There are all kinds of business strategies out there, and yours will be completely unique. Every strategy that I help leaders create is a little different, but each one includes the same essential elements.
Without these elements your plan won’t help you grow your business and reach a point where you can earn more and work less. While there are several elements of a successful business strategy, there is one that I find a lot of people leave out: the current situation.
The Current Situation
What do I mean by the current situation? I mean the state of the business as it stands. Businesses are constantly evolving, and the point at which leaders create or revise a business strategy is different in every scenario.
The idea behind the current situation is to capture a snapshot of what your business is like right now. Taking the time to define what your business is currently like is the first step in developing a plan that works. In fact, I generally find that when businesses nail down this element, the rest of the plan comes naturally and is more likely to bring the desired results.
How to Define your Current Situation
To define your current situation, look at where your business stands right now. Try not to focus too much on the past or where you want your business to be in the coming months.
Internal Organization
First, outline how your business is organized. List employees/team members and their roles and create an organizational chart. Make note of current teams, departments and positions.
Sales
Look through your sales records and note where you currently stand. Are you on par with goals? Are your sales enough to sustain your business? How many sales do you make each month and each week? What is your profit as compared to your expenses?
Marketing Efforts
Write down what your current marketing efforts are. Take notes on things like your website, social media promotions, advertising campaigns, speaking opportunities and any other type of marketing you are currently doing. If possible, note how successful these efforts are.
Growth Patterns
Look at where you currently stand in the context of growth patterns. Does your business seem to do better during a specific time of the year? Are you in a period of growth, have things leveled out, or are you downsizing? Analyzing this gives you a big-picture view of where your business stands now.
Current Challenges
Finally, list challenges your business currently faces. These could be in relation to any part of your business and could be short-term issues or long-term challenges you are continually working to overcome. Things like lack of resources, major competitors, not enough employees/team members and a lack of marketing materials are common examples of business challenges.
Whether you write your current situation as a formal report in paragraph format or simply take notes and create an outline, this exercise is vital to a successful business strategy.
Using this to Boost your Business Strategy
Once you have written down what your current situation is, you need to use it to influence the rest of your business strategy. It should be a sort of starting point you can use as you set goals and develop plans for marketing, sales and business growth.
Your current situation can give you a good idea of what areas you need to develop, where you should cut back and where you are already being successful. It should be the background for your strategy.
I have found that businesses that take their current situation into account before creating a business strategy are much more effective. I can’t stress this enough. It wasn’t until I evaluated my own current situation and asked these tough questions that my own business started to grow in leaps and bounds. However, it’s not that easy to do this exercise on your own, so I encourage you to find a business coach or mentor who can give you the proper guidance.
Making sure you define your current situation before you write a business strategy is important if you want your strategy to work with your business. It ensures that your strategy is one you can execute successfully.
If you would like help writing a business strategy, contact me. I help all kinds of businesses create plans that lead to success and a higher income.