22 Apr Business success needs two strategies

The first strategy is the Long-term strategy.

For those of you who have read Covey’s, “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” Habit #2 is “Begin with The End in Mind”. Have you ever asked yourself “why do I do this? How do I get out when I want to?” If you don’t know the answers to these two questions you will struggle in business over the long term.

You can be lucky and build a good business. You can’t be lucky and keep a good business. The long-term strategy has to be your plan. It takes a dream to start and that is where it ends. Hard work and desire will help but it’s not enough in today’s business world. Chasing revenue feeds your ego. Profit feeds your family. Profit comes from making tough decisions and execution.

There are many business coaches out there calling themselves strategists. Activities like a sales plan. A Marketing Plan and yes, a Social Media Plan. These quite simply are tactics and not strategies. These activities are all required to grow your business but none of them a pillar. Understand that these tactics are fluid and need constant attention. They are however far from the deciding factor to a successful business. I ask. What’s your plan? What’s your exit strategy. Once you know these you now can reverse engineer what it will take to achieve these two important goals.

The second strategy is the Short-term strategy.

This is the part where you have to roll up your sleeves and break out what is needed to achieve the long-term goal. This is where your sales and marketing plan lives. Understanding your position in the market place. Understanding where your product and service is in relation to the competition. There’s pricing and delivery of service. Many moving parts. Get one wrong and you will have no profit. Your operations are equally as important as this is what controls the day to day part of your business. Building of repeatable systems so your employees can deliver on the promise is critical to having a profitable business. Last and equally important is understanding finance. Reading a balance sheet is one thing. Knowing what to do with the numbers on the financials is a whole other story. It is here where you will make your money.

Don’t believe everything you hear about more leads. It is over sold by those who don’t know how or who have never run a successful business. News Flash!! 9 times out of 10 more leads won’t solve your problem. It’s a myth. Sound business principals coupled with solid decision making based on historical evidence both short and long term gets the job done. What are you going to change today or even tomorrow? There is far more money lost in indecision than making a wrong one and fixing it.