Every business needs a clear strategy to succeed. Without a strategy, or with the wrong one, your company will not be able to grow and may even fail. A strategy is there to help you determine the direction that you want your business to go in – and it will give you a clear idea of how you plan on reaching all your business’ goals. With a well-planned strategy, you can also ensure that all leadership and team members are on the same page so that everyone can work together as a unified team focused on the same objective of making a success of your enterprise.
Start-up businesses are founded every day, but many fail in scaling up due to poor business strategy or a complete lack of one. Do not let this be you.
To develop a solid business strategy for your company, here are 5 steps to follow:
- Gain insight and take advice from your entire leadership team
You might think that you know your own business the best, but gaining new insights from your leadership team can only do your business good. Listening to other people’s inputs can help you recognise your own blind spots and may prevent you from making irrational decisions. Let your team help you decide what is important to focus on to achieve business growth this year.
- Decide on your long-term goals and company vision
Let your business goals determine your strategy. To determine your strategy, explore your company values, brand promise, and target market. Talk to your team about it and make sure that everyone has the same goals in mind – set one big goal to achieve, long-term, and use this to clarify your business strategy.
- Define “who you are” and “who your customers are”
With your team’s input, your company’s goals and overall vision, and an analysis of market tendencies that may affect your business, you can now define exactly who your company is and who your customers are. Think about elements that set your company apart and define this year’s business strategy.
- Take notice of trends that may affect your business
Taking local and global industry trends into consideration when planning your business strategy can help ensure that you do not fall behind your competitors. Considering all the trends that may hamper your business, or provide you with new opportunities, will help you plan better for the road ahead.
- Decide on your business strategy and put it into action
Once you have completed these 4 steps and you have a clear business vision and strategy set, it is time to take the 5th step and put it into action. Now you can start working on other details such as who in the team will be taking what responsibilities, etc. Remember, these initial decisions are not set in stone.
Give yourself a realistic trial period, 90 days as an example, to see whether your strategies and ideas are paying off. Often, short-term strategies are easier to maintain as the entire team is kept focused on the result. If you find that your strategy is not working, it is time to think of a new or amended plan that will help you achieve the goals that you have set for your business.
(Article sourced from OCFO)