Develop a Strategic Plan for your business today!
As the owner of a small to medium-sized business, finding the opportunities and infrastructure for growth can be tough. There are many moving parts that you will be responsible for especially how those parts operate and maintain stability on a month-to-month basis. If you’re looking to grow and improve your services over the long term, strategic planning is imperative.
Just because something is important, that doesn’t mean it’s obvious how to do it right. What does strategic planning mean when it comes to your small business and where should you start in developing these strategies?
Listen to Your Team
While partnering with an agency or firm is often a fantastic way to begin strategically planning for your business, not all help has to come from outside. Including your team in strategic planning provides you with a number of different perspectives to collaborate with. It also ensures transparency and accountability across all areas of your business.
This also proves to employees that their voices are being heard and can potentially promote further discussion and lateral thinking from your team in regard to how services can be expanded and improved. Giving your employees more of a reason to care about the direction of your business allows for a progressive and positive future.
Plans are expected to change
“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry”; it’s not just a memorable line.
Imagine reading and memorising every single book available on the subject of golf. You had never played the game but theoretically, you knew everything that there was to know.
How do you think you would go competing in a match against someone that had been playing for years? It’s likely that while the theoretical knowledge would take you part of the way in creating what you believe to be a perfect setup for success – practical experience would ultimately prevail. This is because one of you has ideas about how a game “should” go, while the other is more inclined to learn and adapt based on past experience. This idea is the same when it comes to strategically planning for your business.
You may think that you’ve created the perfect plan for success but in the end, putting plans into practice has an uncanny way of uncovering hidden faults and flaws. Being willing and ready to regularly review the impact of your strategies with a scrutinising eye will make it easier to course-correct and increase the likelihood of success.
There’s no one answer when trying to promote growth and build a successful business. Make sure that you are ready to make changes when something isn’t working out, and take note when something is.
Don’t take it on alone
Even the most successful entrepreneurs in history always had people backing them and nobody is expecting you to take on the planning role alone. It can also be hugely beneficial to get an outside perspective on your business and collaborate with a team of specialist advisors.
Plans are expected to change
“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry”; it’s not just a memorable line.
Imagine reading and memorising every single book available on the subject of golf. You had never played the game but theoretically, you knew everything that there was to know.
How do you think you would go competing in a match against someone that had been playing for years? It’s likely that while the theoretical knowledge would take you part of the way in creating what you believe to be a perfect setup for success – practical experience would ultimately prevail. This is because one of you has ideas about how a game “should” go, while the other is more inclined to learn and adapt based on past experience. This idea is the same when it comes to strategically planning for your business.
You may think that you’ve created the perfect plan for success but in the end, putting plans into practice has an uncanny way of uncovering hidden faults and flaws. Being willing and ready to regularly review the impact of your strategies with a scrutinising eye will make it easier to course-correct and increase the likelihood of success.
There’s no one answer when trying to promote growth and build a successful business. Make sure that you are ready to make changes when something isn’t working out, and take note when something is.
Don’t take it on alone
Even the most successful entrepreneurs in history always had people backing them and nobody is expecting you to take on the planning role alone. It can also be hugely beneficial to get an outside perspective on your business and collaborate with a team of specialist advisors.
Accru has been providing advice and successful strategies to businesses for over 50 years. From wealth creation strategies to assistance with payroll and self-managed superannuation. We offer business insights from advisory specialists dedicated to growing and analysing your business. Contact our Advisory Specialists today. Alternatively, you can complete your contact details below or give us a call on (03) 9835 8200.
