As I was working on a course I’m putting together, and monitoring it’s progress, and how it fits in with the overall strategy of my business, I thought of you.
I wondered how strategy fits in to how you run your business?
There is no doubt about the importance of long term goals, and short term goals too for that matter. They all have a place in a strategically run business.
I’ve put together a short video to chat about strategy. I’ve shared six tips that immediately came to mind.
Today, I’d like to talk to you about strategy.
Strategy is vital to anybody running a business it gives you the opportunity to grow, and to scale, and to also deal with the challenges and the mistakes that we make along the way And heaven knows, I’ve made my share in the years I’ve been running this business, that’s for sure.
But mistakes can also be opportunities to learn and grow and that’s certainly been the case for me. Ten years ago, I didn’t dream that I’d be doing what I’m doing now, but here I am.
And when I reflect on that journey, there have been many, many challenges, and some of them, we could prepare for, and some we just couldn’t. We’ve had a massive downturn in our industry, that was our biggest challenge for sure. But there’s staffing issues, cash flow problems, there’s so many of them. Many, many lessons learned, and good lessons.
I think that’s the main point. We look back at problems and mistakes we make, and we learn from them. And it’s okay to make mistakes, but repeating them, that’s not so okay. I look back and I can see some big mistakes I made. There are things that I’m very proud of too. Getting my business through the huge challenges we faced. Some of them, we just got through, but we got through. And, taking my MBA, that’s something that I’m proud of, and that really taught me all about strategy. The importance of having a strategy, in every part of your business.
If you have a strategic approach, then everything sort of makes sense, and you can pivot very easily when you have a strategy.
So, let me share some tips for having a strategy in your business.
The number one tip, of course, is to have one. To make sure you do have a strategy and you’ve got a big picture, you know where it is that you want to go.
Number two, understand the big picture of your strategy. Where you want to go, but also how you’re going to get there. If you make strategic plans, it’s very easy to pivot if you go off track and it’s easier to grow when you have a strategic approach.
Number three, hire a great team. Make that part of your strategy, even if you’re a solopreneur right now. As you grow you will need to bring other people on board. So, take the time, and make the effort, to strategically hire people. Hire slowly, fire quickly as the saying goes. If you can get the right person, in the right job, doing the right things, they’re going to be an enormous asset to your business.
Number four, expect the challenges, because they’re coming for you! We all have major challenges. Some of them you can prepare for, and for some of them, you can’t. We were prepared for some challenges; we had backup plans, we tried to pre-empt things, but for others, we had no idea. We couldn’t have known that very soon, like a week or two, after we set up a huge office and furnished it, did all the computers, and everything else, it was more than a metre underwater, as our city Brisbane, was badly flooded.
We couldn’t have prepared for that. But the strategic plans we did have in place, certainly helped us to get through. So, try and think about what can go wrong, what challenges you might face, and that’ll have you thinking strategically about what you can do to prepare.
Number five is, Lead more than you Manage. I’m very passionate, as many of you know,
about small business leadership. I truly believe that leadership plays an enormous role in in small businesses succeeding And also of course, in the large number of small businesses that don’t succeed. We must step up and lead, and strategy is a huge, huge part of that. As leaders, we think strategically, we act strategically, and that’s part of our role as a leader. We can’t do that if we’re busy being a manager, and we’re in the trenches and doing admin and all those sorts of tasks. So, make sure that you are spending a lot of your time leading your business and strategically taking it where you want to go, and outsource those tasks that aren’t serving your strategy.
Number six is, keep learning. I’m a perpetual student, I’ve studied forever, and if I’ve learned anything, it’s how much I don’t know. Some courses have really exceeded all expectations, and some have come across as quite ordinary. But there’s always something that you can take from them. We need to keep learning, we need to keep growing, and of course as we learn these skills, and then implement them into our business, it will take us to the scaled heights that we want to go to. Keep learning look at the areas that you need to learn and find the people to learn from.
So, there’s my six tips on strategy. I hope you find them helpful.
Leave a comment and let me know.