It’s that time of year again! You start looking forward to the sunny weather and thinking about how you are going to have more daylight to work on your business ventures. How fun! Do you have a plan? Working on your strategic planning is one of the best things you can do over the next few weeks to prep for the next season. Begin putting dates on calendars, planning out your cost and your goals as well as your anticipated profits. (I don’t know about you, but nothing motivates me more than the thought of my profits!)
Three simple steps to creating your plan:
1. Evaluate where your business is today
You can most easily accomplish this by reviewing your values and the principals that guide your organization. Verify that your organization’s vision hasn’t changed since you last reviewed this. From there, create a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).
So many underestimate the value of a good solid and well thought out SWOT analysis. To really maximize the use of this, you will need to conduct some research. You need to know where your strengths lie in reference to your competitors and the market. You also need to be honest in your weaknesses. You only hurt yourself by not having a true understanding of where you are vulnerable.
Exposing your opportunities is probably the most enjoyable part here. You can really get creative and begin to explore what your competition is doing, what new practices are considered best- in- class, and what ways you can set your organization apart from the rest. Lastly, spend some time assessing what can threaten your growth and success. These can be anything from market conditions all the way down to family issues that may take up your work time. Give this area some good thought because you will want to think up ways you can minimize or neutralize these threats.
2. Envision where your business will be tomorrow
Here is where you can create your vision. A lot of businesses find it useful to create a vision statement. This can help keep your organization focused on the direction you’re headed in as well as let your clients know where you are aspiring to go.
When planning out how you will work your way towards this vision of your future organization, take into consideration your competitive advantage. What can you provide that gives you an advantage over your competition for the long haul? You should be able to link this back to your SWOT and find which of your strengths are sustainable for a continuous advantage over your competition.
3. Mapping your route
This is the fun part. How will you get to the vision you created in step 2? The possibilities are endless! This section is mainly done in goal setting and execution. You must set some objectives. Take some time to set some realistic (but challenging) goals and then set time frames to them. Set your short goals (weekly or quarterly) and then long term goals (annual or longer). Your shorter goals are the stepping stones to the larger ones, so make sure they align with one another.
When making your plan, you should take into account how you can best match and pair your SWOT analysis. The strengths you’ve identified should be exposed through the opportunities you have discovered in the market. Once you have these goals you need to create your To Do list. TAKE ACTION! So many people get caught in the planning stage and don’t actually make moves on all the great plans they create. Those who see success see it from their list of actions. Your actions should be very specific. You need an action and a time frame to complete it.
Lastly, is your ability to assess your plan. How are you tracking your progress? How are you tracking your investment and return? One tried and true method is to create a Balanced Scorecard. I have attached a link on how to create one of these. http://www.ehow.com/how_5144985_create-balanced-scorecard.html
I hope you find these steps helpful in planning out the next phase in your business. Your feedback is welcomed. Please ask questions you would like answered or add in your valuable input. We love to hear your successes and your lessons in failure. Also, if you find my blog helpful, please forward it to your friends and colleagues.