Results from Strategy, Goals and Actions
A New Beginning
Welcome to the start of January. My clients and I spent the fourth quarter of 2024 reviewing and assessing their businesses’ financials, marketing strategies, sales performance, and team dynamics. This is the perfect time to share how we collaborate with our clients on strategic planning for 2025. To briefly outline …
Create a five-year vision. Where do we want to be in 2030, and what will grow the firm to get there?
What needs to happen in 2025? Given the vision for 2030, start by considering what is currently working well in your company and how this can be scaled for future growth.
SWOT—Doing a SWOT analysis of your company can be useful. Sometimes, I even have clients conduct this exercise on themselves as leaders. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Goal Setting for 2025 – Set goals aimed at achieving the vision for 2030 based on SWOT strengths and weaknesses.
Let’s examine these planning components in greater detail. Start with your 2024 year-end Review – Closing the 2024 Business Year Smart – to inform strategic planning decisions for 2025.
1. Create a Vision for 2030
I begin strategic planning reviews by asking clients to imagine themselves in the future: “Tell me about what your life will be like in 2030.”
This leads to a natural question: “What about your company in 2030 … what do you see?”
Are you looking to grow the firm?
What’s needed to grow the firm to get to 2030?
Are you interested in a merger?
Are you interested in acquiring a company or being acquired?
What will the executive team look like?
Who will still be on the team, and who has left?
Do you need to strategize with future partners or leaders?
2. Determine What’s Needed in 2025 to Accomplish Vision
I develop the four components of a good strategy by working on these areas:
Financial strategy
Marketing strategy
Sales strategy
Team strategy
What’s working well in the organization that will help us get to the 2030 Vision?
New hires?
How will we develop new hires?
Are there gaps in the team that need to be filled?
Division of workload?
Can work be transferred or subcontracted out of the company or firm?
What will that look like?
3. Conduct a SWOT Analysis
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. SWOT analysis is a business strategy planning tool that allows internal and external factors to inform business planning and goal-setting processes.
Let’s break it down on a more granular level:
Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors that you have direct control over. In contrast, external factors are opportunities and threats that ultimately compare your business to others in your industry.
Strengths: Your strengths should distinguish you from your competition by highlighting what you do better than anyone else.
Weaknesses: Your weaknesses may range from a high employee turnover rate to issues like debt or insufficient funding.
Opportunities: Areas where you need to enhance your business and provide a competitive advantage. A new business model or a new revenue stream are both opportunities.
Threats: Threats are what your competitors do that may make customers/clients want to use their products and services instead of yours. Threats can also be external, such as your business's seasonality, weather, or rising production costs. (Source: Intuit MailChimp)
4. Goal Setting
Leverage your SWOT strengths to acknowledge and shape your goals. Assess your SWOT weaknesses to determine what might be holding you back.
Company goals should always support the 5-year vision you want to achieve.
Set priorities for new key initiatives to assist in achieving goals.
Set up critical success factors that can be used to monitor progress in achieving goals.
Accountability – decide what works for you and how to be held accountable.
Always remember the importance of thinking long-term – what’s your “long game?”
Don't let the information above overwhelm you. I often work with a leadership team for a full day and, sometimes, for several days during a leadership retreat, covering all of this while creating an effective vision, goals, and strategic plan. If you're interested in learning how to develop strategic plans for your company, please reach out! I truly believe in the value of consistently connecting with others.
Building long-term relationships requires action. Establishing connections and applying yourself will always lead to success. So don't hesitate to reach out—we’d love to hear from you.
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