Why Strategy-Building is Crucial for Small Business Owners

By now, you’re probably familiar with the importance of strategy-building as a business owner. A solid business strategy helps you stay focused on your efforts and keeps you on track to achieve your goals and vision. 

But a truly effective business strategy is much more than a written checklist or outline. Read on to learn why having the RIGHT strategy in place is crucial for small business owners, and what an effective one looks like. 

It’s easy to make a priority list, outline your general goals and create a timeline, but real business strategy identifies the gaps between where you are, and what you’re trying to accomplish. Start by understanding the difference between strategic thinking and strategic planning. 

Understand Strategic Thinking Vs. Strategic Planning

In a nutshell, strategic thinking involves figuring out what direction you want to go, and strategic planning is the roadmap and actual steps and actions that will bring you there. 

Let’s say you’re trying to lose five pounds in the next two months. At first glance, it might seem like losing five pounds is your goal, but big picture, it’s actually to fit into a pair of jeans or feel less bloated. Losing 5 pounds is part of your efforts to get there (strategic planning). In identifying the real goal (to eat healthier and identify foods that are fueling and energizing), the outcome is losing 5 pounds because of that shift. Strategic thinking challenges your perspective and encourages you to dig deeper into the ‘why’ before getting to the ‘how’.

It Helps You Think Ahead

Developing strong strategy-building skills will help you identify challenges and roadblocks way ahead of time so you can address them quickly. Completed your first quarter—or year—of business? Circle back to your strategy and analyze how things went, and where any potential challenges may emerge.

Think of it like a check-in system you can follow regularly. You can look back every week, month or quarter and ask yourself, am I still doing this right? What has changed and how might I shift my strategy now that I see things differently?

It Helps Prevent Burnout

Burnout is a common pain point for many entrepreneurs. Business owners wear many hats, and burnout comes not only from having too much on your plate but from taking on tasks beyond your expertise (like doing accounting yourself when math and numbers aren’t your strength). 

Strategy-building helps you work SMARTER not harder. It lets you stay on track while keeping very intentional at the values and vision you set out to uphold. Strategy is an ongoing, multi-faceted process. It’s not something you do once at the start and never again. 

A strong strategy is one that is continuously being looked at, analyzed, and updated throughout your business journey. In a nutshell, it helps you think bigger, and make higher-level connections to your overall entrepreneurial vision.

Whether you’ve got a strategy in place already, or want help starting one from scratch, my one-on-one strategy-focused training programs will help you break down your big ideas into actionable steps. 

Learn more at coach@thinkpartner.ca, or give me a ring at 778-558-8605.