Cindy and I traded in a week of mild Vancouver Island winter for a trip ‘back home’ to Saskatchewan. And of course, the Arctic winds have joined us for the week.
It’s cold here, people. Really cold. OK, not the coldest it’s ever been, but it was -17C when we landed and is supposed to get colder all week. Awesome.
But you know what? It’s also sunny. We were greeted with the most glorious, clear, deep blue sky and, so long as you are indoors, behind a window, a lovely, warming sunshine.
Mr. Sun. Ol’ Sol. How I’ve missed you, my friend. I think this is the first totally clear sky I’ve seen since Vancouver on December 22. It’s great to see you again.
Cindy and I are back on the prairies for a week to visit our parents and hopefully see some old friends too. We might even check out the newly opened Happy Hi Coffee on 13th and Elphinstone. They are the folks who inherited all my backyard bakery gear and I hope they’ve put it to good use and I might get to try some of their bread. We’ll see.
This cold winter weather has me thinking of New Years and the planning that goes with it. At our bakery, this was the time of year where business slowed after a crazy Christmas season. We finally had some time to take stock of our situation and see if we could make our bakery business a little stronger over the year ahead.
I call this work Business Development Planning which, to me at least, is slightly different from Business Planning. It’s different because we already have a running business. It’s not a pipe dream any more, where I need to convince a bank to give me a loan, it’s a real, breathing entity. Maybe it’s fit and trim or maybe it’s coughing and wheezing, but the business is happening.
How do you improve a business that’s running full steam ahead? That’s what I talk about on this week’s podcast. I go over a 7 step business assessment process that Cindy and I used at Orange Boot Bakery during a January break just like this one. I share the process we followed, the choices we made and the ways we got our team involved in the planning and execution of our changes.
Lest you think bizdev planning is just for big companies, I share how we did it with our tiny bakery and how you can do it with your bakery, whether you have a cottage business or a big wholesale operation.
You can listen to the show on your favourite podcast app, from the Rise Up! podcast website or using the handy audio app below. Enjoy!