Time to Plan for 2013

Although we still have more than a month left to 2012, it’s really the ideal time to start planning for 2013. The sooner you start, the better your plans will be as you will have more time to revise them, tweak them, and make them perfect. The best way to start planning is to put something down in writing. Start with generalities and you can later fill in more specifics.

If your job requires creating a budget for the new year, start by listing the things you know you must have, then add the things you would like to have in the budget. Give the ‘like to haves’ a number corresponding to how important they are to you. For example if you would like to have a new employee to assist in your department, but you would also like to have a new computer for two existing employees, determine which one means more to you and give them a number from 1 to 10 (10 meaning you really want that the most). Once you have completed your list and numbered them, put the cost to your budget down for each one. When you are done you can trim it down to where it needs to be by cutting out the ones with the lowest numbers first until your budget aligns with what you can get approved.

If you are planning projects, use the same numbering system as above. First list the projects that must be completed, then add the projects you would like to have completed. In this instance you can leave everything on the list, but you can put the more important projects up higher in the list and give them dates with the must do’s and most important should do’s highest on the list and with the earliest start dates. Keep in mind that you may not get to the items on the bottom of the list if the higher status items take longer than anticipated.

Planning is the easy part. Implementing is the harder part of the equation. But if you have a good solid plan with realistic dates and/or costs, you stand a much better chance of getting them done.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.