Is Your Company Vision Driving Your Day to Day Focus?
Article 1 of 6 about the key ingredients to efficient business operations
In a previous article, we shared 6 key ingredients to help you achieve greater efficiency when it comes to the running of your business. In this, and the following 5 articles, we’re going to focus on each of the key ingredients individually and take a closer look at what’s involved.
The first area of focus is planning. This is is knowing who you are, where you are going, and how you plan to get there. It’s the foundation on which everything else is built, which is why its important to give it the time and attention it deserves.
Each of the sections below describe an element of the planning process that will help you and your team get aligned and focused on achieving the right things.
Vision & Purpose
Your Company Vision describes what you would like your business to look like in the future; a vivid mental image of what you want your business to be at some point in the future, based on your goals and aspirations. It captures the essence of where you want to take your business and can inspire you and your team to reach those goals.
Without a vision, you have no single focus on which to base all of the other elements of your business and decision making or to guide your team in the same direction.
Current Position
An often forgotten part of the planning process is assessing where you currently are. Knowing where you want to get to is great however without knowing what your starting position is you’ll be unable to map out the most direct route. And the most direct route is what is going to save you time, money and energy.
A SWOT analysis is a simple tool that can be used to help assess what is happening both inside and outside of a business. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and so a SWOT Analysis is a technique for assessing these four aspects of your business.
Strategic Objectives
What are the 3-4 big things that will help you get closer towards your vision? What things are you going to focus on over the next 3-5 years that will help make the most progress?
The output from your SWOT analysis will help you identify what the greatest opportunities are and how to use your greatest strengths to leverage them. Often, the output from the SWOT is forgotten and missed in this activity, yet it has valuable insights as to what is happening outside your business including trends and market changes that can offer timely opportunities.
3-year plan
Now that you know what the key strategic focus areas are you need to start defining the plan and the specific targets that you want to achieve over the next 3 years. How far along the journey do you want to be? What does your business look like in 3 years and therefore what do you need to have achieved to make it a reality?
Be bold – set big, scary, ambitious goals that are going to feel stretching. As the leader of your business you need to think boldly even though it may feel a little uncomfortable.
You need your targets to inspire energy and enthusiasm inside every person in your business.
1-year plan
If your 3-year plan is clear and well-defined, you will be able to make a 1-Year plan that is achievable, yet inspiring.
A 1-Year plan will give everyone in your business accountability for hitting their targets.
It will also give you focus; if it’s not on the plan, don’t do it.
Quarterly focus
The final piece of the planning process is breaking down your yearly plan into shorter bursts which focuses everyones effort. Rather than a target feeling far in the distance, it allows a more immediate focus and the opportunity to see progress more quickly.
You’re still working towards your 1-Year and 3-Year goals – just taking smaller steps to achieve them.
Develop goals and priorities that are short and concentrated. Then, at the end of the 90 days, re-evaluate and refine your goals; set new ones to keep moving you forward.
Download our one-page planning document to help you map out the key planning elements for your business, and provide focus to move you forward.
If you are interested to know more about how we can help you implement the right tools to run your business more efficiently book a no obligation discovery call.