If you want your business to have long-term success, as well as the best possible performance, you will need to plan strategically. With a business plan in place, you will be able to have more control over your team and the direction that you are leading them. With a goal-oriented mindset, you will have an advantage over other businesses that have not developed a strategic plan.
What Is Your Vision?
What is your vision for your career and the future of the company? This does not need to be known by customers or employees, but you should know this, to map out your goals more effectively.
What Is Your Company’s Vision and Mission Statement?
These should be communicated to customers and employees, and definable in under a hundred words. Remember, a vision statement is not a mission statement.
A vision statement describes where the company aspires to be upon achieving its mission. It is intended to describe where the company wants a community, or the world, to be because of the company’s services.
A mission statement is an action-oriented vision statement, communicating the purpose a company serves to its audience. That often includes a general description of the company, its function, and its objectives. Ultimately, a mission statement is used to explain the “what,” “who,” and “why” of a company.
What Are Your Short-Term Goals?
Short-term goals are extremely important and should be realistic. What do you want in the next two years? If it is realistic, you will short-term goals can then easily inform your long-term goals. Short term goals are also great for keeping your business on track and celebrating the small successes that ate just as important as the larger ones.
What Is Your Action Plan?
You will need to have a solid foundation of an action plan, but you must also be able to adapt if circumstances change.
What Strategies Will You Be Using?
Strategies will help you attain your short-term goal logically and practically, while also ensuring you have a healthy work-life balance by laying out your goals in time-effective manners. For example, if your short-term goal is to build an app, the strategies you use may be:
- Researching vendors such as the App Store or Google Play
- Creating your development plan
- Finding out the prices other app developers are using
- Creating a sales plan and marketing budget
How Are You Going to Use Strategic Communication?
Any business will have meetings, but meetings can eat into your time where it is needed in other places. This means that strategic communication is needed to allow everyone to instantly know what they are doing and when so that they can work as effectively as possible to improve the business’ position. Communications should also be goal oriented.
Communication is strategic when it is completely consistent with your mission, vision, values and enhances the company’s strategic positioning compared to competitors.
How Often Will You Review?
To avoid going in the wrong direction for too long, you need to review your goals regularly. Monthly or even weekly check-ins can help with adaptability. However, if you are too frequently doing this, it can also make your business lack direction. For that reason, it is important to find a healthy balance.
Is Your Business Adaptable New?
The business market will change as you are trying to implement your product or service and growing as a company. There will be challenges, but also opportunities. If your business plan is too rigid, you will not be able to avoid the pitfalls or benefit from opportunities. Brief weekly reviews can help to identify potential changes or challenges.
Do You Have A Strategic Planning Team?
It may be tempting to try and take complete control of your business, but a strategic planning team can help you along the way. A strategic planning team will be able to help you with your company’s vision, as well as how adaptable your strategy is. Start by building your team with top tier management staff and employees and expand from there.
