8 Steps to Building a Solid Business Strategy
At Creative Ideaz we’ve seen many businesses struggle to understand what it is they’re doing wrong, why their business is floundering, and wondering what they need to do in order to turn things around. And it all comes down to the foundations a business is built on. We’re not talking the bricks and mortar variety; we’re talking the business strategy that should sit at the core of every company. Without one, a business isn’t likely to succeed.
A solid business strategy can be the difference between sinking and swimming. So, what do you need to do to build a solid business strategy? I’ll tell you.
Building a business strategy in 8 steps
1. Know your Vision
The absolute key to the success of your business is to know why your business exists, what you want it to achieve, how you see the future panning out, and how you define its success. Can you expand on this with more information around what you want to see in terms of customer numbers, market growth, and sales volume? The more detail, the better.
2. Embrace what makes you Different
The world of business is a busy place, and for every yoga studio/sandwich shop/website developer there’s always at least ten more. Don’t be disheartened though. Yes, you’ll have competitors, but that’s OK. As long as you can define what makes you different and why customers should choose you, you'll be able to carve a place in the industry where you belong.
3. Choose your Aim
Who is your product aimed at? Once you can absolutely pinpoint this, you can figure out how best to reach them. It will inform everything from your TOV – tone of voice, to your marketing, to the channels you use for marketing. If you’re not sure who you’re aiming for, you’ll never hit the bullseye.
4. Get Growing
Ensuring your business is able to grow is important. If you sit still and stagnate, that’s when your competitors have the chance to take over. With growth comes investment and expansion. A business that’s growing is able to invest in everything from new tech to new people, and as a business grows it’s able to reach new audiences.
5. Do your Research
Invest time in researching the market in which your business sits. This is time wisely used as it will help inform so much of what you do with your business.
6. Keep your Eyes on the Horizon
The old saying, ‘keep your eyes on the horizon’ isn’t just important when trying to stay balanced and steady at sea. It’s useful when steering your business, too. Keep focussed, look ahead, stay calm – the horizon is something to aim for and should help you keep a clear head. Try not to get side-tracked by obstacles that come at you along the way, keep the horizon in mind and steer towards your goal.
7. Diversify
As businesses age, it’s easy to find yourself falling behind on current trends. With that in mind, it makes great sense to help keep your business fresh with new staff, new ideas, new energy. Be inclusive, look at your business and see if you can identify a gap in your knowledge that would help you stay relevant to your market.
8. Check In
All of these steps to creating a solid business strategy are great, but they won’t mean a thing unless you put them in a plan, and check in with where you’re at with them. Create an action plan, ensure staff in your business get involved and feel a sense of ownership in pushing these goals forward and reaching targets. Check in with where you’re at and do it regularly so that you can keep a handle on how your business is doing and where it could be doing better.
Businesses need business strategies in order to stay on track, keep the goal in mind, and understand where they sit in the marketplace. If you’d like help getting to the crux of your business and developing a solid business strategy, please get in touch with Creative Ideaz today. We’ll help turn things around.
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