As the leaves turn and the seasons change, pumpkin spice starts peppering desks, and the accounting staff start prepping for end of year, another project hits my desk.

Every October through November I take the time to revise our yearly strategic plans for the following year. This year’s looks considerably different from last, given the pivots that took place in March, but many things remain the same. What is a strategic plan, you ask? It’s very similar to a business plan, but generally is used for an ongoing concern that is not starting up (an established business). You can use a business plan and tweak it yearly, which is what I do. I use my original SCORE plan that my counselor helped me build way back when. You can find free templates here.

Focus on our team education.

Prep seasonal budgets based on the previous year and expected trends.

Run estimated vs. actual reports to see how far off the mark we were last year (hint - we far exceeded 1st quarter expectations, 2nd and 3rd quarter were dead, and things are currently roaring back with a vengeance).

Test, and plan. Execute. Do it all again next October. Routine, routine, routine.

We have a few rules we go by. First, I don’t change software that often. The 00’s through the mid 10’s saw companies switching software like they did coffee filters, and it was difficult to manage. Humans are not light switches. You can’t force software changes and hope everyone jumps on board. There is a considerable learning curve to every change a company makes. We try to keep our software consistent, and tweak any troublesome programs once a year in baby steps, so everyone has a good period of time to evaluate the water and jump in when they are ready.

This year we incorporated a Sharepoint intranet. It’s easy to do in Microsoft Teams, and just as easy in Google Apps. In Google Apps you would use Google Sites.

In our intranet we included things like:

• Company Directory and Birthday Calendar

• Company Handbook

• Device Policies

• Payroll Documents

• Contractor Forms

• Important Dates and Meetings, like our Final Friday Lunch & Learns, as well as our monthly Company Update, as well as our training window and plans (April - August each year)

• Holiday Calendar

• Sick/Vacation Request Form

What you would choose is totally up to you. I tried to limit content to the critical items that are needed from an HR perspective for our small business. Many of these documents help our team move forward confidently and cut down questions. As a professional services organization it is important for us to keep the admin to a minimum, and to help everyone be productive. It also offers a place where our team knows they are valued, and can access information to help them as they do their daily work.

As I work through this activity, I incorporate some of my research into our software. What applications are simple to use? What have we had issues with this year, or complaints? For next year we’ve only changed one thing. Out with PandaDoc, in with Adobe DC Pro. PandaDoc is a great product, but Adobe integrates better with Microsoft, so we made the decision to switch. We’ve given ourselves three months for a total switch, so we can archive documentation and set up templates. Methodical could be my middle name if it wasn’t already Hamilton, and we use the same step by step processes we use for our clients, by building a decision chart and cost of ownership analysis, evaluating ease of use and functionality, and then making a decision. Bonus! We saved $600 in yearly costs, and gained a lot of Adobe functionality that we will love having use of. Once we have it functional, we will use tools like Zapier, and perhaps some custom API integrations to automate our refreshed suite of applications.

While I work on software costs, I take the opportunity to review our expenses for any “zombie” expenses. Typically, these are recurring expenses that I’ve just not stopped to cancel, which slowly eats away at margin. They are small enough to not bother you too much, but really need to get cancelled. Every little bit helps.

I check our cash rewards category. Make sure cash reserves are in the right types of accounts to make use of strong interest (which doesn’t really exist right now). Review our insurance policies. Take this review and build it into our budget for next year. Don’t forget to check for seasonality! Every business is different, but for ours we have strong growth in fall and spring, and a quiet summer. We use this to plan ahead. Additionally, this is all stuff that no amount of “botkeeper” or “robo-accountant” can do, which has a lot to do with why I despise those sorts of services. Automation is great, but advisory is critical.

Our strategic planning process is like writing a novel, albeit one that goes around the world and back again, hopefully ending with a nice little bow and a north star to carry us through the following year.

Writing this post makes me wonder if I should share some of my processes in a downloadable template. Hmmm. Anyone need one? Or, if you’d like to work one on one to go through this process with me, just email me.