When Things Go Better Than Planned

If the projections contained in your business plan were a little understated or pessimistic, you might find yourself in the enviable position of exceeding your planned goals and objectives. Perhaps you'll achieve profitability months sooner than you expected, or maybe revenues are exceeding expectations. Fortunately, if you've prepared your plan according to our suggestions, you already have a document that will help you determine why you're enjoying greater than anticipated success. When you developed your action plans, you engaged in some contingency planning to prepare yourself to react quickly and appropriately if something didn't go as you hoped. Those contingency plans identify the factors that are likely to be causing the deviation.

So, it's a great feeling to succeed better than you had even planned, but success beyond what you reasonably anticipated means two additional jobs for you. First, you need to examine your original assumptions and projections and find out why you're doing better than expected. Second, you need to assess the impact this unexpected success has had on your business. To do this, consider these issues.

• Operational impact. Can you meet the unexpected demand and maintain service levels? Can your vendors and everyone "upstream" of your business handle the added demand that additional business means? Just as important, can your business handle the burden? Will you need more production capability, more help, or a larger establishment?
• Marketing plan changes. Does the better-than-expected business require you to adjust your marketing plan by changing your price structure, your promotional or advertising plans, or sales force? Or does the good business permit you to revisit those factors and optimize them for the unexpected business results?
• New opportunities. Are there new opportunities open to you that weren't available before? If sales are better than expected, can you be more aggressive in setting your goals? Can you expand into new markets quicker than planned or otherwise accelerate your plans? If you're in manufacturing, does the increased business justify equipment acquisitions that weren't worth while at lower sales volumes?