When Things Go According to Plan

Once you begin operations according to your business plan, there are two possible outcomes. One is that your projections and assumptions prove to be relatively accurate. In that case, it's likely that your business will be performing as you had hoped. More likely, however, things aren't going exactly as projected. These departures from your plan may be small and not a source of concern, or they may be substantial and require immediate action on your part.

Let's consider the first outcome: you did a good job of planning and, basically, your business is operating the way you'd like to see it. Your performance measurement system is generating data showing that the goals and objectives set forth in your business plan are being met. Congratulations! As many race car drivers say, "I'd rather be lucky than good any day." If you've written a plan and your business developed just as you projected, you're definitely one or the other. So, what do you do about it?

• First, make an effort to extend your planning horizon further out in time. Begin to "firm up" the numbers for periods beyond the initial planning window. Fine tune the plan to get an even better picture of where you're heading. For you, keeping the plan current is easy.
• Second, and more important, begin looking for ways to improve on what you've done so far. You've begun to build a track record of success and you want to keep on building. Your basic business idea was, most likely, sound (never completely discount the luck factor), and you now have an opportunity to expand, refine, and innovate. If you haven't considered the long-term future of your business, start thinking. If you've set aggressive goals (and most business owners do), consider what you'll have if your business stays on track for three years, or five.

But, as we noted, having anything go exactly according to plan is the exception, not the rule. Therefore, you might want to consider what happens when thing don't go according to your plan. Fortunately, a good plan will prepare you to deal with this situation. Hopefully, the contingency plans that you developed while writing your plan dealt with the cause of the deviation. Once again, there are two possibilities:

• things are working out better than you hoped
• things aren't going as well as planned