As one calendar year is coming to an end, many businesses turn their attention toward planning for the next one. Whether it’s about consolidation and aiming for more stability after the current year, growth and expansion, or you’re simply not sure yet where your focus should be next year, it can be highly beneficial to take some time to plan ahead.
We’ve compiled some tips for UK businesses on how to best plan for the next year.
Review past performance
To help ensure that you make sound decisions about the future, it’s essential to use real data to inform your choices. Analysing previous budgets, expenditure and revenue can help to highlight areas of the business that worked well, what might need improvement and also identify trends or seasonal influences that affected your bottom line and might do so again.
An experienced accountant can help you to make sense of your financial data, providing you with valuable insights on your business that can help you more effectively plan for the future.
Set clear financial objectives for the year ahead
Setting goals is one thing, but unless those goals are easily tracked, measured and make a tangible difference to your business, they can result in confusion, wasted focus and missed opportunities. Setting clear and realistic objectives, coupled with a plan for how to achieve them, helps to ensure you stay on track with financial goals that really matter to your business success.
Review your tech, tools and processes
Many businesses can find themselves sticking to existing processes, platforms, software and other technology out of habit, but the reality for some is that there may be better solutions available which can help them make big savings, whether in time, other efficiencies or direct costs. Now is an ideal time to take a look at what else is out there, get recommendations from other businesses and professionals you trust and see if switching things up is right for your business.
We can offer specialist advice on many different financial tools and platforms if you’d like the benefit of our experience.
Put contingencies in place
There are always uncertainties when it comes to business, but having contingency plans in place can help to mitigate most unexpected financial storms. Having a financial cushion, along with a plan of action if your market sees significant changes, can make all the difference to your reliance as a business in the face of any challenges you’ll face in the year ahead.
Evolve your plans as needed
Having a strong and data-led plan is essential for the reasons already mentioned, but don’t be afraid to regularly check and evaluate how things are going. Things do change; a year can be a very long time in the world of small business. Tweaking your plans as you go doesn’t mean that it wasn’t right originally, it just means that you’re reacting to performance, market forces and any other influences that might mean that change is necessary. Getting expert advice as you’re making financial plans for your business can make all the difference to successfully achieving your objectives.
Our team will be happy to help you evaluate past financial performance, provide insights to help with future planning and can answer any questions you might have about the best way forward for your organisation. Get in touch with us to find out more.