Strategic Foundation
Why Strategy Matters
The #1 problem most service businesses suffer from is that they have no strategic plan to guide their activities. They do not regularly (at least yearly) commit to paper exactly what they want to accomplish and how they intend to do so.
Instead, they’re simply "blown about" by whatever chance brings to their business. They don’t plan for business fluctuations, have a strategy to access their target market, or think about how to accomplish specific goals. They spend their business time "putting out fires" rather than making sure no fires get started.
There’s Another Strategic Issue for Small Businesses
Most Small Businesses Do Not Have Access To Strategic Consulting
Most small business owners don’t have a strategic consultant available to them. Sure, they might have a spouse or parent to talk over business matters with, but these aren’t professionals. They may get good advice and they may not. In most cases, they get mixed results, or they get input that is not objective in the way that an entrepreneur needs.
Here’s your chance to start your marketing needs off right by putting together a simple strategic plan to guide your business.
It’s Not Your Fault You Don’t Understand Strategy—Nobody Teaches It!
Strategy—What’s a Strategy?
Most small business owners respond with confusion when asked, "What is your business strategy?" They don’t know what strategy means or how to create one for their business. They’ve never learned to put together and use a strategy. This is nothing to be ashamed of. Strategic behavior is seldom taught—unless you’ve been in the military. Here’s an article I’ve written that explains what a strategy is: What Is A Strategy?
If you’re a small business owner, there’s little likelihood that you learned anything about strategic planning to run your business. You might learn it at an entrepreneur center or during an MBA program, but most business owners are not exposed to this training. Obviously, you must do some things strategic in your business (or you would not have a business), but this is mainly confined to keeping the business afloat—not growing or expanding it.
How You Might Be Missing Out By Not Having a Business Strategy
Failure To Work Strategically Wastes Business Resources
There are many ways that your business can suffer because you don’t work strategically. You lose out on opportunities to increase your revenue. You pursue markets that are marginally profitable. You may spend your time, energy and financial resources on activities that bring little benefit. You can frequently feel like you’re "spinning your wheels", and never gain either traction or momentum.
Some owners even have unwritten strategies that get results for their business, but they might be missing out on revenue opportunities, or the business might not be thriving because they don’t "connect the dots" and get a Big Picture. They have multiple ideas, but no method to "reality test" them for bottom line potential. This fractured approach robs them of concentrating on profitable business activities. If this describes you, you might even have the sense that you could be doing a lot better, but you’re unsure how, or don’t know how to put your ideas into action.
Working in isolation causes some business owners to feel very frustrated and dispirited because they do not know how to change what’s going on for their business. They try one thing and then another. Nothing seems to work. They suffer in quiet desperation.
Are You Operating Your Business Strategically?
Do You Recognize Strategic Activity?
Many—maybe most—small business owners operate their business without ever putting together and executing a strategy. They don’t do any of the following:
- Look ahead and plan long term for the business. They don’t decide where they want their business to be in a year, three years, five years. They don’t detail out what tactics and actions they will take to get there.
- Distinguish between profitable and non-profitable activities. They behave as if all potential business activities are equally valuable. They charge ahead doing "something" without assessing true profit potential.
- Explore and plan to pursue other opportunities. They simply do what they’ve been doing—even when it’s no longer working. They don’t plan to create opportunities and they don’t respond well when opportunity presents itself.
- Stay ahead of their competition. Maybe they aren’t even aware of who their competition is. They aren’t paying enough attention to market trends, and get caught unprepared as circumstances shift.
- Know exactly what to do and when to do it to get desired results. They have not laid out a detailed plan along with projected timelines. Even when they "plan" to do something, they let "life" get in the way. Without a written plan, they’re distracted or confused about what to do and when to do it so that they can succeed in business.
- Have a method to avoid confusion when faced with choices among numerous possibilities. They don’t have a tool to use to assess their best business activities or to filter their choices through.
- Distinguish between short term and long term tactics. This causes them to constantly feel like they’re in a "pressure cooker". Without making a distinction between short and long term, they believe and behave as if they have to do it all NOW.
- Know what to focus on at all times for best results. Without a written plan and timeline (at least a general one), there is no point of focus. Without a point of focus—revealed by the timeline—they don’t know what to do next and their energies are dissipated on unimportant and unproductive activities.
- Fully understand all the action steps required to accomplish their strategy. Without a written strategy, they have no clear idea of the actions they need to take, nor their sequence. They—if they work strategically at all—tend to take random, sporadic and unpredictable action that produces few or no results. They give up quickly and tend to frequently abandon their "strategic" efforts.
