No Sound Strategy, No Success

Many small business owners suffer from the following symptoms which create intense barriers to business growth and viability. This piece will identify the symptoms associated with failure to engage in the strategic planning process and demonstrate how strategic planning can solve these common issues.

• Inconsistent results – The results in a particular month, whether good or bad, are not necessarily predictive of future results because the business has failed to systematize its best practices.

• Putting out fires, going in different directions – The business owner navigates each day in a reactive rather than proactive manner because the business does not have a strategic system for prioritizing value producing activities to achieve predetermined results.

• Personally overwhelmed – The business owner feels personally overwhelmed because the business is running the owner as opposed to the owner running the business. This occurs because the business owner does not have a strategic plan to maximize the quality of their business and the quality of their life.

• Team is not on the same page – The business owner is not realizing maximum profitability because the business team is not functioning at maximum productivity due to leadership, skill, or relationship issues and gaps.

• No goals and objectives to guide behavior – The business owner cannot clearly articulate their short term, medium term, and long-term goals and objectives so they cannot assess whether their current behaviors will lead to the achievement of their ultimate goals and objectives.

• No clear definition of success – The business owner has not defined success for their business and their personal life so they are constantly in a state of seeking to achieve more as opposed to establishing clear goals and metrics that will help define and recognize incremental successes as they move closer to their ultimate goals.

• Team members are in roles that do not “fit” – The business owner does not have team members with roles that are well defined and fit their skill-set. As a result, the team is not functioning at maximum productivity and the business is not functioning at maximum profitability.

• Time management, always behind – The business owner always feels like they are behind because they are working in a reactive mode rather than a proactive strategic mode that identifies core strategic needs and aligns behavior accordingly.

• Confusion regarding important corporate decisions – The business owner has difficulty weighing and evaluating competing alternatives because they cannot easily identity how the risk and reward considerations fit into their overall goals and objectives.

The one cure for all these ailments is sound strategic business planning that establishes where the business owner is now, where the business owner is going, and how the business owner is going to get from the present state to the desired future state. The action plan that establishes how a business owner moves from the present state to the desired future state represents the strategic plan for the business.

• A sound strategic business plan identifies and systematizes the core strengths of the business. So, the profits of the business become more consistent and the transfer or sale value of the business increases.

• A sound strategic business plan allows the business owner to create a proactive rather than reactive work environment. Consequently, the business owner’s daily activities are focused on areas that will increase the operational efficiency and profits of the business.

• A sound strategic business plan defines the actions that the business owner will need to take to achieve business and personal success. As a result, the business owner will not be overwhelmed by extraneous activities that will not affect the core definition of business and personal success.

• A sound strategic business plan identifies leadership, skill, or relationship gaps and creates action plans to fill these gaps and increase productivity. So, the business owner is able to enjoy the increased profits that result from closing these drains on productivity.

• A sound strategic business plan allows the business owner to clearly articulate their short term, medium term, and long-term goals. Consequently, the business owner is able to assess whether their current path and resulting metrics are pointing towards the achievement of their long-term goals.

• A sound strategic business plan provides the owner with a clear definition of success. As a result, the business owner is able to establish a clear vision of their path to success and the measurements of that success.

• A sound strategic business plan identifies the key employees and aligns their roles in a way that will maximize the productivity of the business. So, the business owner is able to prosper from the increased profits that arise from the substantial rises in productivity.

• A sound strategic business plan puts the business owner in control of the business. Consequently, they are always prioritizing instead of falling behind.

• A sound strategic business plan eliminates the confusion surrounding important corporate decisions because the business owner is able to measure risk and reward against a clearly defined view of success. As a result, the business owner does not need to agonize over competing paths that may or may not align with their business goals.

If you would like to establish a much stronger business development culture that is enhanced by sophisticated, affordable, and on-demand business development education, please feel free to email me at bkerrigan@whcpa.com or call me at 774-306-6135.

Brian Kerrigan

Do I Need Business Development Training? Maybe

This blog will discuss some symptoms of less than optimal business development systems. If your organization is plagued with these symptoms, we may diagnose you with inadequate business development syndrome. This syndrome is best treated with business development training that is sophisticated, affordable, and on-demand.

1.       You are not surrounded by a business development opportunity seeking culture. The people in a high achieving business development organization consider each touch point with a customer, prospect, or strategic partner as an opportunity to show new value and enhance the relationship. If your organization is not focused on new value and enhanced relationships with every interaction, you are probably not performing your business development functions at an optimal level.

2.       You cannot identify the pains and problems of your clients, customers, or prospects with absolute precision. If you are going to be a high achieving business development organization, you must be able to step into the shoes of your target and understand the world from their perspective.

3.       Your target market is everybody such as all business owners. Every business owner does not need your service offering. Your job is to fully understand the quantitative and qualitative aspects of your particular target market and articulate your problem solving abilities within this particular target market.

4.       You rely on one marketing tactic to acquire all of your business. We often run into this situation with service providers that claim that 100% of their business comes from referrals. It is great that customers and strategic partners are referring new business to you through a passive type system because they see the value in your service offering. But, if you really want to ramp up growth, you will probably need to venture outside of a passive type system and include some direct attempts to reach clients where they are through direct contact, content marketing, and social media channels.

5.       You describe what you do with the title assigned to your profession. A good example would be saying that you are an accountant. By saying this, you are basically categorizing yourself as a typical bean counter that prepares reports based on historical data as opposed to a forward looking dynamic business advisor that gleans financial statement trends to double the value of your business in a seven to ten year period. Which description is more interesting to you?

6.       You do not sound any different than other people in your profession. In this scenario, you may be going beyond your title and touting your years of experience and customer service. Your experience level and customer service capabilities are assumed in the proposed relationship. Your job is to highlight why you are different than other professionals who provide a similar service. After all, they call it competition for a reason and the differentiated service offering usually wins.

7.       Your website is effectively a brochure and it sounds and looks like all of your competitor’s websites. You probably have a page about the business, a page about your service offerings, a page about industries served, and a contacts page. These are simply the bare minimum features of a business website. If you want to create a compelling stop along the information super highway, you are going to have to include features that are different and encourage repeat visits to your site.

8.       You are networking with everybody. We all know the professional networkers that attend all of the local networking events. They are acquainted with everybody, but they seldom have meaningful relationships with anybody. If you find yourself in this predicament, you need to focus on the quality as opposed to the quantity of your networking interactions.

9.       You check in with prospects instead of providing value with each interaction. We have all been down this road before. You call the prospect to check on the status of the project that you are hoping to provide. Wouldn’t it be more compelling and enhance the relationship more if you called with an idea that could help enhance their business immediately or make an introduction to someone who could help the business achieve new heights.

10.   You are not receiving any responses to your content marketing. Your content marketing should be about your prospects problems and pains instead of your service offering. Prospects need to be able to self-identify their needs with your direction. If you create compelling content that speaks to the pains and problems of your target market, you will get responses to your content marketing.

If you would like to establish a much stronger business development culture that is enhanced by sophisticated, affordable, and on-demand business development education, please feel free to email me at bkerrigan@whcpa.com or call me at 774-306-6135.