So, we’re back in harness after the Christmas spree. In running our businesses, apart from trying to get together the last of any unpaid invoices to close our end of year (and to be able to sleep at night), what quality time did we actually devote to reviewing last year and to properly planning this one?

As one customer said to me, ‘Well, the good thing is that the days are getting longer and… It’ll be February before you know it – and that’s a short month.’ So, it could even be March ‘before we know it’ and 17% of the year gone! So, that’s the new year planning up the spout!

If you don’t have a plan how do you know where you’re going? There isn’t a sat nav for business – yet.

Have you looked at the quick formula for planning? Try SOSTAC by PR Smith* and as recommended by all sorts of clever people.

S stands for Situation Analysis – which means where are we now?

O stands for Objectives – which means where do we want to go?

S stands for Strategy – which summarises how we are going to get there.

T stands for Tactics – which are the details of strategy.

A is for Action or implementation – putting the plan to work.

C is for Control – which means measurement, monitoring, reviewing, updating and modifying.

Add the 3 M’s

Now add in the 3 M’s, the three key resources: Men, Money and Minutes.

Men meaning men and women, expertise and abilities to do different jobs.

Money means budgets – have we the money?

Minutes means time – what are the time scales, schedules or deadlines? Is there enough time?

(Each of the six elements of SOSTAC® is considered in much greater detail elsewhere in PR Smith’s book, Great Answers to Tough Marketing Questions.)

Or, will it be more of ‘same old’? Our core product may have been great last year, but how much did it change over the last 12 months? How many new competitors did we discover last year? With job shortages in both the private and public sectors, there will be many more new companies and aspiring entrepreneurs springing up this year – so we will be even more challenged!

New Year, for me, is a time to reflect on my whole business effort.

Each year I go through a number of steps and ask myself some challenging questions and I’ll happily share those with you. First though, let’s just consider why this perennial introspection and evaluation is vital:

1. ‘The times they are a-changing’ as the song goes: the internet is now king. It is a proven form of information, supply and advice. It can also be the endorsement of my product as a credible alternative and gives me the chance to gather a following or ‘Tribe’. (More about Tribes in a future blog.)
2. The internet is the cheapest way to get to market, quickly. Love it or hate it, social media and effective e-marketing have grown in popularity and the trend is only going to grow. You cannot afford to miss this boat. It really doesn’t take long to hop on it! (More on those subjects later, too.)
3. With points 1 and 2 above, as we’re changing – perhaps by using the internet as our first point of reference, then with online shopping – our customers are changing too. We should never be caught out by our customers knowing more about our product or service than we do ourselves, right? Unless we change faster than they do, we’re always in catch up.

So, I hide away somewhere so that I can put these questions to myself. By the way, if you should see me looking deep and far away, it may well be that I’m going through this process. Or it may mean that I’ve taken a wrong turn at Guildford, so please point me back to the ‘real world’!

Peter Drucker, the marketing sage, taught us a lot about organisational behaviour and ‘management by objectives’. He also said that ‘management is about doing the things right’ but that ‘leadership is about doing the right things’. You may say, ‘but I’m not leading people’. That may be true, but you are leading your product or service and, let’s face it, if you don’t lead it, who will?