Why strategy is important for your business, and how to develop an effective one

Elevating your business requires a solid business strategy. You don’t have to compile a massive business plan, but you need to have a sense of where you’re going. Trying to define your KPIs vs. metrics is a waste of time if you’re working with the lights off.

Having a plan can also help you visualize your ideal customer, and visualizing your ideal customer is your ongoing responsibility, no one else’s.

Nationally, just 15% of businesses survive . So you can’t afford to make any missteps.

Not having a clear sense of direction can also trap you in the day-to-day grind — working in your business, instead of on it — which can waste months or even years of your working life.

What’s your unique selling proposition?

What are your goals?

These are questions you absolutely must answer before you get started, and iteratively throughout the business lifecycle.

Here are some tips. Your work will be worth it in the long run!

1. Defining what strategy is and its purpose

Strategy determines what your business does and hopes to achieve. Before orchestrating a plan of action, you must consider many options and eliminate the ones that can’t work given your resources and what your customers want. It’s an orchestrated plan of action taken after considering many options through brainstorming.

You don’t need any fancy tools to brainstorm. One of my favorite ways to brainstorm is by free-writing every day. I use the process Julia Cameron describes in her classic book, The Artist’s Way : Make it a daily ritual to sit down with a yellow legal pad and pencil, write whatever comes to mind, fill up 4 pages, and put the pages away.

Do the same thing when you’re narrowing down your service and product offerings.

Force yourself to be thoughtful about how you’re going to allocate your limited resources, decide what you’re going to offer, and go to market.

When you strategize, you clarify your purpose. Steer your business towards success and adapt to changing market conditions in real-time by tweaking your strategy each day.

2. Understand the difference between goals and objectives

An important part of making your business successful is knowing the difference between goals and objectives. Goals are the end results you want to achieve. Objectives are the steps to get there.

Goals and objectives not only help you focus on your daily activities, they also help your team sprint towards clearly defined milestones. With goals and objectives in hand, you’ll be in a better position to prioritize tasks and resources, rolling them up into the most efficient workflow possible.

You can tie your strategy to your goals and objectives with dashboards like Asana (more expensive), or Notion (less expensive). Automate routine tasks with platforms like Zapier that connect to most of the apps you’re likely to use. This will free up much of your time to further refine your strategy, ultimately making strategic planning your primary focus.

3. How to create a Vision and Mission statement

You also need vision and mission statements. Making them clear and concise anchors your company’s direction and helps you take ownership of how your customers perceive you.

Vision Statement

A vision statement encapsulates the ideal outcome or destination you and your stakeholders have agreed to pursue.

They inspire, guide, and encourage the organization, giving everyone a sense of purpose and direction.

Create a powerful vision statement by surveying your family, friends, colleagues, and potential customers to find out where you can establish a niche.

Then ask yourself: What will our organization look like in the future? Whom do we want to become? How can we positively affect the world?

Once you have a clear idea of your direction, focus on communicating it concisely.

Here are some examples of effective mission statements from 3 of the most admired companies.

Netflix: Becoming the best global entertainment distribution service

Costco: A place where efficient buying and operating practices give members access to unmatched savings.

Apple: To make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it.

Mission Statement

Your company’s mission statement is more specific. It should communicate what your organization does, whom it serves, and how it seeks to benefit your ideal customer. It, too, should be short and succinct, so it’s easy to remember. Here are some mission statement examples:

Netflix: We promise our customers stellar service, our suppliers a valuable partner, our investors the prospects of sustained profitable growth, and our employees the allure of huge impact.

Costco: to continually provide our members with quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices.

Apple: to bring the best user experience to its customers through its innovative hardware, software, and services.

To write an effective mission statement, you must conduct market research. But you don’t need a gigantic budget to do this.

• Visualize your ideal client (s). Write what you see. Pull down images of what they look like and describe them.
• Conduct an SEO analysis to determine the keywords and questions your company can answer.
• Conduct a SWOT (strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats) analysis on your competitors. Here’s an example SWOT analysis chart to help you get started.
• After you conduct a SWOT analysis on your competitors, conduct one of your own organization. Once you complete the SWOT analyses, you’ll find yourself in a much better position to craft a short and meaningful mission statement.
• When you’re satisfied with the mission statement, communicate it clearly throughout your organization, your customers, and other stakeholders.
• Revisit the mission statement regularly and adapt it to the changing marketplace.

4. Develop a Marketing Plan

With your Vision Statement, Mission Statement, and market research started, you’ll be in position to develop your marketing plan.

Throughout this process, you will decide on the most effective channels and methods that will best serve your customer base.

Don’t do this alone! It’s important to run your plan by professionals who have marketing experience. Consider hiring a marketing coach to develop your sales funnel, filling it with the leads you gain through content marketing.

Don’t be afraid to “niche down!” You can’t target everyone and you can’t offer a plethora of products that confuse potential clients. Focus on one or two things.

Do you want to have a newsletter? Does your ideal client listen to podcasts? Should you start a YouTube channel? What will be your social media platform of choice? You’ll need to answer these questions and more!

Also, when you’re starting out, your primary focus should be on scaling your business. During this time, you’re gaining leads and putting yourself in a position to set your prices and adjust them as you go.

5. Know when and how to review your progress

You’ll want to make sure you define your KPIs (key performance indicators) and metrics . Your KPIs are your overarching goals. Your metrics are the numbers you look at to determine if you’re meeting them. Tools like Google Analytics, your podcast download numbers, your email subscriber rates, your YouTube views, etc. are where you’ll measure the effectiveness of your strategy.

Keeping track of all this information will help you decide how to adjust and improve your strategy, making sure you’re always on the right path to success!

Conclusion

Now that you have an overview, you can see how much work it takes to make and keep your business successful! There are several moving parts and the marketplace can change instantly, as we’ve seen with the rise of AI and the disruption it has introduced. So, besides staying on top of your strategy, you’ll also need to keep your skills up-to-date.

Stay with it, and your efforts will ensure you’re giving your customers what they actually want — not what you think they want.

In sum, there’s no way around it. You need an effective strategy.

1) What strategies have you found to be successful in running a business?

2) Have you encountered any unexpected challenges or roadblocks along the way?

Hit me up in the comments below. Looking forward to hearing from you all! :)?