Your Small Business Strategy in UNDER 4 Hours

So, you’re a small business. Things are crazy as you knock down goal after goal every day. Let me ask you something? When was the last time you thought about whether those daily activities that keep you so busy are the “right” ones? Are they leading toward your business’s long-term success? Are they aligned with your long-term strategy, vision, and goals? Do you even have a long-term strategy, vision, and goals? How long has it been since you even had a chance to even think about it?

Here’s a super-easy way to get the ball rolling in just a few hours. The idea is to keep it short – and still get the most from your time together.

Settin’ It Up–

There are a few things you should do in advance to get the most out of your session.

• Put it on everyone’s calendar – and don’t let it slip. Let your team know how important this is. Set aside about half a day.
• If you have them, revisit any previous plans. Read them Have your team read them. Remind yourselves what you have done so far. Make notes about how much this plan reflects your current thinking. Tell your team that you won’t be limited to what is in those previous documents. You will search (together) for the best path forward for the company.
• Set your team’s expectations. Let them know the purpose and benefits of what you are planning to do. No, you won’t have a full-fledged business strategy, but everyone will have more common goals and a common understanding of where this ship is sailing.
• You will want to keep all the notes and scribbles form your session. If you are using a whiteboard have someone to keep notes off the board. If you are using a paper flipchart plan to take the pages you use.

Runnin’ The Show

Here’s how you might structure your session. You can use this framework to (relatively) quickly take your team through some of the critical elements of your business’s future. But, of course, feel free to modify it for your needs.

1. Introduction (10-15 minutes)

Remind the team that this is a short (for strategic planning), informal planning session. Remember to put everyone at ease. It’s a very frank, open discussion. Don’t tell them all the steps in advance, but do tell them that you will cover areas from mission and vision – and resulting in some concrete strategies.

II. Mission (15-20 minutes)

Goal: To clearly describe the problem you are trying to solve – and for whom. Who are we here for? What problems are we here to solve?

Activity: Ask your team to answer this question together: “We believe ____________.” Use the question to discuss your market, who your customers are, the challenges they face, and how you solve (or will solve) them in a unique way.

 III. Customers (10-15 minutes)

Goal: To dive down more deeply about who your customers are (and who they aren’t) and develop a clearer understanding of the problems they face. Who’s buying from us?

Activity: Go around the room and have each person describe who they think your ideal customer is – and the key challenges they face. Capture the key ideas – on a board or flipchart. Summarize these into a set of customer characteristics. And then for each identify why each one is important for your team to know – and what it means for your business).

IV. Vision (30-40 minutes)

Goal: To describe what your organization will look like in 3-5 years. Everyone needs to know where you are headed, don’t they?

Activity: Have your team discuss the products/services you will sell. Cover these characteristics (if they are applicable to your business): Business size, products and services you will sell, locations, your market share, the “feeling” interacting with your business will evoke.

V. Brand (30-40 minutes)

Goal: To clearly describe what your brand stands for. If we don’t know who the heck we are, how can we expect customers to know?

Activity: Have your team discuss this question: “If I met a customer or potential customer on the street and asked them to describe our company, what would we want them to say?” Capture the keywords on a flipchart or whiteboard. Then go back and look at the list. Try to group them into themes.

VI. Strategic Goals/Direction (30-40 minutes)

Goal: To have your entire team on the same page about the business’s most critical goals over the next 2-3 years. Let’s get everyone rowing in the same direction.

 Activity: Keeping in mind the discussion your team has had thus far, ask them to list what they think are the business’s top three goals over the next 12-18 months. NOTE: At the end of the 2-3 year time period you may not have your vision completely in place, but these goals should be designed with an eye toward moving you in that direction.

VII. Strategies (15-20 minutes)

Goal: To have your entire team understand and be in agreement about the business’s primary strategies that will help you achieve your goals. How do we plan to get there?

 Activity: For each strategic goal listed in the last part, have your team split up into groups. Have each group take one strategic goal and in 5 minutes list some strategies that can help you reach that goal. Have them present those ideas to the entire group.

If you don’t have enough people to split up, just do this as a group or assign a strategic goal to 1-2 people.

VIII. Closing (10-15 minutes)

End the session by thanking your team for their time, their openness, and their great ideas. Tell them that you will summarize all this and share it. Reiterate that you are committed to taking action on what was discussed. And then go ahead and take action!

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You’ll accomplish a ton in just half a day! Post-session you will discuss how to implement these strategies – how to turn strategies into more concrete tasks and action steps.

If you’d rather have someone from outside your business come in and walk you through a strategy session I’d love to come help you! Just drop me a line at BCohen@IDiscoverConsulting.com or use our contact page: http://www.idiscoverconsulting.com/contact.html.