Strategic Planning: Stress FREE Business Goal Planning
Strategic Planning.
Those two words could seem unnerving. Sure, it’s a great idea with a full team of employees, who can help plan and execute. Who has time to plan anything in advance when everything needs our undivided attention RIGHT NOW!
Exhale.
As a business owner, I’ve come to appreciate getting away and doing some strategic planning myself. You likely set goals in January. Not a bad idea to do the same in midsummer for the last half of the year. A few prompts to ask yourself include:
What direction do you want the business to go?
What do you need to get laser focus on?
Launching something new?
What is the client load, can I take on more or do I need to scale back?
How can the business (and I) grow?
When I work with clients to strategically plan, we set aside a couple of half days so as to not be overwhelming. One full day may make more sense depending on the size of your team.
There are many ways to set goals or strategically plan the business calendar.
Get your FREE planning packet below. Print + Go or fill it out online. I’m hoping it will make things super easy for you during your strategic planning session!
Grab your pens, paper, tablet or laptop so you have a place to brain download all the great ideas that are about to come your way!
Here are a few nuggets that work for me:
Change of scenery.
Getting someplace preferably in nature - lake, beach, a long run - generally helps my brain relax and ideas start to flow. For example, if I need to plan for social media, I’ll have the yearly social calendar skeleton. The idea here is to have an overview of what is loosely planned. The job now is to add meat on the bones.
Dress the skeleton.
The objective is to get as much content as possible for the upcoming 6 months (dressing the skeleton). Taking content and plugging it into the planner. It is not perfect and may not be complete but it’s enough of a road map to get headed in the right direction. Bonus: I am no longer staring at a blank page.
Time of day.
When are you most productive? For me, it’s in the morning. Set aside your best hours to let all the ideas and content bubble up and out.
What are the business goals for the next 6-12 months?
This varies depending on the businesses. A few questions might include:
Do I need to plan out my social media content for the next 4-6 months?
How many blog posts or podcast ideas do I need to create?
What about emails and nurturing my email list?
Are there any courses, workshops, classes to offer to teach others how to get PR on their own?
Do I need to hire someone to help carry the load?
When will I flip seasons in the store and offer big sales? (brick and mortar)
Get as much out as you can in the time you’ve allotted.
Once you and the team are back in the office, look at the ideas with fresh eyes. Determine what is realistically possible to accomplish for the upcoming time frame. Then set your goals around that list.
Write goals, review often, celebrate when they are achieved, adjust when necessary.
Some clients find it helpful to use dedicated strategic planning time to evaluate their mission and vision. Do they still apply? Are the business pillars still the same?
Ready to plan? Let’s do this.
Get my free 12 page planning packet to take the stress out of your next strategic planning session. Grab yours below!
No one likes the feeling of wandering aimlessly.
Memorable Results Media regularly comes alongside small businesses as a guide in supporting business owners craft their own roadmap. If this sounds like a great idea but you are at maximum capacity, drop me an email at michelle@memorableresultsmedia.com
I’d love to hear from you!
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