Is there anything more frightening than the unknown?  Walk into a dark room and bump into something big and gooey.  Your reaction is to scream, turn, and run back to a comfortable place.

As much as we all want to believe the economy is improving, it is far from certain.  Planning for the future is impossible when so much is unknown.  The logical response to this economic climate is to stay in comfortable territory and wait for the storm to pass.

But “Wait and See” is not a plan.  Successful people know that the real treasures lie where few are willing to go.  A well developed plan takes advantage of what you do know, minimizes the risk from what you don’t, and leads you successfully into the future.

As the fourth quarter begins, savvy managers accelerate the planning process.  Here are six steps you should follow for a profitable plan.

Step 1: Review

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”  Have you achieved your potential in 2009?  Without a plan, it’s difficult to answer that question.  If you did develop a plan, review the goals you achieved and those you didn’t.  The ones that remain relevant should be extended.  If you didn’t follow a plan, how long do you expect to survive?

Step 2: Revisit your strategy

Strategic plans and visions take a long-term view.  Revisit yours to keep you oriented toward your long-term objectives.  Unless it has been three or more years since you completed a thorough strategic planning process, the only reason to change your strategy is to accommodate a significant change in internal or external circumstances (the economic climate may meet this criteria).

Step 3: Declare your Mission

Your mission tells you how much of your long-term strategy you will accomplish this year.  Be specific.  Think of yourself sitting with a reporter one year from now telling her about the success you’ve achieved during the past year.  What story will she write?

Step 4: Define your critical goal categories

Resources are limited in any sized organization during any business climate.  Even the largest organizations find it difficult to work on too many significant initiatives at a time.  Focus on no more than four major accomplishments for the year.  There is likely more you’d like to achieve, but success requires a focus on just a few critical goal categories.

Step 5: Create S.M.A.R.T. goals

After considering your internal strengths and the external environment, set as many individual goals as needed to improve your ability to serve your customers and grow your business.  Goals are not wishes.  Goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time bound.  Goals should make you stretch, but goals you don’t believe in can be more demoralizing than motivating.

Step 6: Make everyone accountable

Every goal is accompanied by specific action steps.  Employees are happiest when they know exactly what is expected of them.  Be specific and communicate.  Publicly celebrate achievements, and privately hold accountable those employees who are not pulling their weight.  A coach who settles for “close enough” hurts the morale of his entire team.

The importance of business planning is well known.  The value of following a proven planning process guided by experienced advisors is proven by the companies that use them.  Successful managers invest in outside advice because it increases profit.

You may not realize what a failure to plan actually costs.  Now, there is an easy and inexpensive way to find out.  The Annual Business Check-up enabled one client to “find” $1.6 million leaking from cash flow.  Without increasing revenues she had the money she needed to avoid layoffs and salary cuts.  The Annual Business Check-up uses proprietary tools to uncover problem areas and provide a dollars and cents accounting of what those areas are costing.

The Annual Business Check-up is your light in a dark room.  With it, you too will find money that’s been “leaking” from your pocket.  You won’t wander blindly into 2010.  Then follow the six steps to a sound plan and next year will be your best year yet.

© Copyright 2009 Bill Gschwind inPURSUIT Consulting, LLC