from the budget. Or, you’ve been meaning to apply for a government grant but haven’t gotten around to doing it yet—2024 is your year.
This section will look different for each business owner, so the key here is to be methodical about evaluating your resources and allocating them in the most efficient way possible.
6. Leverage Your Workspace
When thinking about planning for success in 2024, don’t neglect the influence of your workspace. Where you spend time can positively or negatively impact your business. We see this every day at The Post—working alongside like-minded professionals at a coworking space helps improve productivity and focus while building important connections and community.
Here are some ways coworking spaces can help elevate your business in 2024:
- Networking and collaboration: Both formal events and information connections can be important for sharing ideas and resources and boosting socialization.
- Productive meetings: Bookable meeting rooms are quiet and private spaces that allow teams to gather together, effectively communicate, and meet business goals.
- Positive work environment: Whether you opt for an open coworking space, dedicated desk, or private office, coworking spaces are a positive and enjoyable environment to work in.
- Scalable business solutions: Thanks to flexible contracts, it’s easy to scale up or down in a coworking space based on your business needs.
7. Plan for Change
Business owners know that change is inevitable. Whether it’s fees, policies, consumer preferences, or macro-scale cultural events, there is always something happening beyond your control that impacts your business. And while you cannot predict the future, you can absolutely be prepared to weather a storm.
Here are a few strategies to help:
- Build a buffer in your budget: You should not be operating without any financial margin. Ensure that your financial plans include a buffer for any unexpected circumstances.
- Perform risk management: Spend time thinking about risks that are specific to your industry as well as broader external threats. Determine a plan that both helps mitigate those risks and outlines how you will handle them.
- Train your team: Make sure to include your team in this whole process, training them to handle changes or challenges. Walk everyone through your risk management plan, too.
8. Monitor Progress
There’s an old saying that goes something like, “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” It gets to the idea that monitoring progress is essential to ensure that you are staying on track with your goals.
Use these ideas to help monitor progress:
- Determine and track KPIs: Your small business Key Process Indicators (KPIs) should be aligned with your goals, but have quantifiable figures to them that can be tracked. Set your KPIs and track them over time so you can see progress.
- Leverage technology: There are tools and programs that can help you track KPIs or other important metrics for your business. Make sure you are taking advantage of what’s appropriate to your goals.
- Remember subjective metrics: It’s also important to keep track of metrics like customer satisfaction and brand image. One way of doing this is staying on top of your Google Reviews or other online performance metrics.
Your annual business planning 2024 strategies are important for overall success. Use these eight tips to intentionally organize and plan your year in advance and just see how far you get!
Looking for an optimal meeting or conference space where you can host your annual planning meeting? You’ll find it here. Book a tour of The Post today.