Creating a Strategy for Business Success

 Year end is an excellent time to look back at what worked and what didn’t work in your business over the past year, and strategize for the coming year. No business is too small to create a map to help them along the uncharted path to their growth or change in their business.  In fact the smaller the business the larger the benefit of creating a strategic plan for your business. 

How do you begin? 

Begin by writing down key points you want to focus on in the coming year. You will want to reference this list so you stay on track and don’t lose focus.  Post it somewhere where it is easily referenced by you and those who are working with you to carry out your plan..

Create an action plan.

An action plan provides concrete and measurable specifics that make a strategy actually happen,
so focus on getting those specifics written down:

• Set a time for a regular review. Choose one day each month to have a short meeting to review the plan, results, and the fine tuning required to keep your plan relevant and on track.
  
• Identify significant changes. In your monthly review meeting identify significant changes in your business related to the strategy you have applied. Look for results that will be factors in deciding whether to stick with a plan or revise it. If you aren’t getting the results you wanted or expected, the plan needs to change.
  
• Set milestones to measure your progress. Milestones include specific dates, deadlines, and responsibilities. Make a list of who is supposed to do what, when, and how much it costs. Plus how much revenue it is expected to generate, for revenue generating activities.  Find other determinates to measure success for non-revenue generating activities.
  
• Create projections. You can’t track progress and strategically manage your business towards growth if you don’t project your basic numbers. Examples include projected sales, cost of sales, expenses, profits, and cash flow. Other measurements to track are units, calls, presentations, leads, proposals, page views, unique visits, clicks, emails, conversion rates, and so on.  Adopt a system that works for your specific business type.

General MacArthur said " A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow."  So now that you have a plan, make sure to stick to the review schedule, meet as planned to look at the difference between plan and actual, and keep your plan alive.