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You have survived the last few months, but you are in a different position now and it is not business as usual. So where do you go from here? How do you begin to move your business forward and get back to where you wanted it to be when you started out?  

To refocus your efforts, here are 3 crucial questions to help you plan. 

Ask yourself –

1. What is the purpose of my company, why does it exist?

Understanding why your company does what it does and diving to the heart of its existence, will help you form a clearly defined mission statement. This will ensure you and your target audience clearly understand what you do and why. 

2. What are my goals and aspirations for the business?

When you understand what you are looking to achieve over a longer timeframe, it depicts a vision of what the company will look like in the future. Creating a vision statement helps focus you towards longer-term goals and ambitions.  

3. How do I achieve this?

This is the important part, where you start to develop and build your plan.   

What type of business plan should you build?

This depends on what you want to achieve and where you are now. Below are various types of plans. Which best fits your current situation? 

• You’ve survived the pandemic quite well and want to build on this – make a growth strategy plan. 
• You are still in business, but it’s been a tough few months – make a contingency plan.  
• You are in much the same position as before, but it was a shock how the pandemic hit you –  make an exit strategy to handle unforeseen circumstances.  

The past few months have created an unprecedented situation for everyone. However, there are opportunities and advantages to be gained but it should all be undertaken with a clear view of where you are and how to proceed forward.  

It is not all bad news and the future can still look bright. The upturn could be quick. Some positive news for the North East Region recently published by the Department for International Trade outlined –  

The North East has outperformed every other English region outside London on the number of new jobs created from foreign direct investment in 2019/20, relative to its population. 

The latest figures from The Department for International Trade (DIT) show that in 2019/20 the North East created 179 jobs for every 100,000 people (working age population), placing it behind only London as the best performing area of the country. The sectors that saw the biggest job increases in the region were business services, digital, offshore wind and advanced manufacturing. 

Where do you go from here?

Start to write things down and have discussions around the possibilities of what can reasonably be achieved for your business plan considering: cash flow, order pipeline, prospects, current turnover and secured income, commitments and liabilities.  

Can changes be made and has the lockdown helped to gauge the workability of these.  More remote working, less office space, hiring opportunities, outsourcing?   

All these aspects can be discussed with your CMC Business Adviser who can give an independent overview of the situation and help provide insight and reassurance for the short to medium term outlook. Putting something in place now is essential as the next few months will be a very important time. Take control of your business and know what can be done to support it going forward.