In most firms, business planning is more checkbox than strategy—endless meetings, bloated paperwork, and a final product that’s forgotten until next year. The firms that get it right treat business planning as a tool, not a formality. It’s how they clarify priorities, adapt to challenges, and drive results.
The goal isn’t perfection—it’s precision. A solid plan sets a clear growth target, breaks it into actionable steps, and builds buy-in across teams so execution isn’t optional. A good plan flexes when needed but stays focused on results.
This article outlines how your firm can turn planning into action: creating plans your team believes in, implementing them effectively, and keeping them adaptable for what’s next.
Why Most Goals Aren’t Reached
Studies, including those from Inc., reveal that up to 90% of organizations fail to execute their strategies effectively. No wonder everyone dreads business planning—most plans aren’t set up for success from the start. Here are the usual suspects holding firms back:
Goals Don’t Match Reality: Too often, firms set ambitious goals that aren’t grounded in real-world conditions. Here are three critical areas where the disconnect usually happens:
- Client Feedback: Ignoring or failing to act on client feedback means missed opportunities to adapt. If clients’ needs, preferences, or expectations shift and you don’t adjust, your goals will feel out of touch—and your results will show it.
- Employee Strengths: Goals that rely on employees performing tasks outside their skill sets, or building on top of service delivery shortcomings, sets your firm up for failure. Whether it’s technical expertise or soft skills, expecting people to do what they aren’t equipped for leads to inefficiency and missed targets.
- Past Performance: Growth doesn’t happen by magic. If you grew by 5% last year, expecting 20% growth without substantial changes is wishful thinking. Ground your goals in reality by building on what’s worked and rethinking what hasn’t.
No Clear Ownership: Goals without owners are destined to fail. When no one is responsible, goals fall by the wayside as other priorities take over.
Ignoring Market Conditions: Business plans need to reflect external realities, like economic shifts and industry trends. For example, if you’re setting a goal to expand your corporate practice in a slow deal market, you’re yourself up for disappointment.
No Built-In Flexibility: The best goals are flexible. Finding out in Q3 that you’re behind on a key metric is too late. If you catch it in Q1, you can pivot—whether by trying new approaches or scrapping unrealistic goals.
Setting Better Goals
All firms want the same things—more revenue, better profitability, and happier employees. But setting ambitious yet achievable goals means grounding them in areas likely to drive success and using personnel that can execute. Here’s how to do it:
Analyze Past Performance: Your past will tell you what works—and what doesn’t. Look at where your revenue comes from, which services are gaining traction, and which areas are stagnating. Are there patterns to leverage? And importantly, ask yourself: What worked and didn’t work last year? Can you build a plan around your goals that will account for those lessons, or are you setting yourself up to fail? Grounding new goals in past results ensures you’re building on strengths and addressing weaknesses, not just setting targets in a vacuum.
- Example: One law firm analyzed its performance and found that employment litigation was their fastest-growing area. By focusing additional resources there, they further fueled revenue growth.
Set Goals Based on Employee Capabilities: Goals that ignore your team’s strengths (or weaknesses) are doomed. Before setting new goals, ask who will be executing them and whether they have the necessary skills. If not, either invest in training or change the goal.
- Example: A consulting firm set an aggressive goal to expand into a new service area without realizing the fast pace required. After bringing in a project manager and offering workshops on time management, the team was able to meet the demands.
Incorporate Client Feedback: Go beyond surface-level feedback. Identify what clients value most and where they feel underserved, and address it in your business planning. Your goals should reflect where you’re strong and where client demand is headed.
- Example: After listening to clients, a creative agency discovered a growing demand for digital content. They pivoted and expanded into digital marketing, leading to higher client satisfaction.
Align with Market Conditions: Don’t set yourself up to fight losing battles. Your goals need to account for broader market trends and client pressures. Misaligned priorities will leave you chasing opportunities that don’t exist.
- Example: A consulting firm set a goal for aggressive expansion but pivoted mid-year when economic forecasts showed a downturn in their target industry. Instead of pushing forward, they shifted to helping existing clients navigate the uncertainty, which proved more successful.
Making Execution Possible
After setting goals, execution is where the real work begins. For goals to turn into results, you need buy-in, clear ownership, and the right resources. Here’s how you get started:
Stop “Cramming Down” Plans from the Top: Leadership sets the strategy, but the people doing the work need to confirm it’s achievable and have a say in execution. Too many firms rely on the “cram down” method—where leadership creates the plan and forces it onto teams, expecting flawless execution. Unsurprisingly, this rarely works. Instead, involve your teams in setting the goals to begin with. Ask: Can everyone in the firm say they can contribute in some way to the plan? Not only does this foster buy-in, but it also boosts ownership and accountability. Leadership should set high-level goals and ask teams what support they need to achieve them—whether it’s staffing, marketing support, or resources you hadn’t considered. This feedback helps you avoid blind spots and build real buy-in.
Appoint Clear Goal Owners: Goals without owners get lost in the shuffle. Every initiative needs someone accountable for moving the needle-someone who will push progress forward. It sounds obvious, but how many firms talk about improving client satisfaction without anyone clearly responsible for acting on feedback? Assigning an owner ensures that initiatives don't just stay on the whiteboard-they turn into results.
Equip Teams with the Right Resources: Even with clear ownership, execution falters when teams don't have the tools they need. Ask yourself: Does the team need training? Do they need new technology? Will they need extra staff to hit their goals? Identify these gaps and fill them before progress stalls.
Tracking Progress with KPIs
One of the biggest issues with goal setting is it isn’t treated as an iterative process. The key to reaching goals is tracking progress and course correcting early enough to make changes that account for market shifts, ideas that didn’t work as well as desired, and new opportunities that mean you’re better off pivoting. Here’s how:
Use Leading, Not Just Lagging Indicators: Don’t just look at where you’ve been—track indicators that show where you’re headed.
- Example: If you’re looking at client retention rates, by the time you realize clients have left, it is too late to change course. Tracking requests for write offs and bill adjustments (signs that clients aren’t seeing value) lets you get ahead of client attrition instead.
Review and Adjust Regularly: View your KPIs as less of a report card (“this team isn’t performing”) and more as an early warning signal that something needs to be adjusted. At the same time, look for positive indications too – if you’re outperforming in an area, maybe it’s time to shift resources to what’s working well.
Don’t Track Too Much: There’s two issues with tracking too many metrics. First, too much time is spent gathering data and reporting on it, and not enough time is spent on asking, “so what, now what?” And second, the simple fact is that most people can only focus on a few things at once – so get clear with employees on what matters most and don’t give responsibility for more than 3-5 indicators to any one person or department.
Conclusion
A great business plan isn’t static—it’s a roadmap for achieving results, staying agile, and adapting to change. Focus on tracking the right metrics, staying flexible, and setting goals your team can execute and adjust as needed.
At Maior, we specialize in building business plans that work in the real world. Whether you need to overhaul your annual planning process or build one from the ground up, we’ll help you create a plan that drives measurable results. Get in touch to turn your goals into actions.
