This year, many of my clients had trouble thinking about their long-term business goals: “What are you talking about? It's a crisis! I can only think a month ahead!”
As the year comes to an end, we have to plan for 2023, which is challenging.
As always, it includes reflecting on the results of the past year, setting goals for the next one, and making a plan to achieve them.
This year, it makes sense to do that on two horizons: the shorter one, where you plan for safety, and the long-term, about your Big Goals.
Planning for safety is about keeping your business afloat. Inflation, recession, gas prices, war.
All of it may have:
slowed down your growth,
put your next investment round at risk,
or rendered you unfit for your current market altogether.
Typical safety goals in this case would include:
breaking even and providing a financial cushion,
rebuilding business infrastructure,
or securing operational stability.
Have you provided all of it for your business in 2022? What’s left for 2023?
If changing market conditions force you to create new products or enter new markets, your safety goals for 2023 would be:
achieving a product-market fit,
building scalable sales,
and, probably, raising money,
to make sure the business survives the year.
Now for the Big Goals. The current crisis has been with us for a year, so the strategy of "waiting until things get better and then starting to plan ahead" has already failed. If you’ve waited for things to settle down, well, face it, it didn't happen.
You’ll have to start planning now. Look 5-7 years ahead. The recession is over, and the next growth cycle is booming.
What would your business look like then? Has this vision changed in 2022?
Maybe the high uncertainty level requires you to form several options for the future that you are striving for. What is the main constraint on the path to achieving these big goals? What major hypotheses will you need to test? New products, markets, channels, ways to scale, etc.
Identify the key hypotheses for the year and find areas of maximum uncertainty. What is already clear, and what are you doubting?
Design the fastest possible experiment to fix these key uncertainty areas. And run it as soon as the New Year's Eve fireworks are off the streets.
Sometimes, safety goals and big goals get in conflict with each other. You may have to give something up to gain what you wish for. It means taking risks.
That's what makes you an entrepreneur. Now's a good time to decide what your future will look like.