What is Your "Plan of Attack"?

I love the summer. Who doesn’t?  It is a great time to be with your family and friends and to be outside if it is not 100 degrees and humid, like it has been in the Philadelphia area recently!  It is also a good time to reflect on how the year has been going with your debt collection agency, and to figure out your “plan of attack” for the remainder of the year and 2011.

When I write a FOS — which stands for financial, operational and sales “plan of attack” — I think of addressing the following questions:

1.    Financial – Your budget – how are you performing actual vs. budget through July?  Were the assumptions that you made entering 2010 accurate?  Is your liquidation performance as expected or has it fluctuated.  Why? Are you meeting the financial goals that you and your team set out back in January?  If you are off the mark, question why and address with your team. Consider addressing financial performance more consistently throughout the year.  Try quarterly.

2.    Operational – What has and hasn’t worked? Are you being as efficient as possible? Where can you cut overhead and where should you spend?  Did you obtain SAS70 or PCI? How have you addressed increases in placement volumes for certain clients vs. staffing requirements?  Do you need to sub-lease space in a certain facility because of a first-party project you lost?

3.    Sales – Who is really pulling their weight or who is not? Are you tracking their productivity appropriately? Are the conferences that you’re attending really supporting your sales efforts?  Are your sales people focused on revenue growth at the expense of profitability?

As we sit with eight days left in August, I suggest thinking about these questions, discussing them with your team, and how to adjust your “plan of attack” to position your agency for 2011.   Here are 4 quick tips to make this an easier process:

1.    Use the next eight days to your advantage to develop, reevaluate or reignite the action plan. Things tend to be slower in August.  Many of your staff may be on vacation. You may even be on vacation, but if you are like most owners, your business is still top of mind while you’re away.  Don’t be afraid to change your plan mid-stream. It is okay — no one is perfect!

2.    Be sure to set monthly financial, operational and sales goals with your team from September forward.  For example, getting SAS70 completed by year-end and then back into the steps required to make that happen. If you need to acquire additional facility capacity, who is going to be responsible for making that happen and over what period of time.

3.    Get a whiteboard if you don’t already have one so that you can see every day what your company and individual goals and objectives are.

4.    My biggest tip of all: nothing, I mean nothing, in this world is ever accomplished well without “passion”. If you are not passionate about what you’re doing, then don’t do it….develop a plan that will ignite and motivate you and your team!

What are you doing to gear up for September? What does your “Plan of Attack” look like?

Comments/questions are always welcome. Please email/call me.

Michael D. Lamm advises owners on their growth and exit strategies for Kaulkin Ginsberg’s Strategic Advisory team. Michael can be reached directly at 240-499-3808 or by email. You can also read his blogs, follow him on Twitter, or network with Michael from his social media page on insideARM.com.