Back to the Future

We plan to present a series of business training seminars in late October and early November in partnership with the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce and TD Bank. I was given the task to come up with four business development topics, so we had a discussion at a recent staff meeting.

We narrowed down our four topics down to:

* Writing an Effective Business Plan
* Financial Finesse
* Shout it Out Marketing
* Increasing Your Bottom Line

In our discussion, we talked about the need to focus on the basics of operating a sound business. There are certain fundamentals that can be applied to any business, at any point in time. We were all in agreement that all business owners should be able to benefit from attending this series, whether they are just starting out or have been in business for years. We believe these topics can be applied to any business, at an point in their life cycle.

I thought that coming up with a title was going to be a challenge. I explained that we want to be all inclusive, yet we want to show that this isn't just a "business basics" class. This series is geared towards those business owners who want to strive to be the best in their respective industries. Our goal is to have our attendees be the business leaders of tomorrow. Those who seize the opportunities of today and excel in making their businesses a little better each day.

One of our staff members, Andy Allison, suggested "Back to the Future." It is a very catchy title made popular by Universal Pictures movie series starring Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd. Yet to me, this title succinctly captures what our series is really all about.

Sometimes in business we need to go back to the drawing board and look at what our goals are for the future. Time and time again I work with business owners who get so wrapped up dealing with the operational challenges of today that they lose focus of what they set out to achieve in their original business plans.

Business planning is not a one time exercise; it is a process that should continue into the future. If things are going as planned, it does no benefit to complain about what is wrong. Find new opportunities and set a course for your business to thrive. Establish specific goals and revisit your planning process on a regular basis to see if you are meeting the benchmarks you have set for your business.

Yet no planning process would be effective without looking at past trends. Yes, there are new opportunities for tomorrow, but past behavior tends to be a good predictor of future operations. There is a popular saying that the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing and expecting different results." Part of the planning process is to look at past trends, both in business financial performance and consumer spending habits to recognize the best opportunities to develop a more profitable future.

There also needs to be a self assessment that certain things in a business are not working as planned. Sometime your operations, pricing strategies and marketing need to change. Maybe you made an investment in inventory or plant equipment that is not generating the return on investment that was expected.

Of course, developing a more profitable future is not a passive exercise. You have to actively let your customers know about your business and it is within your realm of responsibility to develop a profitable business model for your operations. If something is not working as planned, create a new plan and actively work towards making things better.

Whether or not you plan to attend our training series, consider taking your business "Back to the Future." There are always opportunities to thrive in any economy. It just takes a good plan that recognizes the story of your past and focused vision for what you expect to see in the future.