Ten useful tips for addressing your strategic components.

If you are experiencing a lull in the performance of your business, or you are seeking inspiration to kick start the next phase in your quest for success, maybe it’s time to re-write your business plan.

It is surprising how many people in business simply choose not to write a business plan at all. Some of my own clients have told me that they originally envisaged creating a file that would sit idly in a drawer or on their desktop, mistakenly feeling that their time would be better spent elsewhere. Couple this with the intensity of task orientated priorities and its easy to see why we can easily overlook the obvious.

My advice is to rethink why you should write your business plan and how you will use it. If you treat it as an integral part of what you do and continually improve its component parts, you will be pleasantly surprised by your sharpened efficiency and, at the very least, you will become acutely aware of your priorities.

Addressing the component parts of an effective, evolving business plan will ably assist in the smooth running of your working day. Here’s a ten point snapshot with some key points which should help you get your own business plan in shape:

 Overview: Your executive summary.

Perfect your elevator pitch.

Outline your product, service and consumer interface.

Identify your target market segments and territory.

Pinpoint your sales and marketing strategy.                                            

 Include robust competitor analysis.

Carry out your own SWOT analysis.

Detail your overhead and how it will be managed.

Summarise your cashflow and forecast.

Identify your contingency path and risk management.

Clearly there is detail behind each of these bullet points, but I am sure you get the gist of the sentiment here. These are my recommended categories to get you started (and I am more than happy to elaborate). Finding the time to actually detail how you apply your knowledge, skills and time to each of these categories will help you to educate yourself about your own strengths and development areas.

The most significant point I would encourage you to take away from reading this post is that your business plan  should evolve. Use this framework as a continual improvement tool. Choose one category each week and read it. Week on week, you will find yourself perfecting techniques and content and, over time, your business plan will become your “go to” for inspiration.

Don’t overlook the benefit of a robust business plan,

If you are using yours correctly, it will never get chance to gather dust!

I sincerely hope that these business tips are helpful to you.

Please get in touch for more information or email: info@williams.coach to arrange a consultation.

Best wishes,

Anita Williams