Do you have a current road map for your business? When you launched, you probably spent a great deal of time on your business plan, set goals and outlined a strategy for achieving those goals. No doubt, your business has evolved – whether this is your first, second or tenth year – but how often do you revisit your plan?

If you joined us for our January Coffee & Conversation with strategy consultant, Robyn Knox, you started the year with a bit of a deep dive into strategic planning! Robyn gave us some excellent tools and a strategy road map, if you will, for updating your 2020 business plan. She began by posing the key questions we should ask ourselves and then led us through various exercises to help us answer the questions:

1.       Who are we? (Mission, Vision, Values)

2.       Where are we now? (SWOT Analysis)

3.       Where are we heading? (Goals)

4.       What steps are we taking? (Action Plan, Execution)

5.       What are the commitments? (Accountability)

As you would expect, there is a lot more to setting goals than simply making a list of the things you want to achieve, and the first step is making sure you are focused on the right things. To gain clarity and better focus, you need to assess your businesses in all areas: the business concept, organization, operations, and customer service, and evaluate the various aspects within each of these areas.

1.       Assess your status. How is your business doing?

2.       Assess your opportunities. Where do you see possibilities?

3.       Assess your skills. What do you need to learn?

Understanding what needs improvement and what improvement will have the greatest impact on overall business performance and will help you reach your business goals is the first bit of clarity you need in creating an effective strategy for driving your business. Understanding what might be holding you back is just as important, if not more important, than knowing what action to take to reach a goal. You may need to make specific changes first – clear the clutter, gain new skills, hire out – before you can effectively implement your strategy and corresponding action plan.

Robyn also reminded us to break down our long-range goals into attainable short-term benchmarks. The building blocks, if you will, to the big prize. Create your 30-day, 60-day and 90-day plan, and then work that plan by holding yourself accountable to the action items you need to get done each month, each week and each day. Small bites are much easier to swallow, and the same holds true for goals. Go ahead and set your long-range goals. Decide where you want to be in a year, 2 years, or 5 years, but then break down your goals into short-term benchmarks you need to hit to stay on track.

We certainly could have extended the January Coffee & Conversation as we barely scratched the surface and we may revisit this topic again for a deeper dive. If you need help now, though, Robyn is an excellent resource as are many of the competent coaches and consultants who are a part of Women to Women Network (Directory). If you are stuck in your goals or simply need a little help with your plan, make your first action item enlisting the help of an expert!