Moving Words – Business Plan
Timothy Brady
“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” – Alan Lakein, author
When was the last time you read over the business plan you worked so diligently to research and write when you first were thinking of going into the moving business?
Business plans are not just for people wanting to start a business. They need to be an important part of your growing and developing business. The business plan review is something every moving company management should go over in detail twice a year, or any time you’re considering taking your business in a different direction, expanding or growing.
The most important fact to remember is that a business plan is not written in stone. It needs to be a living, breathing document that moves with the flow of the economy and the segment of the moving industry for which you haul.
A business plan review is simple; its purpose to find out whether you’re achieving your business objectives. Let’s look at the steps.
- The first step in your review is to determine where you are currently and where you expected to be at this time in your venture.
- Are you meeting or exceeding your revenue projections? If not, what is the cause, and, is there a solution to bring you up to speed? Or, were your expectations too high and need to be adjusted a bit lower? If you’re meeting or exceeding your revenue expectations, then should you expand your future projections, or did an unexpected bonanza pop up that’s not likely to occur in the future?
- What other targets are in your plan? Number of trucks and drivers? More customers? Expanding into new lanes or sectors? Are you meeting those targets or do you need to rethink your strategy to obtain them?
- What does the future hold? How does the economy look for the area in which you operate? What’s on the horizon for the types of products you haul? What about specific customers? Is the economy growing, shrinking, or staying the same for all those areas? (Remember the national economy can be good or bad overall, but it’s the economy of the area, products and customers you operate within that is of greatest concern in your evaluation.)
- What has changed in your life that would affect your focus or goals concerning your trucking company? Personal life has a habit of inflicting different challenges on your business and vice versa. Part of owning a business means making adjustments that make your personal life and business run more smoothly. Without this review, you can get into a rut and not even be aware of it until it rears its ugly head as a major problem.
- What are your contingency plans for everything: a natural disaster, a major traffic accident involving one of your trucks, a sudden change in either your business or personal life which would require you sell or liquidate? It’s very important to have a defined plan to handle these events and an exit plan if it ever becomes necessary.
The moving industry and life itself comes at you at 65mph or faster. To stay on track, stop every so often and look and see where you are and in what direction(s) you’re headed.
“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” Pablo Picasso
