Take Your Business To The Next Level With Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning for Small Business Strategic Planning isn't something reserved for just big companies. In fact, even Solopreneurs working from home need the benefits that come from holding regular strategic sessions.

Every month, Jennifer and I schedule at least one ½ day strategic planning session. This is a time when we leave our home office and go "off-site" (usually to a coffee shop!) and work ON our business.

These planning sessions have reaped huge benefits for us and have helped us make our business run much better than they would be without these sessions.

With every hour invested in strategic planning resulting in a 10-fold return, it becomes foolish not to strategic plan..

These sessions don't need to be full-blown planning sessions (although those are useful too); you can achieve tremendous benefits in smaller scale, ad-hoc sessions.

Make Your Business Run Like Clock Work

Your Strategic Planning session is not a time to get caught up with work, talk about business or tidy up. Strategic Planning sessions are about making significant structural changes to your business.

Imagine what would happen if you made one strategic shift each month that made your sales message more effective, improved your service with less effort, reduced admin time by several hours each month...After a year, your business would be running significantly better: higher profits, less of your time.

Some Ideas of What You Can Do At Your Strategic Planning Session

Tighten up a business process that improves your operations.
For example, create your Accounts Payable follow-up procedure, including at what point you follow-up, how you follow-up, how you escelate, creating the Email and letter templates you use, etc.
Meet with a Professional Advisor. It's amazing how valuable it can be to review your business finances proactively (and not just as a tax-time measure) can be to your business. Seek the strategic advice of an impartial, expert set of eyes.
Go through the Customer Experience Process. Invite a trusted Customer who is well aquainted with your business to spend the time with you. During that time, ask that Customer to give you their feedback on every part of your business that touches the Customer: your signage, logo, colours, your sales process, your website, your invoicing/payment process, your retail counter help, etc.
Develop your Vision for the business. What would a world-class version of your business look like? Write it out and work on perfecting that vision.
Analyze the recurring sales objections you encounter and develop "objection nullifying" solutions to them and promote them prominently in your marketing.

Without Action, It's Just Playing

Strategic Planning in and of itself doesn't change your business. Action changes your business. From your planning session, you need to develop an action plan that you then implement. Without action, you're just playing business. With action, you're creating an asset that will serve you well in the days, months and years to come.

Your Call To Action

Right now, while you're reading this, take out your Calendar and schedule yourself for your ½ day Strategic Planning session. Decide now on what you want to work on for it.

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Great Idea
written by Brenda Dawson, April 01, 2008

Great idea! This is similar to what we have done for decades. Every morning before breakfast we meet and discuss the best plan for the day. Then, we both know what needs to be done, who is going to do it and away we go. The part this is missing, of course, is the longer term strategic plan. Doing that separately once a week is a great idea otherwise, it gets lost in the day-to-day.

Owner
written by Jack Wallas, April 01, 2008

It's a great idea; I have very few people to teem up with as it is too stressfull for my girlfriend/partiner/wife to be. I would like to do it with someone and maybe I could help them too. I have some good ideas; is their anyone for a dutch lunch once a month for mutual benifit.

Jack in the Bean Stalk.

Great Idea
written by Scott Gingrich, April 01, 2008

Jack has a great idea. I do have one caveat...lunch may not be the correct venue; it could be too social of one. With a strategic planning session, you want to be able to devote yourself for at least a few hours and keep it to business. Jen and I often go to Marty's Coffee Bistro (on Cundles by Zehrs) because we can have a really good, "roll up our sleeves" meeting.

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