Crystal balls aren’t reliable, and psychics can be expensive. So, how do you make sure you are planning for the future? The answer is it’s not easy. But if you break it into small pieces, and take it step-by-step you can craft a forecast that is helpful. Here are five tips on crafting a forecast for the future.
1. Develop meaningful sales forecasts in terms of basic business units. Predict weekly sales for the first few months and monthly sales for the first year. Consider possible scenarios, such as a 10 percent rise or fall in sales.
2. Develop profiles for your products or services, customers and markets.
3. Know how customers will buy from you.
4. Plan how you will make your product or service available to them – wholesale, retail, direct or Internet.
5. Develop a plan or strategy to follow if your sales forecasts completely miss your predictions.                     _
Source: SCORE, www.score.org.
