OCTOBER 2020 ANSWER TO THE QUESTION OF THE MONTH: What’s the #1 thing you’ll focus on in your planning for 2021?

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What’s the #1 thing you’ll focus on in your planning for 2021?

  1. Succession planning. We also need to figure out how to make our business more valuable.
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  2.  Examine the different kinds of memberships and season passes to see if we need to raise prices. We will also look at family memberships; they are increasing.
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  3.  Sales!
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  4. We’re going to pay more attention and dedicate more resources to our website. Sales have increased with COVID. We need to take advantage of that by getting more product on the website.
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  5. I am determining what I should and shouldn’t be spending my time on. I’m working with a consultant who suggested I write my job description for three years from now. It helped me focus on my priorities.
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  6.  We need to build sales in sheet metal and controls. We will be focusing attention on identifying customers and finding work that will fit our business.
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  7.  Cash! We’re in a growth mode: we expanded our facility last year and invested in new technology.  We’re continuing to grow and will need more capacity. Cash is at the top of our list.
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  8.  Getting people into the right seats. We have a new management team and we’re dealing with people who are accustomed to doing things the old way. We’ve been having serious conversations about the opportunities available to us if we have people who share our values and enthusiasm.
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  9.  If I had to boil it down to one thing, it would be to increase the value of my company: pay off debt, increase EBIDTA and remove any company-specific risks.
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  10.  Building brand recognition and closing sales. We’re new in this market; for the past last 18 months we’ve been trying to get people to recognize us. We’re focused on getting people to know who we are and what we do. 2021 will be spent growing sales.
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  11. I need to get a handle on the financial management strategies which is a new area for me. I’m trying to develop tools for myself and figure out how money is spent. I’m working on a budget planning process involving people in different components of the budget.
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  12.  We need to improve communication and efficiency. We must be sure we have the right people in the right seats. We have a lot of redundancy that needs to be eliminated.
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  13. Customer care. This is a busy year, and I am taking on a lot more. I want to focus on meeting the needs of current customers and keeping them happy. Growth will come from that.
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  14. Learn more about technology and what it can do for me and my company. It’s here to stay and I’d like to get better at it.
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  15.  I have been working on a lot of initiatives to increase efficiency and move the business forward. I want to get the right people in the right seats. I’ve been learning a lot through the process of buying the business and I want to keep learning. On the personal side, I’m going to focus on self-care and having fun.
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  16. Becoming more efficient at developing processes and patterns for getting things accomplished.
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  17. Sales! I want to develop a plan to attract more business and find new customers.
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  18.  My focus will be on increasing “touch”: follow-up with all the people I’ve connected with during this time of COVID. I want to offer support and assistance as quickly and effectively as possible.
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  19.  Having a strategic plan is so important. It helps you think about the “what if’s” when things go great and when things go bad.

    You look forward to where you want to be, and you look backward to see where you’ve been.

    The road is easier together,

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