The last 12 months have been a rollercoaster for businesses in the UK and around the world. Brexit, Covid-19, the recession, have all curbed many of the plans you may have had for 2020, for your business and in your personal life. It may seem like a futile endeavour to make plans for 2021, but we would argue that it is one of the most important times to devise a strategy for the coming year, whatever life will throw at us.
1. Plan what you want to achieve
Start by thinking about what services you are offering, what your geographical footprint looks like, or what marketing you want to embark upon. Come up with bullet points for each business area.
2. Bring in your best people
Make sure you include important personnel in the brainstorming. Heads of department, HR, Finance or Accounts, and key managers will all have important points of view that will impact on your strategy.
3. Be cautiously optimistic
Financial forecasters are showing some growth, albeit modest growth, for 2021. Your strategies should be equally as conservative. Your plan should reflect positive expectations for the coming year but don’t expect things to return to “normal” or “pre-Covid” times.
4. Strategy – point by point
Break your plan down into milestones like time periods or department goals. Determine what needs to be completed by each quarter, month or even week. Then segment it by department. Don’t forget to make contingency plans for each of these milestones in case we have another resurgence of Covid or further economic downturn.
However you decide to plan, take your people into account. Make communication of strategy clear to avoid confusion. If you have to furlough staff, talk to them about what this means. If you have to make redundancies, consult first, even if you don’t have to.
Start 2021 with a positive outlook, clear plans, and happy people, and your business will weather the whatever storm may come.
Need help with strategy planning for next year? Get in touch! Drop us an email hello@hrrevolution.co.uk or call 0203 538 5311.
