Opinion Make a Plan and Know Your Customer C


hapter 2 of my book, How to Salvage Millions from Your Small Business, discusses making a plan and understanding your customer. It’s funny how we wave our arms in the air (figuratively speaking) and talk about what we are going to do, but never get around to putting the plan on paper. Equally humorous is how later we have selective memory and justify our lack of success by remembering only what we want to recall from that plan. There is no substitute for putting the entire plan on paper for these reasons: • With the plan on paper, you can show it to key employees for comments and ulti- mately use it to get their buy-in. • You can show the plan to your banker and gain great respect. You may want to “dial it back” for the bank so that you can always exceed the banker’s expectations. • In the process of putting it on paper, you will find many assumptions you thought you understood but which don’t play out as anticipated.


To thrive, and achieve significant success, you simply must decide who your core customer is and act accordingly.


gathering all the operating information and metrics necessary to make fully informed projections.


Setting goals on paper will also allow you to set milestones. In other words, if you are now at $100,000/month in sales, and you are predicting that you will be at $135,000/ month in 12 months, it’s easy to see that you need to have one or more milestones along the way.


• Putting it on paper will force you to go back and look at prior periods to “test” your assumptions. You will learn a lot from this exercise. • You will probably realize, as a result of putting it on paper, that you haven’t been


Helpful Starter Questions Here are the essential questions you should ask of everyone in your company:


1. What business are we in? 2. What is the vision and mission of the company? 3. Who is our customer? 4. What does our customer value? 5. What is our target market? 6. What products and services do we provide? 7. What is our sales and marketing strategy? 8. Who is our competition? 9. Who do we have? Who do we need? How do we find more of the right people? 10. How will we on-board, train and develop new people? 11. Do we have the physical plant and equipment we will need? 12. Do we have the capital we need? Will we generate the profits we need? 13. How will we measure our success? 14. What is our exit strategy? 15. What are our short and long-term goals?


– www.strategictalentmgmt.com Automotive Recycling


Although you may not have achieved 50% of the forecast increase in six months, it’s reasonable to assume that you will have achieved, say, 40% of the goal. If at that point you haven’t achieved the milestone, you need to figure out how to get back on track. Don’t wait until year-end to adjust. When I do consulting, I frequently find the lack of operating metrics and no written plan to execute against. Know your customer. Meet with your staff, and decide who your core customer is. Following that, in every planning meeting, make sure you are matching your product, warranty and service level to that customer. Recyclers, I believe, have tried to be too much for too many for too long. Many of us believe anyone driving a vehicle (regard- less of age, whether it’s import or domestic, customer’s location, wholesale or retail pur- chaser, or type of part needed) is our poten- tial customer. To thrive, and achieve signif- icant success, you simply must decide who your core customer is and act accordingly. Remember, only you can make business


great!


Ron Sturgeon, speaker and author, regularly shares his expertise in strategic planning, capitalization, growing market share, and more,


providing his field-proven and high-profit best practices. Reach him at 817-834-3625, ext. 232 or email RonS@MrMissionPossible.com.


May-June 2021 // 37


By Ron Sturgeon


iStockphoto.com/smshoot


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64