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RaceFit Focus: Business Planning

RaceFit™

Welcome to our RaceFit™ Focus series, a programme of content exploring the seven key building blocks that underpin a successful brand. The Red Tree’s innovative RaceFit™ programme launched earlier this year to help brands evaluate their fitness level. Easily completed in 25 minutes via an online platform, in an industry first, feedback is instant via a detailed, bespoke report full of expert advice, precisely engineered to get a brand RaceFit™

This month we are exploring ‘Business Planning’. In this article, Business Ambitions Managing Director, Selwyn Pattinson, focuses on the importance of business planning, a critical activity for beauty brands that are looking to succeed. Business Ambitions support business owners to help them succeed through a programme of regular mentoring and have been delighted to work with The Red Tree for a number of years.

3 reasons to pay attention to business planning

A search on Google using the phrase ‘Business Planning’ reveals nearly 58 million entries. No-one could be in any doubt about the importance – or short of advice!

And yet, most business plans are either dated ‘dusty’ documents – or sketchy ‘back of a fag packet’ outlines.

What’s yours like?

Do you even have one?

Ah yes, I hear you say, we used to have a plan, but to be honest, things never go according to plan so it’s all a bit of a waste of time and energy.

Well here’s 3 reasons I think you should have a plan.

‘Take that hill’

Your team are looking to you for leadership – and that means being crystal clear on the goals for the business, both in the longer term (say 5 years) and in the next 12 months.

By all means involve them in the ‘how to’, but I suggest that you don’t want a debate about whether you should do x or y to defeat your opposition – the other brands that occupy your space.

If you like to think of yourself as a people person, you owe it to them to have clear goals!

 ‘We’re all going on a Summer holiday’

You wouldn’t dream of going on holiday without a plan.

There’s probably 3 main vacation periods, 196 countries, 5 possible modes of transport and 10 possible accommodation types – so that’s 29,400 possible combinations!

How many different combinations for your business?

Consider the possible destinations, the routes to market, the pricing strategies, the branding options, the purchasing options… the list goes on.

That’s a lot of options, and picking the best one takes a lot of thought – and a lot of research, advice and consideration. The beauty industry is highly competitive and every category is saturated, so getting it right is critical.

If you want to be a successful business person, you need to stop ‘doing’ and start making critical business decisions on the best options.

 ‘…and the score is…’

Anyone who has ever been on a diet, exercised or given up smoking knows the importance of having clear goals – and keeping track of performance!

They know where they want to get to – and they reward themselves for the ‘wins’ along the way, the new PB’s and the improvements.

If you want to maintain team motivation it’s vital that you have a system to monitor performance – but to do that, you need to be clear on both the destination and the ‘stepping stones’.

Know where you’re going, have a plan on how you’re going to get there and set up a system to keep track of how you’re doing. You’ll be amazed where you can get to with a plan!

The Red Tree is the UK’s leading international beauty brand consultancy and a powerhouse of ideas, insight and inspiration. For an informal discussion on how we might help you, please contact us.

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