- Definitely know and execute their #1 priority at all times. They have no idea what their #1 priority is for the day, week, month or year. They tend to believe that they have forty #1 priorities. Rather than keeping focused at all times on the main priority they need to accomplish their strategy, they’re distracted by all sorts of non-strategic activities and trivial pursuits.
Strategic Planning Might be your Answer
Strategies Aren’t Just for the "Big Boy" (or "Big Girl") Corporate Players
If the description above accurately portrays some of your discomfort, you may find that developing a strategy and consistently executing it might be the solution for you.
This Is Likely To Work For You If…
This service may be right for you if you’re ready to clarify your business strategy, write it down, and run your business from your strategic plan. Here’s a description of the characteristics of clients who are successful with this sevice:
- You have some ideas about what you want to accomplish in your business. You’ve got some sort of vision for your business. You know that you want more and you want help figuring out how to get it.
- You also have ideas about what actions might get you there. You’re not sure if they’re the best ideas or most practical methods. You want to consult and consider various options.
- You’re committed to follow through and excellent at doing so. When you decide to do something, you also decide to do whatever it takes to accomplish it. You take a lot of pride in being the sort who pledges what you’ll do and unfailingly keeps that pledge
- You’ve had success in other business endeavors. You have a track record of winning and you’re accustomed to being a Winner (with a capital "W"). You understand that success breeds success.
- You’re not a Quitter. In fact, it never even occurs to you to quit on your plans. You’re not going to let setbacks, obstacles, or challenges keep you from completing your plans.
- You’re persistent. You understand the value of persistance—the ability to keep putting "one foot in front of the other"—no matter what happens. You know that persistence is often the one factor that separates successes from failures.
- You’re consistent. You know that consistent action over time is the key to success. You’re willing to take small actions over a long term and you understand how that behavior turns small tasks into major accomplishments.
- You’re willing to work out a plan and to execute it. In fact, you want a coherent plan. You’re ready to lay down the details of what you will do and when you will do them. You welcome professional input from a business and marketing consultant.
- You make no excuses. In your way of thinking, excuses, blame, and lack of commitment are the ways of those who never realize their business goals. In your philosophy, making excuses is not an option.
Here’s How The Strategic Foundation Service Works
This is a fairly inexpensive service and an excellent way to get started laying a business foundation. Below, you’ll find out all the details about how this service works.
First You Buy the Service
If you still have questions and you’d like me to call you back, you can request me to contact you by using the contact form below. Once we’ve spoken and you’re ready to start, you pay for the service, and the process starts immediately. Once you have purchased, this is what you can expect.
Step One: You Immediately Receive a Strategy Tool To Begin to Plan Your Strategy
This MS Word document is simple and provides you with a way to pour out all your ideas onto paper. Initially, all you will do is a "brain dump", not worrying about logic, order or practicality. In fact, the more free flowing you can be, the better final results you will get.
You spend time going back over your previous plans, going through planning files or documents, and finding all those great ideas you’ve jotted down on bits of paper. Once you’re sure that you’ve got everything dumped into the document, you start to arrange it in some logical fashion (according to the instructions).
- When you’re satisfied that you have a good solid first draft, we set a time for our first two hour strategic planning session by phone.
- You send me your typed up first draft before our session, in plenty of time for me to prepare.
- I review your work, spending approximately fifteen minutes.
Step Two: We Have Our First Phone Session (Two Hours)
We have our first two hour session. I ask questions about the strategy you have sent me and, together we clarify exactly what you want to accomplish. We consider the best, simplest, fastest and most direct ways to get your business to where you want it to be. We delete anything that does not contribute to that goal, or is unlikely to get you there the quickest.
During our discussion, you’ll get "A-Ha!" moments and realizations that are enlightening. These might be about the direction of your business, target market, or your current methods. You’ll get honest with yourself about those things you don’t want to do any longer, and come up with new ideas that excite you. It’s a thrilling and inspiring session where you start to get clarity and certainty about your best business approach.
While we talk, you will hear me typing furiously, recording the ideas to preserve them for you. In addition, the phone call will be recorded so that you can listen to it over and over and get the most out of it over the long term. After the session, I send you the following:
- The (unedited) typed notes of our call
- An MP3 file of our conversation
Step Three: You Revise Your Strategy
You take the notes I have sent you, and all the additional information gleaned from our strategic session and rework your strategy. You refine the ideas and spend some time "building out" the ones you are willing to commit to. You let go of those you no longer want to pursue. You put together more information about how to accomplish what you want. You organize the activities into tactics. You write out all the action steps required. You organize the action steps into a time line. You put the actions into a logical sequence. You polish and perfect.
- We make an appointment for the second session.
- You send me your strategy well in advance of our appointment so that I can review it and prepare.
- I spend approximately 15 minutes reviewing your strategy.
