Everyone knows that it’s hard to achieve your goals, both in business and in life without some form of a plan in place. No matter if you’re wanting to achieve specific health goals, cooking a new meal for your family or running a business, you’ll need to have a strategic plan.
A plan of this nature looks at all the things your business could be doing and narrows them down to achievable goals and things it is actually doing. Having a strategy allows you as a business owner or your key stakeholders to determine where to spend money, resources and time.
But if you’ve never had a plan in place it can be difficult to know where to start. If you break it down, building a strategic plan out is a simple and easy task to accomplish. With our simple 5 steps, you’ll develop your winning plan in no time.
Determine who and where you are
Most businesses only look at how they want to see themselves, rather than how they actually appear to their clients or customers. Take the time to speak to those who purchase your products or services and perform internal audits with your employees. You’ll be surprised with how you are actually perceived outside of your own personal opinion.
You will also need to work out who you are vs. your competition and complete market share research to analyse where you sit compared to your competitors.
Figure out what’s important
Where do you (and your stakeholders) want to take the business over time? Whether this is 5, 10 or 20 years, think about where you see your business at each of these stages. From this you’ll be able to devise a priority list – what steps do you need to take first to achieve your short term goals, and what do you need to do to achieve those longer ones?
Maybe you need or want to invest in new talent? How will you pay for this? Do you have the cash flow? What companies will you approach for small business loans? No matter if you have good or bad credit, there are a specialist lenders out there, like Liberis, who are happy to help with and offer financial support.
Identify who is accountable
An important part of any strategic plan is to ensure those responsible are aware of the tasks they need to complete to reach the company goals; and that ultimately they are held accountable in making sure these actions are done.
Review. Repeat. Grow.
As with anything, it’s important to review all of your goals set and progress, repeat the process and watch your business grow!