The power of an away day
You’ll often hear me saying that one of the biggest challenges for business owners is the distractions that they face day to day. On Sunday night you’ll plan your week ahead and it will be made up of all the right things, everything you know you should be doing to drive the business forward and hit your objectives. Then Monday morning comes and BAM, you’re hit with client project issues, staff problems and a million other things pulling you away from your plan.
This is where getting away from the studio can help - and I’ve seen particular success in agencies running annual planning days. It can even be a full weekend, but the essence is to get yourself and your senior team away from the office to talk big picture - vision and strategy - with specific outcomes to keep you on track for the next 12 months.
The day generally works best being split into those two parts, with vision first on the agenda. It may be that you’re already clear on why you exist, what your purpose is and what difference you’re trying to make in the world. On the other hand it may be something that you’ve not previously considered, but getting really clear on your vision and keeping it fresh in everyones mind is critical to the success of your business. It’s what your employees buy into and get excited about, and it’s the reason your customers buy from you. As Simon Sinek tells us - people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
This part of the day is also a great opportunity to revisit your core values. Your core values underpin the day to day activity of the business and act as your moral barometer. They are the rules that define the culture and personality of the agency. If you’ve got them right, you should be able to refer back to them when making difficult decisions and they’ll point you in the right direction. For that reason they work very well when you’re developing your management team and looking to move some of the responsibility for making decisions away from the owner.
After lunch you can then get into the specifics of the strategy for the next 12 months, starting with where you are now. First up I would cover what exactly your offering is, who you are targeting and how you're going to get their attention - your marketing plan. What is working and what isn't? Then you need a kick ass sales process that's going to convert as high a percentage of qualified leads as possible. It’s rare that I see an agency have a well documented sales process that is followed each time, so here is your time to shine and give your prospects a feel for just how good you'll be through the entire delivery process.
People and delivery are next. This is your chance to plan out who you're going to need and when, whether it be to cover any skill shortages you may have, or to bring in additional resource if that’s what your sales targets demand. Don't forget freelancers here too - they're an integral part of any well rounded strategy. When it comes to delivery (or operations) it’s really important to systemise and process everything. You want to make sure that projects are delivered on time, consistently and with customer experience a focus throughout. There are hundreds of different tools out there for managing time, tasks and projects, just make sure you don’t get tempted to jump between them too frequently.
Finally, my favourite part - the finances. The finances have to underpin everything we have spoken about above. They drive the marketing, the sales, the people and the delivery. What do the numbers need to be at each stage of the plan for it all to be viable? Everything has to fit together ensuring that the end result is a profitable, cash generating business - otherwise what's the point? Set your financial targets at this stage. It's a great idea to involve your accountant in the process, or report back to them straight away so they can build the financial models and make sure everything ties up. I would also agree with your team what the key performance indicators are across all areas of your business. If these are moving in the right direction, you know the business is moving in the right direction.
It's a lot to cover in a single day which is why I see a lot of agencies taking a weekend, but its worth the effort. You come back refreshed and fired up for the challenge ahead, with everyone on the same page and understanding what part they have to play. Most importantly, it gives you clear objectives which you can breakdown into quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily tasks. Having these in place and understanding the importance of them keeps you away from those dreaded day to day distractions.
Once your plan is in place, running an effective monthly board meeting becomes essential in making progress, keeping your senior team in check and giving you the confidence that everything is on track. On the 9th January we’re hosting a free webinar where we’ll be talking through exactly how to do this and we would love to have you along - more information here.