You must plan your business to grow!   I've known many small businesses who didn't really want to grow, they just wanted to get back to where they were before the hard times came.  That kind of planning seldom works.  For one thing, even "getting back" is hard to do.  During hard times, conditions change.  Customers and competitors get smarter.  Big companies absorb little companies.  Many customers and competitors go away, and usually it's the better businesses that survive.  Your markets and your adversaries will never be the same again.  So, if you don't get better at what you do - which means doing things differently - your chances of just "getting back' are very slim.  You'll have to improve how you work, and that means you'll have to be able to grow.
            To plan for growth, you have to think ahead, not back.  You have to question all of your processes, your people, your products - all of your resources.  And you must have a vision of what your business will be like in the future in order to figure out how you must change.
            Surely, you can build on your strengths.  But in a new economy, a strength is something that will help you grow.  It may not be something that worked in the past.  For example, many companies extend their borrowing when times get tough.  They borrow more money or forego their payments on loans, just trying to stay alive.  Even if your lenders let you get behind or "refinance" your loans, they'll expect you to pay them as soon as you can.    But now, when times get better, you have a bigger and longer debt to satisfy.  You have to make more money than you did before.  You have to work harder and better.  You have to be able to grow.
    
            For many businesses, expecially those with a long history, this is one of the hardest ideas to get across.  We'll keep talking about it.
                    Email me if you want help, at: rmp@parkersolutions.com.