Business planning is important for any pharmacy owner because it provides a clear direction for a business to follow. Like travelling to a destination, you want to be able to journey there with limited bumps in the road with your team. Without a clear path or having the ability to change directions to avoid obstacles, the journey can be long winded, tiresome and at times very isolating.
The Purpose of Business Planning
Business planning allows you to re-assess your business goals, it allows you to align your team, it refocuses energy and it allows strategies to be created so you can reach your goals in the year(s) ahead.
The Power of Your Team
Your team is the biggest asset that you have in your business and should be involved during your business planning. They are the ones who can help you bring your vision to life as they are the ones on the frontline helping your patients day in and day out. By involving your team, it allows them to connect to your business as it will bring more purpose with what they do and allow career satisfaction when they know they helped meet the goals of the business.
A Workshop Guide to Business Planning with your Team
Your business is like a relationship, and it requires time and effort to maintain. At Peak Strategies, our team will sit down with our leaders each year for a planning day so we can reflect on the past year, celebrate our wins for the year, find solutions to the challenges we have encountered and as a team set goals for the year that we can strive towards.
Through this experience, here is a simple workshop guide your pharmacy can use with your team when it comes to business planning:
PREPARATION
Leave yourself time in advance to start planning the Workshop. This will allow the Workshop to have a clear agenda on how it needs to be structured so that it is meaningful for everyone’s time who are present on the day. In the planning preparations, think about the following:
1. Set the overall theme - Think about the central and underlying idea you want to come out of the Business Planning Workshop.
2. Set the agenda for the Workshop. Include items such as:
Reflection of past year goals and if they require reassessment
Celebrate your wins and acknowledge challenges and lessons learnt through the year
SWOT Analysis – Go through Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to the business
Refocus or update current goals
Realign teams with your pharmacy’s vision and strategies
Throughout the workshop, foster respectful collaboration and team ownership
Some additional items you may want to consider:
Does the day require any team building activities
Do you require an external speaker or someone to help facilitate the workshop
Cost for the Workshop
Timing of when to do the Workshop
3. Pick the right location for the Workshop – Create the right environment for your team for meaningful discussions and collaborations on Business Planning as where you host your Workshop will set a certain vibe.
Sometimes the timing to get everyone in the same room can be difficult so consider video conferencing (i.e. Zoom) if that is the case but make sure it is visual where everyone can see everybody.
4. Invite the right people – Whether you want the entire team or key leadership roles. Have the right people who you know are going to make a positive impact to your business. Provide pre-work for participants – Not a requirement but it allows your team to start getting into the right mindset for the Workshop. Send out questionnaires to get them thinking like:
Key accomplishments this year?
What challenges have you faced?
Where do you see opportunities for improvement?
What is one idea you have to improve our pharmacy?
WORKSHOP AGENDA
On the day, have an agenda planned. Whether this is for you or something that can be available to everyone in attendance. You want to keep running the workshop on time so you cover everything that is intended to. Here is a sample full-day workshop agenda:
FACILITATION TIPS
Stay time Conscious: Assign someone to keep track of the day’s running and agenda. If there isn’t enough time, you can always circle back or place a call to action to have further discussions at a later date.
Use Visual Aids: Use slides, whiteboards or flipcharts so that people are able to follow and focus during the Workshop.
Provide a Safe Space for Communication: Encourage your team to open up and feel confident to say what is on their mind and that everyone is respectful of one another.
Record Key Takeaways: Assign someone to take key notes throughout the day.
FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
Compile a Workshop Summary document that includes:
Goals that are agreed amongst the team
How will these goals be measured
Time frame to reach these goals
Who will be taking accountability for certain tasks
Opportunities and challenges identified
Circulate the Workshop Summary document to the team
Share the summary and ask for any final feedback
Schedule in check ins (monthly or quarterly)
Celebrate participation
Make sure you acknowledge participation from team members
Celebrate wins and highlight it with your team when you reach certain goals.
Let your planning preparation come to life! Enjoy this day and keep an open mind. At Peak, we very much enjoy this day as it strengthens our bond and future direction of what we want to achieve and we hope this experience will also strengthen your team and pharmacy businesses.
We’d love to hear if you put this advice into action and how it goes for you!
