By Luke Townsend, BizSmart Birmingham and Solihull
Instrumental to every successful business is the implementation of a business rhythm.
Essential for reflecting and analysing performance, a business rhythm is a great tool to help achieve scaleup. However, many business owners are guilty of getting caught up in the day-to-day running of their business and can find creating time in their busy schedule to plan and reflect, extremely challenging.
All business owners need to prioritise a business rhythm to help to manage the energy of their business and identify areas of focus and those that need improvement. Consistency is key and implementing a sustainable rhythm can help business owners maintain and excel in their performance, while effectively achieving their business goals.
The right business rhythm for scale-up
The business rhythm is one of the key fundamentals to running an efficient business.
An effective business rhythm consists of a set of structured meetings about the business, not about an individual or team. The meetings are designed to align all parties to understand the needs of the business and provide a collective vision which helps to ensure that the business is on track to achieving its goals.
All businesses work to their own unique rhythm and an annual review is often regarded as the preferred time frame. However, ensuring consistency and adjusting regularly is the best way to reach success.
By creating a 90-day plan that reflects quarterly rather than annual objectives, businesses can maintain consistency and harness the power of having everyone aligned around the same priorities, which is an essential tool for achieving scale up.
The premise of a 90-day plan
All businesses – large and small – can benefit from a solid 90-day planning process. The idea behind a 90-day plan is that it is short enough that you can see things reasonably clearly and long enough to enable you to achieve obtainable results.
Having worked with hundreds of business owners, we at BizSmart have seen how a robust 90-day plan can become the backbone for scaling a business, while helping you to bridge the gap between strategy and execution.
Don't miss out on any breaking news or insightful opinions!
Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay updated on the go!
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Global Banking & Finance Review. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email.
Once a robust structure is in place, the aim is to review the progress every quarter and identify any areas that require attention, so that they can be considered when determining priorities for the next 90 days.
To determine a business’s 90-day priorities we must ask questions to understand what we need to achieve in this quarter. Asking questions such as ‘what does good look like in 90 days’ time?’ or ‘when we meet in 90 days, what must we have achieved to deem the quarter a success?’, is key to executing and obtaining results.
The benefits of a 90-day rhythm
There are many reasons why a 90-day plan is critical to scaling up. Not only does it work to align the team to achieve goals, and bridge the gap between strategy and execution, it also helps to hone and strengthen these four fundamental things:
- Clarity–enables a business to review and agree on the businesses goals and clearly set priorities and decisions
- Alignment – helps the team to work to the same priorities and needs of the business
- Flexibility– it gives you the ability to review progress on a regular basis and adjust course quickly to ensure execution
- Great communication –it improves internal communication within the business
Using a 90’day rhythm for Start-ups and franchises
As a franchise owner, there are often many questions that occur when it comes to deciding the next steps for the business, especially when determining how to achieve scale-up.
By implementing a 90-day Rhythm, franchisees can guarantee consistency throughout their operations and provide a clear plan for all team members to follow. It’s a way to steadily view the progress of your businesses and reach quarterly objectives which work as the stepping stones to achieving the annual, larger business goals.
Conclusion
A 90-day rhythm is essential to achieving scale-up. All businesses, including franchises, can benefit from a 90-day rhythm while using it as a proven system to ensure consistency, execution, and alignment of business goals with the entire team.
