Be Honest: Do You Do Your Plan vs. Actual?

This morning I'm about to go into my company's monthly plan vs. actual business planning meeting, which happens on the second Thursday of every month. It takesus about 90 minutes normally, and we do it every month without fail. It's important. We've been doing it since we started growing in 1995. Who knows, it might be our secret to success -- if you call 45 employees and multimillion dollar sales with no outside investment, and no debt, success.

Be honest: do you review your plan vs. actual results every month? If you don't, then why not? Don't you want to manage your company better?

A plan alone, without regular review, doesn't mean that much. You have to keep it fresh, alive, and relevant. And that takes the planning process.

Then again, you can't do plan vs. actual review without a plan. It doesn't have to be a big formal document. Do just enough to guide your own team, and your own business, Strategy, metrics, milestones, projections ... tasks and responsibilities.