Chapter 1 Destination – choose your own way
This is part of the ‘How to’ coaching series. An ongoing series of activities to make your business successful. Follow it step by step and see positive results as you develop a robust business model set on a solid foundation.
4 – The business plan has milestones I plan to achieve
As with any plan, it’s all too easy to lose track of where you are with progress.
If you add milestones to your plan, you increase the likelihood of achieving your goals within the timeframe you set.
A milestone is a specific point in time within a plan, used to measure the progress of a tangible piece of work toward its ultimate goal. … Milestones have a fixed date but no duration. Time is a key part of hitting a milestone. Milestones need to be realistic dates/times for the amount of work.
Measuring against a milestone, you can see if you are on track. It will prompt you to review progress and, if you are behind (or ahead) you can then assess the current resources. Do you need to add/reduce resources for this task; or reschedule the completion date of the task. By continuing to review progress against the milestone plan, you can adjust your plans to be realistic.
Milestone dates are critical targets to the overall success of the plan.
The ‘How to’ bit
Break down the goals, from any level of business plan, into realistic, manageable segments. Insert milestones along the timeline on the plan that will give a useful indication of progress.
When milestones are successfully reached, remember to recognise the achievement. A heartfelt ‘well done’ is a great motivator.
If not on track, readjust the effort and/or timescale to reflect reality. The easy part of this exercise is inserting milestones into your plans – the hard part can be getting them right and sticking to them.
…If you would like help with defining the milestones in your plans, follow this link and Contact Us…
