Artificial Intelligence has been the hot topic on everyone’s lips for the last 18 months.

Yes, it's changing the way we work.

Yes, it's an amazing tool.

Yes, it can remove some of the heavy lifting of our marketing.

But do you want to know what I think we need to get back to talking about?

Strategy.

Because those businesses that prioritise strategy over AI in 2026 are going to be miles ahead of those that don’t.

So, for my small business trends article for this year, we’re going to explore why strategy is so important for your business, come face-to-face with why we avoid doing the strategy part, understand that it doesn’t have to be quite as complicated as we make it, I’ll explain why putting the effort into strategy will make AI work harder for your business.

Why strategy is so important for your business

As business owners, we wear a LOT of hats.

Hello to all the other Chief Everything Officers out there.

I see you.

This means we can get easily distracted.

Bright Shiny Object syndrome anyone?

And this is why having a strategy is so important for your small business.

A strategy is a roadmap for where you’re going, and the reasons why you want to go there.

It helps you to see the path ahead. And when you can see the path ahead you’ll be less likely to be distracted by Bright Shiny Objects, and more likely to make choices that will help you head in the direction that you want to go.

Having a strategy helps your business to –

Know where you’re going and why
Make marketing, product and other choices that are in alignment with where you want to go
Easily identify and ignore the distractions that don’t support your vision
Get where you’re going more quickly and with less stress
Choose how you want to invest your time, money, energy and people

As Seth Godin so accurately puts it –

“The work is easier if you can see where you’re headed.”

Why do we avoid doing the strategy part?

If strategy is so important for successful businesses, then why do we avoid doing the strategy part?

There’s two reasons.

The first, is that strategy is scary.

It makes us look in the dark corners of our business.

And it makes us think about what it is we really want.

Strategy can be difficult to see and hard to get clear about.

I’ve had Brand Story Strategy participants tell me that it’s some of the hardest work they’ve ever done. They’ve had to do the emotional labour, ask the hard questions, and challenge their assumptions.

But in doing so, they’ve created a clarity and confidence that they never had before.

It’s changed the way they approach their businesses.

It’s given them a plan to follow.

It was hard in all the best possible ways, because of what it creates on the other side for their businesses.

The second reason we avoid doing strategy, is that we absolutely get lost in the doing, and forget to lead our business.

If this sounds familiar, you are not alone.

Being a small business owner requires us to be masters of so many things. And if we don’t deliver the actual product or service our business exists to provide, then our business will fail.

But when you don’t do the work of strategy, you will eventually find yourself stuck. Going round and round in circles, unable to grow and finding yourself frustrated and unfulfilled in your business.

It’s so important to take time out from the doing to think about where we’re going. Do you still want to be going there? If not, where do you want to be going now? And how are you going to get there?

Strategy answers these questions.

Strategy doesn’t have to be complicated

While creating your strategy can be hard work, it doesn’t have to be complicated.

One of the biggest challenges I see small businesses face when it comes to strategy, is that we have a habit of overcomplicating it.

We spend days and days to create an enormous “strategy” document that ultimately ends up in a drawer never to be looked at again.

It’s my belief that this habit comes from corporations - where lots of us have worked – and where there’s lots of red tape and people to please.

But we don’t have to do that in small business. We have the benefit of keeping it simple. And the added bonus of being able to pivot when something isn’t working.

When we make things more complicated than they need to be, the strategy becomes difficult to implement.

So, we give up on it.

And then we get into the habit of thinking that strategy is just too hard, and we don’t do it at all.

If you’re new to strategy, start with a single page document that maps out the year ahead.

Stick it on your wall and follow it.

If you’re returning to strategy after a break, find the last strategy you created. Then start with looking at what’s changed and what’s the same. And go from there.

Importantly, you have to know what you want to change – for yourself, for your business and for your customers – before you can go any further. So, start there.

Strategy is actually key to using AI effectively in your business

Good strategy leads to better choices.

Without it, AI is just another bright shiny object to distract you from the real work of what you’re actually trying to do in your business.

When you have a clear strategy, you can take a strategic approach to which AI tools will support your business, and choose ones that help you execute on your strategy.

With a strategy in place, you won’t spend hours going down the rabbit hole of trying to work out how to use yet another AI tool that doesn’t do what you want it to do.

Or worse yet, it giving you a result, and you wondering “What do I do with this now?”

Strategy and tactics are not the same

You might think you already have a strategy.

But lots of businesses are actually implementing tactics without a strategy.

And this is actually how we end up with Bright Shiny Object syndrome, flitting from one thing to the next, to the next, to the next and wondering why we aren’t getting where we want to go.

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 make 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.

While everyone else continues to be distracted by AI, smart business owners will get back to strategy.

Saying that strategy is critical to business success isn’t something new.

And I’m also not saying you should ignore AI – it is the thing that will fundamentally change businesses (and the world) for the next generation.

But while everyone else continues to be distracted by A.I. next year, I want you to get back to strategy.

Go back to basics. Ask the hard questions. Decide where you want to go.

Then go there – with AI as a tactical asset to help you on your way – if (and only if) that’s what’s best for your strategy.