As you begin to build your business, it is necessary for you to outline a strategic revenue plan that will sustain your business growth. Of course, it is impossible to provide an exact sales revenue outcome; however, it is important to ascertain a projected revenue budget that will allow the business to operate.  In this reading we are going to discuss the importance of establishing a Strategic RevenuePlan (SRP).  But before we begin, let us build on this common motto. “I will own my business; my business will not own me!”   This motto is necessary as it will allow you the life rope to stop you from falling into the same bottomless pit that has captured many other business owners. This is the pit that has you working day to day only to keep the business doors opened without providing any financial rewards to your life. 

Okay! So what is this SRP you ask?   Great question.  The SRP provides a financial road map that allows you to continuously think of the necessary cost associated with keeping the business functional, and the money required to support your personal living.    Without this plan, you will operate a wishful thinking business that will not only exhaust you mentally and physically, but will destroy you financially.  Therefore, to avoid this obstacle altogether you will establish a SRP to keep you balanced and focused on the sales numbers you need for operating a successful business.  There are four components of Strategic Revenue Plan.

Component One:

What are the costs associated for business operations?

Know that your business is a living and breathing organism, and like any other living thing there are important elements needed to keep it alive.  Just as you can’t survive without food, water and rest, your business operates from the same model.  To best understand the elements, establish a cash flow statement that reflects a detailed explanation of cash between your business and the outside world.  In this statement you will itemize every cost associated with your business.  You can’t know where you are going unless you know where you are starting from. Think of it as driving a car.  Before you can plan any travelling with your car, whether it is five miles to 100—the first thing you must know is how much gas is in the car, and how much is needed to make it to your destination.  Think of the cash flow statement as the necessary information needed to plan business growth. 

 Component Two:

What is my Operational Financial Number? (OFN)

Here is where most small businesses stumble on the obstacle.  Every business has an Operational Financial Number (OFN).  This is the amount of money required to keep the business breathing.  However, the problem is that it isn’t the number needed for a healthy business, and many small business owners only exist to make the Operational Financial Number.   Think of the OFN as a life support system for a patient in the intensive care unit of a hospital. And just like a life support machine, if the patient doesn’t do anything to develop healthy living that will reflect that he/she can exist without the life support, then eventually a decision will be made to whether the patient will die or survive.  Strengthening your Operational Financial Number should become a daily routine. The stronger it becomes; the better your chances of business survival.

Component Three:

Develop an Intentional Daily Weekly and Monthly Sales Quota

Remember earlier in our conversations, I discussed that no business can grow without having customers to purchase their products or services. Well that concept is more important to knowing why you need to develop sales quotas for your business. Often of times, and this is especially true for the small storefront retailer, a sales quota is non-existent for the small business owner.  It isn’t that they don’t understand the necessity of selling, but there is a mental breakdown from understanding the concept and putting into place business practices that create an environment that produces sells. In most cases, the small business owner use a passive aggressive selling model to generate sells. By this I mean they only establish the selling relationship when it is presented to them. This type of selling mentality slow crawls business growth as it is predicated on the consumer establishing initial contact. The problem with this selling model is that it limits the amount of opportunities needed to establish a sell. The better model is to know how many customers or units needed to be sold daily to: (1) Maintain and grow your OFN. (2) Build a financial win for a Return over Costs (ROC) to operate the business.

Component Four

Get Determined and Push The Sell

Whether you accept it or not, you are in the business of selling. After all, the only reason you decided to become a business owner is because you wanted to make money for yourself, family and/or what other reasons that have you determined to be in business. Therefore, your every thought when working your business should focus on where I will get the sells I need for today, and who am I going to sell. You must have a determined agenda that will not stop you from making your sells quota for that day. Selling is your business mission.  Here is how you set the PROPER environment to reach your selling quota.

P= prepare your day. 

R=report your progress.

O= orchestrate your environment.

P= position your business to win. 

E= engage your customer.  

R= respond to the needs of your customer.

Every successful business needs a strategic revenue plan if it is going to have success.  As a small business owner it is more important for you to understand this concept as you are limited by your resources. Therefore, creating an intentional environment that will help you have success is critical.