TKG Strategic

Congratulations to you if your business has a strategic plan in place! If you’ve been using the plan through regular monitoring of the implementation process, you’ve seen the benefits of the plan for your business. You also may be seeing many of the strategic initiatives being completed. So when do you revisit the planning process?

Each business should plan an annual review/revision/rewrite of their strategic plan. This process identifies the completed initiatives, the initiatives that need revision, and the new areas that need to be addressed and added to the plan. Approximately every three years, the comprehensive strategic planning process should be completed for the business. If you want to develop a comprehensive strategic plan, contact me to help facilitate the process.

The last blog entry discussed a slow down or stalling in the implementation of a strategic initiative. This can happen at any time with a strategic plan roll-out. But what do you do if a strategic initiative just doesn’t work out?

Occasionally a strategic initiative is written that seemed sound and doable when the strategic plan was developed. However, internal changes (staffing, dollars, alternative options, etc.), or external changes (new regulations, supply issues, etc.) may prevent completion of the initiative. This is real and it happens.

This is the perfect opportunity for your strategic team (who is monitoring the implementation of the plan), to revisit and revise the initiative in question at a regular review of the plan. It doesn’t take a whole new planning session. It just requires the identification of the issues and a re-write of the initiative to get back on track. Contact me if I can assist you in this process.

If you noticed a break in the blog entries recently, it’s true! I left a few weeks open because of other priorities. But that’s how real life – and real business – is!

It’s not uncommon to have a strategic initiative stall out for some reason. It may be due to other initiatives taking more effort; it may be due to a lack of resources to move ahead; or it may be some other reason. But that’s the real world! And that is why ongoing, periodic review of the strategic plan progress is so important.

A weekly (or other periodic) review of progress will alert the team to glitches that may develop in strategic implementation. This alert allows the team to adjust to these “real life/real business” issues in a timely manner and continue the implementation of the strategic plan. Contact me if you’d like to re-energize your strategic plan.

Remember when you were a small child and you would measure how tall you were getting on a growth chart of some type at home?  It may have been a printed chart that allowed you to write the date and your age on the chart or it may have been a wall behind a door where the progress of growth of each child in the family was dutifully noted in pencil.  It was fun to see the progress and to compare each child’s growth with other members of the family.

Likewise, it is important for a small business to “chart its growth”.  Where will you be one year from now?  Will it be “growth by accident or chance” or will it be “planned growth”?

What is “planned growth”?  It is the measurement of your business’ growth against strategic initiatives that you have defined and against which you will chart your course and measure your growth.  It’s a strategic plan!  Contact me today to get your plan in place so you can chart your growth!

Very few individuals would think of starting out on a long trip without a map, GPS, or some other navigational aid to assure them of getting to their destination.  In light of that, why would a small business owner launch a valuable business without a “map” to get to the destination or dream for that business?  That “map” is a strategic plan and NOW is the time for you to develop a strategic plan if you don’t have one.  Contact me today to help you “map” your business growth!

If you doubt the value of a strategic plan, just talk to a small business owner who has one!  You will soon learn how valuable and necessary  that strategic plan is for your business success!  Contact me today to start the process!

It’s spring and that simple statement should remind you to “spring into action”.  Now is the time to develop and/or update your strategic plan!  I would love to facilitate this process with your business team. Contact me today to set the date for your planning session!

You might wonder how spending money can save money.  It’s true!  The money spent in the facilitation of a strategic plan can save money in the future for the business in many ways.

Strategic planning identifies critical elements of business growth and defines essential steps for timely action.  By following this process, redundancy that may occur without the plan is eliminated.  In addition, the strategic plan gives the business a “map” for development.  This map will allow the business to capture opportunities that develop in purchasing systems, networking opportunities, sales, new personnel contacts, and many other areas where the opportunity would be overlooked had the business not identified its need in the strategic plan.  Contact me today to try it for yourself and see the savings you can achieve.

“Strategic planning sounds like a good concept.  I’d like to do that …some day.”  I’ve heard this comment expressed often.  A small business owner may think that a strategic plan is something that should be done after the company grows to a certain size.  Or, one might view a strategic plan as an element of growth and therefore something that can be done in the future.  Often a comment is made that one would like a strategic plan but there isn’t time to make one.

My experience has shown that the time spent in strategic planning is well worth the effort and provides great dividends!  It is an element of business development that should be done before any other step – including writing the business plan.  It is a process that captures a myriad of details and puts order to the process of growing the business.

The business that takes the time to develop the strategic plan will find out that they save time in the long run as their business grows. There is no time like the present.  Contact me today and find out!

Strategic plans are often viewed as only essential for a large business entity or a start-up business. In reality, they exist for all of those and more! A strategic plan is very useful if a business is planning a major event. The major event could be the start of a new product line; a sponsorship of a particular event; or the roll-out of a single product.

The components of strategic planning provide the process and structure for capturing essential elements of a major initiative. If your business is considering such an event, contact me to develop the strategic plan.