How strategic planning will grow your business in 2023

Do you have a roadmap for 2023 (and beyond)? Does your senior team understand the agency’s goals and their roles in the business? Is there alignment within the staff from top to bottom on the future direction you’ve set for the agency?

Having a plan charts the path forward, provides common purpose and explains roles and expectations. It helps you and your team remain energised, optimistic, and driven to overcome whatever challenges you may encounter on the way to success.

Agency leaders are facing so many tough challenges including managing a remote workforce, recruiting, and retaining top talent, relentless pressure on profit margins and it now being harder to win new business. And there’s also the possibility of a recession.

Team alignment around a plan, maintaining unwavering energy and an everyday positive spirit are key components of a healthy culture that will attract and retain talent. Strategic Planning will help you to achieve each of these things.

Here’s what Strategic Planning will do for your business: 

1. Provide a clear and focused approach for navigating through these difficult times.
2. Identify a path for achieving your longer-term vision of the future.
3. Also provide a path for capitalising on a recession by growing greater market share in the short term.
4. Establish objective metrics for judging your agency’s level of success.
5. Guide your talent and investment decisions.
6. Improve your agency’s performance both short-term and long-term.
7. Serve as a significant competitive advantage for you since many agencies don’t have a formal plan or team alignment.
8. Provide exit paths that allow you to transition on your own terms and to achieve maximum market value.

Getting fully prepared

As part of your planning, you need to be tough, self-critical, and objective as you evaluate how currently prepared your agency and senior team are to meet the headwinds and opportunities ahead.

As you carefully examine your readiness for the rest of 2023, consider this reality check as you proceed through the year:

1. What is the agency’s historical year-over-year net revenue growth rate?
2. How much new business has your agency actually won during the past 2-3 years?
3. Do you have enough senior client leaders and mid-level talent to grow?
4. What is your historical client attrition rate?
5. Are you proactive with new business efforts or simply handling incoming or WOM opportunities?
6. Do you have a plan for driving organic growth with existing clients?
7. Is your senior team adequately networking to build their referral sources?
8. How resistant to recession are your clients and business sectors?
9. How much steady revenue do you now have (and can rely on)?

Fallow Associates are a consultancy firm focused on helping independent agency leaders grow their businesses.

Our team focus their deep experience on implementing proven proprietary methodologies across agency performance, staff development and strategic planning to drive success.

To learn more about us please contact jon@fallowassociates.co.uk or david@fallowassociates.co.uk

We would be delighted to hear from you.