The ides of March are nearly upon us – are you wary? Julius Caesar notwithstanding, the first quarter of the year has pretty much come and gone. As the leader of your business, it is your duty to create a business strategy for the year. Have you done it?
Why you need a business strategy
Think of your business as a journey. You start at point A. You want to get to point B. How do you get there? You need a roadmap for your business goals. You need a strategy.
First, define your goals
Before you can craft a strategy, you must identify specific business goals. What do you want to achieve this year? What is a reasonable goal? Your goals should make you stretch but not break. Most people can’t spend a billion dollars to acquire a particular population segment as their customers, so be realistic.
Make a map
Once your goals are clear, you can begin thinking about how to get there. You’ll need to consider a few things:
- Marketing
- Advertising
- Investments
- Staffing
- Sales
- Tracking results
How it works
Take this as an example. Let’s say you’re a multinational social media platform called Imageplace. You have cornered the market on Generation X and Boomer users. But you want Millennials to flock to you. That is your goal. The question is, how do you woo that audience? Answer: with a business strategy.
For Imageplace, you could devote countless dollars and staff hours to developing new elements in your portfolio of offerings. But what if you do your due diligence and think out a viable strategy? What if you discover that the fastest way to your goal is simply to purchase the leading, hot, new social media platform where the Millennials already are? You simply buy ImmediatePhoto for a billion dollars. Boom! You have all the Millennial customers you could ever want.
Create your own strategy
Not confident about your strategic planning abilities? An online business manager can walk you through it.
If you haven’t created a strategic plan for your business this year, I can get it done. Contact me today and we’ll talk about how I can help!
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