By David Crary
Note: This is the second in a series of blog posts with tips aimed at helping field service businesses improve during seasonal slow periods.
“He who fails to plan is planning to fail.” Winston Churchill
Yesterday, we talked about how important it is to set goals for your field service business in the offseason. And once you’ve set your goals, you can start creating a plan that will help you achieve those short-term goals, as well as some other big, hairy, audacious, long-term goals.
Your 10-Year Plan
Chess prodigies are known to not just think about the move they’re playing, but also about the possible moves their opponent will make, counter moves to those moves, and so on. By planning so far in advance, they can make a better move in the present.
Your business is no different. A great place to start planning is with a wild, audacious 10-year plan. It may seem like a waste of time to plan 10 years in the future. But it isn’t. Why? Because it works.
In their book Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras found that companies that endured for decades have something in common: They have 10 to 25-year goals. They even have an acronym for them: BHAGs, for Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals. They define them as “a long term vision so daring in its scope as to seem impossible.”
So set your BHAG. Start by thinking about what you want your revenue to be in 10 years. Then think about where you want to take your organization. Do you want a specific market share in your location? Do you want to grow to have multiple locations? Do you want to be a franchisor? Who do you want to serve? Do you have a specific net income target? Do you want to sell for a specific price? Then write down a simple, clear, specific 10-year target you want to accomplish. Think things like $10 million in revenue, 100 franchises, 20 offices throughout your state, 75% market share in your city.
Now you’ve got a great big audacious goal that everyone can get behind.
Your 3-Year Plan
Next, focus on a three-year plan. Dig a little deeper than in your 10-year plan. Ask yourself the following questions:
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How much revenue do I want in three years?
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How much of that revenue do I want to be profit?
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Determine specific measurables you want to achieve. If you’re a commercial landscape management company, maybe it’s the number of crews you have, the number of contracts you have, or the profitability of your contracts. If you are a snow plowing business, perhaps you look at how may customers you have, the number of trucks you have, or the square footage of the lots you plow.
Whatever you decide, after you’ve set your measurables, start brainstorming what you’ll need to accomplish your three-year goal. How many employees? What about your office environment? How many field service software licenses will you need? Will you need to offer additional services to reach your targets? What about training? What kind of operational efficiencies will you need? What about mowers or trucks? Jot down all the things you’ll need to accomplish your goals. You should now have an idea of what your business will need to look like in three years to accomplish your three year goals.
1-Year Plan
Finally, create a 1-year plan. Essentially, follow the same process you followed when creating a three-year plan. Ask yourself what revenue figure you want to attain, how much of that you want to be profit, and then create a couple specific, measurable metrics that you want to achieve.
Follow the old adage “less is more.” Start simple. Don’t overwhelm yourself setting 20 big goals in your one year plan. When everything is important, nothing becomes important. Focus on 5-7 achievable goals (see yesterday’s goal-setting post to learn more about setting SMART goals), and work diligently toward them.
One topic we haven’t addressed in this planning post is your Marketing plan. Stay tuned – tomorrow we’ll go into detail on how to create a marketing plan for your business.