Strategic Planning For Entrepreneurs - Finding Focus In Your Business And Life
Entrepreneurs are an energetic lot. Constantly reaching for more and finding new opportunities. These traits are what make entrepreneurs successful. Unfortunately, they are also traits that can doom a business that otherwise has a bright future. While not confined to entrepreneurs, large business often face the same issues, they are the ones who personify this scattered energy.
Do you find yourself tired, worn out, or frequently frustrated because you’re not making the progress that you want and expect? Why continue to stumble down that path when there’s a better one? Why not work towards developing a healthier business and a healthier you? Usually it’s because we don’t know another path. Well you’re in luck today. There is a tool available to you, one that you’ve already heard of, but one that probably just isn’t on your radar screen.
One tool that is the perfect remedy for unhealthy business habits is underutilized, misunderstood, and when it is used, frequently implemented poorly - Strategic Planning. I know, I know, I can hear the groans already, but keep reading. If you have a poor impression of strategic planning, you haven’t seen it done right or experienced the benefits that derive from doing it properly.
Strategic planning promotes focus, a focus that so many of us desperately need. You define your target and develop a plan to reach it. When performed properly, you have well defined objectives, a clear direction to follow to reach those objectives, and a set of performance measures that let you know how you’re progressing. This clear path reduces the stress on your business, on you, and on your customers and suppliers. Everyone knows what to expect and what is expected of them.
When you get in your car, do you just drive around aimlessly, stopping to look at every interesting thing you see? Or do you know where you’re going before you even get in the car, make sure you know the way there, and make sure you’ve got enough gas and aren’t going to break down along the way?
If you can plan a trip across town, don’t you think it would be a good idea to plan your trip to business and life success? Your business and your life are much more important that a drive across town, so it’s well worth the effort to do a little planning. Do you think that a formal and detailed plan will limit you, tie your hands, or sap your creative energy? Think again. Your strategic plan should be flexible. It’s not a rigid doctrine from which you can’t deviate; it’s a road map that gives you direction. When you come across a new opportunity, what do you do today? Jump at it? Go with the excitement and adrenaline rush that gets you fired up? What does that do to your business, and what does that do to you?
How do you evaluate new opportunities that come your way? If you don’t have a plan, every new opportunity has to be evaluated independently. If you have a well developed strategic plan, you can evaluate these opportunities against them. If an opportunity fits in with your plans and helps you reach your objectives, you can accept it without any angst. If it doesn’t fit in, you at least have something to gauge it against to help you decided whether it’s worth changing your present course to pursue.
For your business, a strategic plan has four dimensions.
Products and Services
Markets
Financial
Structure
Entrepreneurs should add a fifth element; Life Goals. Life goals are what you want to achieve for you, your family, your employees, and your community. Your plan will include a timeline, and I always advocate starting with your end goals at the end of that timeline and working backwards. For small businesses and entrepreneurs, a two year plan might be appropriate. If your business is more mature, or your products and services have a long life-cycle (such as real estate), three years or more is probably better.
Products and Services include your current offerings, new models or extensions, and new lines of business. Markets can be geographic, demographic, or however you can differentiate customers to improve sales and profits. The financial element is often missed, even by large organizations. The financial component includes total revenue, sales by product line, and total profits and margins by product line. If you actually plan for targeted growth and profits, you’re much more likely to reach them than just expecting them to happen. Structure is what your business will look like so that you can achieve your objectives. Adding employees or partners with the skills needed to reach your goals, the management and reporting structure of them, and your relationships with suppliers and customers fall under structure.
It is important for entrepreneurs to include Life Goals in their plan. If you want the business to support you so your spouse doesn’t have to work, you need to plan for that. If you want your employees to have the balance they want in their lives, you need to plan for that. And if you want to give back to your community, whether in time or money, you need to include that in your plans.
There’s nothing stopping you, just get stared with your strategic plan. Don’t wait until you have all the information you need or until you understand it better. Get started and adjust it as you move forward. You’ll reap benefits immediately, and they’ll only increase as you progress.
copyright July 2007, Steve Novak
Steve Novak is the founder and President of PPR Management Services. An independent consultant specializing in Business Operations and Strategic Planning, Steve helps organizations improve their performance by improving their operations. Working in a variety of industries, from manufacturing to non-profit, Steve helps organizations define their goals, develop plans to reach those goals, and execute their plans and measure their progress. Find out more at http://www.pprmanagementservices.com
Steve is the author of the book
Tags: Annual Plan, business plan, entrepreneur, planning, strategic planning, strategy
