In some ways this post follows on nicely from the Prophesy Your Own Success post which focused on the power of Positive Thinking . When examining your business strategy, the thought process is similar. However it does involve a lot of “facing your demons” and some bad hair days darlings. And that famous word Strategy.
STRATEGY ……. for 8 letters it’s such a big word isn’t it? When we first meet some of our clients they are terrified of that all encompassing word, and in some cases can’t face it without a dose of valium, so we usually get them to say it several times. St-rat-eg-y, str-a-tegy, strat-eg-y, strategy, see it’s not so terrifying now! We have been known to get one or two clients to say whilst looking in the mirror! Strategy in its simplest form helps you focus on building your business. It can be hard fairies, to see the wood for the trees sometimes, so we need to take a step back and look at the business from the outside in. Put the business into a box and stand back.
Examine the picture inside the box
What do you see right now? Ask yourself some really tough questions. What’s your turnover for the past year? What are your costs? Do you know what your gross profit and net profit figures are? Are you happy you are running a lean, mean fighting machine of a business? Perhaps you are running around a busy fool? Don’t be afraid of this picture, the point is you need start from somewhere, and remember the only way is up from here. This exercise is not to make you feel bad, but to help you see for yourself, this is where you are right now. This is the first brick on that yellow brick road to success.
Your dream
Now, let’s look at another picture. This time you are looking into the future. Where do you see yourself on a personal level in 3 years time? Where do you see your business? How much are you selling? What are your profit levels like in this picture? How many staff do you employ? Are they all happy bunnies, thrilled to work for you in this amazing business? What does your working week look like, is it Monday to Friday or Monday to Sunday and back again? Imagine if all your dreams came true, what would this picture be? Be honest, the sky’s the limit. If you don’t admit your hearts desire to yourself, how do you ever expect to get clarity and focus to make the dream come true.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road (The Strategy Bit !)
The gap between “the current picture” and “your dream” is the strategy. This is where we help you focus on the main goals , that are necessary to score, to help you get to where you want to be in 3 years. This doesnt just happen, businesses who grow, grow because they are focused with laser sharp focus on their pre set goals. They commit them to paper and regularly check them to compare strategy with actuality. If the goals are not lining up correctly then they change something. It is a moveable feast and various times the main goals will be different as the business evolves and grows.
This does involve a Business Plan
Another phrase that causes convulsions in the office is “business plan”. We have known these two little words “business plan” to cause mini panic attacks and even severe allergic reactions in
our more creative clients. You don’t have to have a near death experience to produce one darlings but you do need one. The business plan is the committing to paper of your (code name yellow brick road) strategy.When you have successfully compiled a business plan, you can face the Bank, Enterprise Board, Partners, Investors etc with some glee as you know what you want, you know where you are going, and, you know how you are going to get there. These are the magic components all of these people look for. That’s not say you still don’t need your creativity and passion because you do, but, if you are that magic person who sells beautiful products or services that people want to buy, and, you are capable of providing documentary evidence to back it up, together with cash flow projections etc, you will be loved and held very close to the bank managers bosom indeed!
So what are you waiting for? Put on your magic slippers.
