Is your business rapidly growing – at least 20% year over year? Maybe you have a management team in place, or are in the process of developing one to help you keep it all on track.
When a business grows quickly, it runs the risk of going out of balance, creating a speed wobble effect – fast and exciting, yet slightly out of control and dangerous. Click To TweetThis is where many businesses will cap out, or even scale back to a size that feels comfortable to manage. However, if your goal is to continue to scale up – in a controlled way – it’s time to take your planning to another level.
Why you need a Strategic Plan
A Strategic Plan is essentially a roadmap, from where you are now to where you want to be over the next 5+ years… with the emphasis being on “strategic thinking,” and answering the critical decisions that you must get right before inking the plan.
It’s easy to stay busy, but sustainable growth requires planning beyond the next month, quarter, or year.
Have you ever noticed that over time your business develops its own set of goals (i.e., everything that needs to be done) and that somehow turns into your task list?
Having a vision for 5+ years clarifies priorities, brings your team into alignment, and cuts through the noise of busyness.
How to get started with your Strategic Plan
Here are a couple of tips to get you going in the right direction.
Define your vision.
Where do you want to see your business in the next five to ten years? What core purpose does your business exist to fulfill? What’s the big goal? Where do you envision the growth happening?
If you can’t paint the picture for your team, they can’t help you get there.
Involve all of your stakeholders.
An effective plan cannot work in a silo. Invite your key leaders to have a seat at the table, encourage them to be a part of the conversation.
Chances are they have an entirely different perspective from the frontlines of working directly with the rest of the team and/or customers. They are also 100% more likely to buy into a plan that they help to create.
Create a scorecard.
How will you know if you have succeeded and your Strategic Plan achieved your desired outcomes? The best way to grade the completion of your plan is to develop solid measurable outcomes for your success.
Sometimes these measurements are obvious, like profitability, or the number of new clients obtained over a span of time. Those are your success indicators… but what are the success triggers?
If you are stumped here are a couple of questions to ask yourself:
- What causes this goal to occur?
- What causes increased sales?
- What causes operations to improve?
- What causes an increase in market share?
- Does everyone on the team know their role in impacting this measurement?
Join Me
If you are ready to take your planning to the next level, I invite you to check out the available opportunities here. I look forward to hearing from you.
