b'A New Year, A New PlanWrittenByDanMiller,CEOMulberrysGarmentCare(originallysubmittedto American Drycleaner)THEENDOFTHEusingthestrategicplanthatyoucreatedthe YEARISALWAYSAprevious year (if you have one). Specically, go one DIFFICULTTIMEby one through the goals that you laid out last year F O RU SA Sandcheckothegoalsyouveachievedand B U S I N E S Shighlight the goals that still remain.OWNERS.This enables you to refresh your memory regarding Werefranticallywhat you were hoping to accomplish this year and tryingtomakesureto what extent youve succeeded in reaching those wemeetour2019goals. I also recommend that you begin this year in goals.Inaddition,review process at that start of Q4 because it will theresusuallyagive you time to get laser-focused on completing bunchofyear-endthegoalsfromthepreviousyearthathavegone paperwork and otherunaddressed.youandyourteamhave lingsthatseemtoaccomplished.Butwhenyousitdownandtake gobble up the hours.the time to do a year in review you and your team Finally, the holidays always seem to sneak up onwillrealizehowmuchyouvedoneandbe us and next thing you know the year is over. Its areenergizedaboutcompletingwhateverisleft classiccaseoftheurgentcrowdingouttheundone.important.COLLECTIONOFOPPORTUNITIESFOR With the end of year chaos going on, its very easyIMPROVEMENTtopostpone,delay,oroutrightcancelthemost important thing you can do at the end of the year:Onceyouvecompletedacomprehensivelook strategicplanning.Yet,takingthetimetocraft,back, now its time for you and your team to look executeandcommunicatearobust,coherentforward to the year ahead. At the core of any good strategic plan is arguable the most critical step youstrategic plan is one word: improvement. A year in can take as a business owner to make sure yourwhichwerenotimprovingisnotayearworth teammembersknowwhereyourcompanyhashaving, so the driving theme of your strategic plan been in the last year and where its headed in theshould be one question: how do we improve?year to come.In my experience, the greatest diculty in this part Therearecountlesswaystodevelopastrategicof the process is collecting an authentic list of the plan for the new year and everyone has their owncompanys opportunities for improvement. This is opinion on how it can and should be done. At mythe case for a number of reasons: Employees may company we have a process that weve used fornotwanttobeseenascriticizingtheircurrent overadecadethatworkswellforus,butatthecolleagues or management. They may fear change. endofthedayIwouldencourageyoutondThey may have never been taught how to identify whateverapproachworksbestforyouandyourand solve problems. They may be just shy.team. My preferred strategic planning approach is built on four core tenets:TocounteractthesechallengesIrecommend YEAR IN REVIEW formallysolicitingopportunitiesforimprovement fromyoursta,butinatotallyanonymousway. BeforeyoucanevenbegintothinkaboutwhereThiscanbeassimpleashandingoutnotecards you want your company to go, you must rst forceandcollectingtheminaboxorsendingouta you and your team to take a hard look at whereGoogle forms or Survey Monkey survey.youve been. To guide this approach I recommend Midwest Drycleaning & Laundry Institutewww.MWDLI.org / 765-969-5745 12\x00'