How to Create a Better Strategy as a Small Business Owner
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I recently argued that great businesses are going to spend more time focussing on strategy, instead of being blinded by the bright shiny distraction of AI.
But what does doing strategy actually look like?
Small business owners typically find strategy difficult.
Which makes sense. Because strategy is the part that asks us to make choices. To ask hard questions.
To try and uncover where it is we want to go, what we care about building, and then it challenges us to get there.
Strategy is kind of scary.
But if you want to do better strategy (and we should all want to do better strategy), here are five practical things you can do to make it happen.
#1 Don’t do strategy alone
There are huge benefits to bringing your strategic thinking into a group – even if you prefer to work alone.
When you find others to do strategy with (especially people who understand what it’s like to be in small business, and who have your best interests at heart), your strategy will be more robust.
It makes you accountable to do the work. It supports you to ask the hard questions. It lets you test your thinking. And it will help you to close the gaps in your strategy by bringing in some outside perspective.
You’ll also come to realise that we all share similar problems. Doing strategy together will make you feel supported, seen and confident in the path forward.
#2 Find a strategic framework that’s right for you
Strategy needs to follow a system.
What I mean, is that you need to follow a strategic framework that helps you create your strategy.
Most strategy involves reflecting on where you’ve been, looking at what’s worked and what hasn’t, deciding what your goals are, and then working out how you’ll get there.
But like everything in life, you need to find the approach that works for you.
There are plenty of options around. Try a few until you find one that resonates and simplifies the strategic process for you.
This is why doing strategy with others can be so powerful. When we see how others approach strategy, we can experiment with their process and find things that can work for us too.
#3 Keep your strategy simple
Your strategy doesn’t have to be twenty million pages. Or even twenty pages.
You’re a small business owner. Not a giant corporation.
So, stop putting so much red tape in your way.
If you make your strategy to complicated, too wordy or too long, you’ll just put it in a drawer and never look at it again.
And that’s not how you achieve the goals of your strategy.
Try and get things down to a page or two.
I love something high-level, printed on one page I can see at a glance.
You can expand on the details when you’re laying out the implementation and projects that will help you achieve your strategy.
#4 Don’t confuse tactics with strategy
Tactics support the strategy.
They aren’t the strategy.
I see so many small business owners putting all their energy into tactics. And there are plenty of brand and marketing agencies who will help you burn your money on them.
But tactics on their own aren’t a strategy.
The strategy is where you want to go.
The tactics are what help you get there.
While you can change tactics at any time, your strategy doesn’t change (unless you decide you don’t want to go that way anymore).
Having a strategy makes choosing the right tactics easier.
And you’ll be able to measure the success of your tactics against the plan of where you’re going.
Sure, you’ll still make tactical mistakes.
But because you’re being led by strategy, you’ll know they’re a mistake sooner, and be able to pivot to another tactic more quickly.
#5 Write your strategy down
Write it down. On a piece of paper. In a Canva Infographic. On the back of a napkin.
When you write your strategy down, you’re more likely to achieve it.
There are countless statistics that support this.
When you write it down you make it real. You hold yourself accountable. Your subconscious will be more likely to be on your side.
Do not skip this step.
Write. It. Down.
The more you do strategy, the better you’ll get at it.
Getting better at strategy is like getting better at anything.
Practice makes progress.
Your strategy won’t work every time. But that’s just part of the learning process.
But if you start now, then you’ll keep getting better at it.
Ask the hard questions. Decide where you want to go. Write it down. Then go there.
I can’t wait to see how far you go with a strategy to power your business.
