Are you experiencing the Budget Time Blues?
You might be if your next financial year begins in April.
If so, you’ll be familiar with,
- Targets issued from on high.
- Three-year plans published or adjusted.
The joy of those late evening budget rewrites is flooding back to me.
So too, the disbelief on colleagues’ faces upon learning what their bits of the empire were to achieve.
Budgeting by numbers first, rather than by sales achieved, is not uncommon.
Some would argue that it’s the key to massive sales gains.
You set a target and then work out how you are going to hit it.
As long as there’s some realistic assessment behind the number setting, this approach can work.
When realism is absent, things can go badly wrong in several different ways.
- Managers feel pressured to agree to targets they know they can’t hit
- Sales forecasts are missed because the budget numbers were unrealistic
- Stress increases around the business; managers first, and they pass it to their teams
- Disillusionment leads to the loss of experienced staff or burnout
It’s not a happy scenario.
Hopefully, this is not the case for you, but if it is,
Under Pressure? Five Steps to Break the Cycle could be helpful.
You can order a FREE copy via the Homepage of this website.
David
PS. There is no argument against aggressively pursuing growth. I am as keen, some would say as aggressive (I’d say focused) as others when it comes to reaching goals and targets.