Let begin to plan for 2019
The annual strategic planning process begins in August and September. During this time we are starting to have a good idea of how the year will end if all of our proactive indicators and KPIs are in place.
It is time to evaluate how well we did last year in planning this year. Are we on target?
General environmental assumptions are our assumptions of things that will occur in our market that we have no control over. Interest rates, war, oil and commodity pricing are a few examples.
What were our assumptions for this year?
Were our general environmental assumptions on target? What did we miss? Is there something that we could have done better? Make the corrections.
What are the general environmental issues that are important this year and what assumptions are we going to plan against for next year. How far out will our assumptions be valid.
Find as many other external documents giving assumptions as possible to test our thinking. This will take a couple of months to finalize.
I find that some of the larger banks have good documents to use in the planning for smaller companies. Wells Fargo had an economist that I found to be very good. They have several economist on staff now and you can find their forecast online.
Begin the list of your assumptions for next year. Short measurable list…
Send me a copy of your assumptions.
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