Solidifying Your Strategic Plan
Use these tips to plan for the future and strengthen your strategic plan.
If you’re a business owner, chances are you’ve heard that you need a strategic plan—which basically means having a vision for the future.
In the latest Finding Fearless Community session, Ivy Slater, founder of Slater Success Coaching, taught participants how to look at their company data and make strategic moves to get ahead. Here are some tips to help you move forward, not backward.
Get Specific on Your Vision
The most important part of building and solidifying your strategic plan is to get specific about your mission and vision statements. It’s hard to grow a business if you don’t know where you want it to be in 5, 10, or 20 years.
Think about the kind of world you want to create for yourself and others with your business:
What do you want your days, weeks, months, and years to look like?
Do you want Fridays off?
Do you want to give your employees three weeks of vacation every year?
What will it take for you to make your ideal world a reality?
What new skills will you have to learn to grow?
Asking yourself why your business is important to you and getting as clear as possible about your professional goals will make it easier to make the right business choices moving forward. If you don’t personally connect to your why, there will be a disconnect between you and your business.
Connect With Your Connections
Building and strengthening connections with people is an invaluable part of strategic planning. People do business with people they know, like, and trust.
How are you connecting with your network right now?
Are you truly getting to know people by checking in with them and reading their posts, emails, or tweets?
Sometimes finding new clients isn’t about reaching out to new people. New customers who are already part of your personal network may be a better fit for your business. Touch base regularly with your valuable connections. Try sharing your favorite recipes, ideas, and books––you never know what might lead to a new business opportunity.
Don’t Forget About Marketing
Marketing should be a part of every strategic planning process because it leads to growth. No matter how successful your business becomes, you should continue to market to your existing and ideal customers. Here are some tips:
Be consistent and always have a marketing plan in place
Create a marketing calendar to hold your business accountable
Block out time to create good content
Know where your ideal clients are. (Do they spend their time on Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.?)
Market to your ideal clients on the platforms they use
Work on Your Business
Oftentimes, business owners spend tons of time creating their businesses but once they’re up and running, become too busy to work on their business. Making time to work on your business, not just in your business, is critical if you want continued growth.