Business Planning in Times of Crisis

It was quite a week last week, agreed. Actually, it's been about eight years of this sludge, but that's another story, another post, a different blog. The question here for today is what happens to business planning -- and specifically, your business planning, for your company -- when things seem to be falling apart.

1. Don't panic: review and revise. Of course you didn't expect the sudden change of events, but now you use your planning process to get back to what you thought would happen, recognize the changing assumptions, and recover your sense of cause and effect, rework your plan now under this new scenario. Have your long-term goals changed? Does your strategy have to change (some businesses do, some don't, and you should know which you are and why)?
   
2. Review your strategy: keep in mind that in hard times it's generally easier to focus in on doing more to keep existing customers than going out finding new customers. Not always, but generally. Focus more narrowly if you can, sometimes that helps.
   
3. Review your numbers: start with your sales forecast, then review direct costs, then budgeted expenses. 

Was your business plan wrong? Don't worry, they all are. The value of planning isn't getting the future right, it's reviewing and revising and managing the future as it becomes the present, keeping track of the long-term without losing the short term.