Step Four: We Have Our Second Phone Session (One Hour)
We have our next phone session which lasts an hour. Again, we do "reality testing", get clarity, revise, explore and examine. We’ll look at any weaknesses or potential problem areas. It may become obvious that you need to research, learn, study or gain skills in order to succeed. All that is clarified and added to the strategy. We examine how realistic your time line is and make adjustments. Again, I’m typing up all these ideas as we go and the conversation is being recorded for you to listen to later.
We explore whether there might be ways to simplify or streamline your strategic success. We see if there are any other opportunities to consider. We separate short term and mid-term strategies from long term plans.We Make our next appointment.
After the session, you will again receive the following:
- The (unedited) typed notes of our call
- An MP3 file of our conversation
Step Five: You Take This Plan and Construct the Final Draft
You take all that material and put together a final draft of your strategic plan. By now, you’re good at strategic planning. You understand the process, and you know how to do it. You’re able to complete this quickly.
- You send me your completed document to review in advance of our call, giving me plenty of time to prepare.
- I spend approximately 15 minutes reviewing your document.
Step Six: We Have Our Last Phone Session (30 Minutes)
We have our third and last 30 minute phone session. For most people, this session goes really fast. They’re ready to execute. They know what they are going to do. They have a clear plan. In fact, they’ve already started taking action.
You can use this session for any last minute fine tuning of your strategy. We might spend time on some new ideas or any questions you need answered. We explore strategic issues that have arisen and eliminate last minute problems. As we work, I’ll be typing into your strategy document to capture what we discuss. The conversation is also recorded for your future use.
After the session, you again receive the following:
- The (unedited) typed notes of our call
- An MP3 file of our conversation
Here’s What You Get In The Strategic Foundation Service
You end up with a clearly detailed strategic plan for your business. You know what you are going to do and when you are going to do it. You know what actions you will take to accomplish your goal. You truly learn how to put together a strategy for your business—and to opt for the most profitable strategies. You do reality testing. Best of all, you collabore with a consultant who can help you filter through all your possibilities and figure out what is going to work best for you, your personality and your business. Here are the specific "deliverables" you receive in addition.
You Get This…
- Three and a half hours of Phone Consultation on Your Strategy—We have three phone consultations. During this time, we review and refine your strategy, examine profitability, practicality and whether or not your strategy "plays to" your strengths.
- The first session is two hours.
- The second session is an hour.
- The third session is 30 minutes.
- A Complete and Detailed Strategy—You know exactly what you need to do to accomplish your objective. You have specific tactics, and all the action steps to implement them. You’re clear when you will be doing what, because you have a timeline for all your activities.
- Strategy Tool—This tool provides a method to put together and consolidate all your strategic activity in one place. It is a simple method that will help you understand how to construct a strategy and how to operate your business using and revising a strategy as you go.
- Consultant Review and Analysis of Each Iteration of Your Strategy (three sessions)—You send your latest draft to me in advance of each phone session. I use this draft to prepare for the session and to come up with ideas, suggestions, feedback and questions. This takes approximately 15 minutes for each call, for a total of 45 minutes.
- Typed Notes From All The Sessions—During all the sessions, I will be typing our ideas and concepts into the strategy document as we work. This allows you to "free associate" and not worry about capturing the content of the conversation. After each of the three sessions, you receive these (unedited) notes.
- An MP3 of Each Session—The phone sessions are conducted on a conference line and the call is recorded. Once the call is complete, you receive the MP3 from each call (3 MP3′s).
Plus, You Also Get This…
- Consultation on Revenue and Profit—Our #1 priority during all our strategic discussions is to stay focused on those strategies and activities that will increase the revenue and profit of your business.
- Clarity On What You Need To Do At All Times—You have a tool in place that keeps you focused on and taking highest priority action at all times. You don’t waste time and energy figuring out what to do, or doing non-strategic activities.
- Skill In Strategic Planning, and a Tool To Use—When you’ve finished this process, you have a clear understanding about how to create a strategy and the ability to create an effective strategy for any objective.
- Confidence That Your Strategy Will Be Effective In Accomplishing Your Business Objective—Since we’ll be doing consistent "reality testing" as we create your strategy, you’ll feel confident that your strategy will work and that you’ve put together the best strategy possible. You’ll also understand how to change your strategy "on the fly" as circumstances dictate.
Where to Next?
From here, you can explore each of WOW Factor Writing’s different services or go on to the About Suzi page to learn about the background, experience and training that qualifies me to deliver these services.
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Interested In the Strategic Foundation Service?
Pick Up That Phone and Call, Or Fill In the Short Form Below!
If you’d like to talk about your Strategic Foundation service needs, or if you have questions, you can either click the Contact Us button or fill out the form below and we’ll connect with you to set up a time to talk.