News

May 31, 2013

Most business owners don't plan ahead

Two-thirds of business leaders say they simply don't have enough time to step back from day-to-day tasks to focus on a long-term strategy, according to a new report from GrowthAccelerator.

The survey also finds that half of business leaders are unable to describe their business objectives for the next 12 months "off the top of their head".

And yet those who have taken the time to plan say it has put them, on average, ten months ahead of where they would have otherwise been.

Other findings include:

• only 16% of business leaders spend the majority of their time planning for growth;
• nearly half (47%) of business leaders are not working regularly, or at all, on their business strategy;
• 36% only revisit their business plans occasionally;
• 3% don't even have a business plan.

Business owners are unsure how to grow their business according to the report, with 44% saying that a key challenge is knowing how to grow and with 30% saying that defining a clear strategy for growth is an obstacle.

The Working On, Not In report from GrowthAccelerator shows that this is made more difficult for the business leaders who do not have enough time to step back from the day-to-day to focus on a long-term strategy.

Simon Littlewood, director at GrowthAccelerator, said: "For business leaders, knowing the best way to achieve growth is a sizeable challenge and an added pressure in changeable economic times. This, combined with the time-consuming demands of ensuring a business is running smoothly on a day-to-day basis, means looking forward with longer term planning can slip down the to-do list, but it is essential for success."

Meanwhile, new research by digital marketing agency, Engineered Marketing, finds that the majority (64%) of UK small businesses do not have a documented marketing plan. And women in business are more likely to wing it than their male counterparts, with 70% of women saying they did not have a marketing plan compared to just 62.2% of men.