Adopt good business planning process. The first lean business plan is just the first step. For the rest of your business’ life, you review the plan once a month. Compare actual results to what you had planned, determine what steps to take to optimize, and revise the plan.

You’ll find that this kind of business planning helps the business in many ways:

• Maintain focus
• Align the team with priorities
• Address changes in the marketplace as they happen
• Tune strategy and tactics to what’s working and what’s not working

“The plan is useless. But planning is essential.” — Dwight Eisenhower

Tweet

The Lean Plan is Just the First Step

As in previous sections here, the lean business plan is just the first step. It includes simple bullet point lists for setting strategy and tactics. Plus essential business numbers and concrete specifics for execution.

That, however, is just the first step. From there you have to track results carefully and use a regular review schedule to review actual results, compare them to the plan, look at assumptions, and revise as needed.

For more on the business planning process, click here for Planning as Management.

Monthly Business Plan Review Session

Schedule the monthly review session in advance, and stick to it. Even if its just you alone, remind yourself to set aside the time. And in the normal setting, with a team, you can schedule those meetings in advance and stick to that schedule.

For each meeting, you first review plan vs. actual results. The look at assumptions, milestones, and metrics. For more about this meeting, click here for tips and suggestions.