Small Business: Strategic Management 101

Small businesses normally have two initial goals—they can either stay small but increase their profits or aim to grow into a bigger one. One has to commit a lot of time and exert tremendous effort in establishing a strategic plan to get to the goal that you have initially set, but the realization of the strategy will largely depend on how it is implemented. Properly managing the following elements of strategic planning should greatly help you and your business get to your goal points.

• Take a good look of your competition, market, the industry, and the economic state of the business in the local level. Study the patterns and trends in the market and how they have changed over the last few years and make estimations on how they would be faring in the next few years.
• Make an assessment of your target clientele base: what they want and how you can possibly deliver these needs. Then study every aspect of your business including how it is managed, whether it is operating efficiently, and how it can better meet the customer expectations.
• Know where your business initially stands and where you want it to be. Technically referred to as positioning, this element of strategic planning will help you specifically set the directions that you need to take for your business such that if you’re into selling ladies’ apparel and want to increase your profits but still remain within the small-scale business level, you will have to align all your activities with increasing your sales or expanding the business coverage. Or if you want to grow and become a large business, you’ll have to look into expanding your clientele base to not just deliver within the neighborhood but also outside the region and perhaps maybe on the national level. Here, it is important that you know exactly where you want to take your company, and aligning all the elements of your business will take that directional objective.
• Learn the importance of documenting your strategic plan. Put in boldface your goal, then enumerate the standards that you have set towards the achievement of that goal. Here, you will also need to write in detail the costs and expenses that come with every activity or event that you have listed under your plan, such as hiring additional staff, buying new equipment, upgrading your service providers, and so on. Your list will serve as your touchstone and reference material, which you can easily use in reviewing the progress of the implementation part of your plan.
• Personally ensure that your strategic plan is realized by taking careful steps to have them accurately carried out. It is critical to regularly have everybody on board updated with all the goings-on of the enterprise particularly the key personnel. Meetings and conferences are vital to keep the communication line open, and communication always plays a major role in the success of a strategic plan.