Are You Neglecting Your Small Business Strategy?

Is it really true that many small business owners operate without a small business strategy? It’s common for many business owners to start their business as a result of being in the right place at the right time when an opportunity presents itself. That opportunity may have been a family business they stepped into, friendly guidance they received, or even just a hobby that brought a special talent of theirs to the surface. Why might that make running a small business more difficult?

Very few start a business with an eye towards looking for the best business to start, a method we call an entrepreneurial approach. As a result, it is easy to find a variety of business development strategies in the small business world. As a business owner, a good question to ask yourself is, “What is my business development strategy?” If you do not have a strategy and you just roll with the punches, taking it a day at a time and “hoping” that your business will develop, you are doing your business a huge disservice.

Why is your business development strategy important?

Consider that many of us use planes to reliably get us to far destinations. Now imagine flying a plane with no clear idea where it’s going. It gets worse though! Would you still board (let alone fly) the plane if you knew that there were no flight plan, no safety procedures, no flight instrument panel, and no ways to check if you have enough fuel or if the plane has too much baggage?

Can you experience the analogy here? Many of you treat your business like that kind of a plane! You may be running your business without a clear end goal in mind. Additionally, you may be missing the small business strategy that describes how to get there!

How do successful business owners fly their planes?

Although you may be great at what you do (as a contractor, computer consultant, martial art instructor, studio owner, etc.), when it comes to running a business, being excellent at the job your business revolves around is not enough. Here are 3 other considerations you want to include:

• Being an owner: You are not only a worker, a technician, or an artist; you are an owner, and in some cases even a manager. This set of responsibilities means you need to see yourself as the ultimate decision-maker, the top person responsible for the success of the enterprise, and as the one who see the big picture. A big picture is where strategies start. Do you have one?
• Managing the big picture: Once you have a big picture, put it on paper. We often tell our clients: if it is not written, it does not exist. When you put together and write out your small business strategy (which may end up looking very much like a business plan, depending on how far along you are in your business), you can start putting it into action. And most importantly, you will spend part of your strategy reviewing how your actions match up with your plan. This triple principle of plan-execute-review is the cornerstone of being a successful entrepreneur.
• Delegating effectively: Now that it is clear you are taking responsibility, aiming for your lofty goals, and aligning your actions to move your enterprise forward, consider how much the business depends on you. Are you it? If you are down with flu or something more debilitating, does your business function smoothly? Are you capable of taking a vacation and spending quality time with your family without seeing a major drop in business revenue?

…Can you see where I’m going with that? If you cannot trust your team of employees to manage your business effectively when you are away, you will hit limits on how large you can grow your business (because your business will only get as big as you can personally handle), So, who are the people on your team? How much can you trust them to carry their responsibilities? How do you ensure that they keep growing? How do you keep growing so your business keeps growing?