This Strategic Planning Process Predicts Your Success

When you run a business, it’s easy to get so caught up working in the business that you neglect to work on the business. And what often doesn’t get enough of our time and focus is the strategic planning process.

A BIG PART OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS INVOLVES LOOKING SERIOUSLY AT WHAT YOUR CURRENT STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES ARE AND WHAT AREAS YOU NEED TO DEVOTE MORE ATTENTION TO.

You’re probably familiar with The Wheel of Life, which is portrayed graphically as a circle with several spokes on it representing the various aspects of your personal life … work, family, health, friends, finances, spiritual life, community, relationships, etc. You make each spoke a certain length, based on the amount of attention you give it and the importance you’ve assigned to it in your life. A short spoke means you don’t give that area much attention.

You then connect the ends of the spokes. A pretty balanced wheel is what you’re after, and if your wheel is unbalanced … with some spokes much shorter than the others … you know what areas of your life you could stand to pay more attention to.

Well, we created a wheel for your business too, with the purpose of identifying areas where you might benefit from spending more of your time and attention.

THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS REQUIRES YOU TO BE REALLY HONEST WITH YOURSELF, EVALUATING WHERE YOU MAY NOT BE PERFORMING AT 100% … WHERE YOU MAY NEED TO WORK A LITTLE HARDER OR GET SOME HELP FROM OTHERS, EITHER WITHIN OR OUTSIDE YOUR BUSINESS.

Which areas would those be? Well first, let’s identify what areas we’re talking about. What do business people have to handle well in order to make the business work? You have to do a good job of all of the following:

• Providing your service and dealing with client service issues.
• Marketing yourself intelligently and converting prospects into paying clients.
• Managing the operations side of the business … general administration, scheduling, billing, handling accounts receivable, dealing with accounting and tax issues, complying with government mandates, wrangling IT and equipment issues, etc.
• Developing your team into something special. Hiring and retaining the right people to work with you and training them well. Managing the people side of your operations, which includes focusing on setting team goals … defining roles … establishing rules / policies, processes and procedures … enhancing communication … and fostering a healthy team culture.
• Managing the financial side of the business, so you’re profitable and stable and everything flows smoothly.
• Engaging in the strategic planning process. Yes, part of the strategic planning process is scheduling time to do ongoing visioning and strategic planning, regardless of how many urgent matters you’re facing in the business that demand your attention. The first step here involves assessing your market … the demand that exists, the competition you face, and developments in the field … and figuring out what may need to change in the way you do business.

Are there other things you need to attend to? Sure, but these are the biggies. Cover your bases in these areas and you’ll be fine. Let one of them languish and you could be creating a problem.

The keys to achieving a balanced wheel of business are first, to be aware of what you need to be paying attention to and working on. The other keys are taking the time to not only engage in the strategic planning process, but to follow-through on the actions you set out for yourself to take on … even when you want to say, “I don’t have the time!”

Where do we come in? We help you assess where you are, identify your strengths and areas for improvement, perform the planning in a robust and systematic way, guide you in implementing your plan, and hold you accountable for following through.

If that’s sounds like that’s the kind of help you could use, we’d be glad to talk with you about how we might help.

“My income in the first quarter of this year was more than the entire previous calendar year, thanks to my coaching with Denise! In just a few months, she helped me shift my mindset about sales. I can now embrace it as a way to authentically help others. She also helped me see and fill knowledge gaps as I was growing my business. Denise generously shares her business expertise and provides coaching in a way that’s encouraging, challenging, and fun. I’m grateful for the experience and would do it again in a heartbeat! In fact, I probably will!”

Perry Ann Scott

COACH & CONSULTANT, ATLANTA, GA