Developing a business strategy is for many small business owners a fundamental step that they cannot afford to ignore. Hiring a business consultant to brainstorm ideas and the steps to put this strategy in place is imperative for the success of the strategy. Many small business owners ignore the importance of not only developing the strategy , but implementing it as well. Consistent effort should give you the results that a good implemented strategy can bring to your business. For more about this and other news follow the links below.
STRATEGIC PLANNING: Planning for the future
When you bring up the term “strategic planning” to most company owners, you normally get some hesitant stares and mumbled words. Most owners think strategic planning is only for large companies and the time and resource commitment is too large for them to bear. If done properly, it does not have to be so at all. When most companies really think about how much time they think about and discuss all of the future needs of the business, it probably adds up to more time than an actual planning process would take.
Many companies think they have a strategic plan, but what they really have is a one-year operating plan or budget. A strategic plan looks at all phases of the business over a longer time horizon, normally five years or more. It helps companies set a long-term direction that drives short-term activities and behaviors, and helps allocate time and resources to future endeavors, challenges and opportunities that are out there. We all hear “be proactive, not reactive” all the time — a strategic planning process makes you do just that. You can plan for more than you think you can.
The 5 Steps of Strategic Planning for a Small Business
Strategic planning for small business is not a process that is completed overnight–or even within one week. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), planning for growth should include a “high level review of the different elements of your business,” almost as if you were “describing” your company for the first time. Take a close look at the marketplace, delineate the precise “needs you are trying to satisfy,” and describe to yourselves (to owners and top managers) exactly how your “products and/or services” are meeting the needs of your target “consumers, organizations and/or businesses.” Honestly evaluate your “competitive advantages,” and your “competitive weaknesses,” within your industry and locale. Then, take your time within each of the following business areas.:
Is budgetting drowning strategic planning in your organisation?
“The budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations”…Jacob Lew
We can hardly see any organisation that does not have a well outlined budget in place. Organisations often rely on their budgets to guide them. It is not out of place to have a budget, but it is not enough to rely only on budget in driving the vision of the entire organisation.
Most organisations have missed it. How? They have allowed the budget to drive the organisation’s vision. Such organisations have worked day and night to develop a well outline budget but may not have realised the need to develop a strategic plan first. For the purpose of clarity, your organisation’s vision and the strategic plan are what drive your budget, and not vice versa.
Organisations that are reactive in their operations have low level of planning effectiveness. They allow the budget alone to drive the plan for the entire organisation. They also view planning as synonymous with financial objectives alone. Some other organisations are traditional in their planning effectiveness, and surprisingly are even better than the reactive organisations.
