How Should You Prepare Your Business for 2023?
Whether you’re an optimist, pessimist, or anywhere in between, heading into a year like 2023 where the outlook is more cloudy than clear can cause you to lose focus. Keep your wits about you, and just realize that 2023 may require 3 plans (and you may even switch plans at certain points of the year).
Here’s how we’re planning for 2023, and how we recommend you prepare your business for 2023:
Scenario Option Planning
A typical approach to planning when the road ahead looks foggy is a concept called scenario option planning. Here is a great diagram that offers a quick visualization of the idea.
When we use scenario option planning, we define 3 potential scenarios:
- Most Likely
- Outperform Scenario
- Underperform Scenario
As we look at 2023, our “most likely” scenario is based on “everything keeps going the way it is.” We develop plans and budget based on sustained demand from potential customers and growth continuing at its current pace, PLUS whatever additional growth we feel we can capture.
The “outperform” scenario for 2023 is based on the overall economy (and demand for our products and services) increasing as a result. The “underperform” scenario is based on the economy (and demand for our products and services) decreasing as a result.
Answer These Questions
As you prepare your business for 2023, develop your “most likely” plan first. And then ask yourself these questions:
- If business slows down, what would we change in the plan?
- If business picks up more than we expect, what would we change in the plan?
- At what intervals should we stop, evaluate, and potentially change plans?
That way, the other two scenarios in your scenario option planning shouldn’t be too much of a burden to produce. And you can schedule reminders that you want to stop, take yourself out of the trenches, and think about how 2023 is shaping up — as well as what that means for your strategy.
Is it time to stay the course? Is it time to be more aggressive? Or is it time to get defensive?
We’re Here to Help
If you’d like to get a handle on marketing strategy for 2023, we offer free consultation time with our experts. We can discuss scenario option planning, preparing your business for 2023, or whatever is on your mind.
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