What is a Strategic Plan?

Strategic Planning is an essential tool for any organization that wants to be successful. It ensures that resources are allocated in alignment with short- and long-term goals, and it bridges the gap between strategy and daily operations. By using Strategic Planning, we can ensure that our organization is moving in the right direction and making the most of its resources.

Strategic planning is the process of defining a company’s direction and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this direction. It involves setting goals, analyzing the competitive environment, and identifying external and internal factors that may affect the organization.

Importance of a Strategic Plan

When undertaking the Strategic Planning process, it’s important to:

• • Reassess & optimize Business Model:
    • • Take a step back and see if there’s anything you can do to improve your business model. Look at your business value, revenue, market position and identify what areas you want to optimize. 

• • Realign your strategy & resources:
    • • Develop a plan to address your short term, mid term, or long term goals

• • Create an action plan to prioritize your focus:
    • • Create a clear and actionable plan that will help you prioritize your focus and achieve your goals. Make sure it is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound

• • Allocate appropriate resources to goals
    • • Based on your priorities, allocate your resources(time, money, and talent) in a way that will help you achieve your goals

• • Develop metrics that measure and track progress towards goals
    • • Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. This will help you to define what you want to accomplish, and how you will measure progress.

Sticking to the Strategic Plan

When you connect company objectives to daily work, you’re able to turn your company strategy into a plan with real impact. This way, your team members always know the bigger picture and can prioritize their time and efforts accordingly. Not only will they be more engaged in their work, but they’ll also be able to focus on the initiatives that matter most to the company.

All businesses go through different stages of development, and each stage has different management needs. In order to be successful, a business must progress through all five stages, and at any given time understand what stage they’re in, in order to address the necessary needs for that particular stage.

 

15 Tips to Grow Your Business in 2023

1. Take an Honest Look at Your 2022 Performance

Find the time to review last year’s performance. Make a note of what worked, what didn’t. Review your calendar to gain insight into how you spent your time. Where do you want to double down? Where do you want to remove yourself from? What gives you energy? What drains you?

 

2. Create a Strategy for 2023

• • Take the time to create a strategy/plan for 2023

• • Be intentional about how you talk to yourself. Leverage the power of “I must…” instead of “I should…” Must holds you accountable to being a better version of yourself. 

• • Read the books “Atomic Habits” and “The Compound Effects”. Small changes in habits end up paying off so much more than you can imagine

• • Set priorities and have the discipline to carry through

• • Leverage your calendar to keep you on track

• • Win the next day the night before – Always plan out your next day activities

• • Delegate, delegate, delegate

• • Marketing is KING. Learn it

3. Consider Accelerating Your Digital Transformation

• • The Digital Age is here to stay. The sooner you start to embrace learning new technologies, the better off you and your business will be. 

• • Your competitors are adept at technology, so you have no other choice

• • Sample Technology Stack:  Convertkit; Zoom; Thinkific (Digital Courses); ActiveCampaign; Facebook; Canva

4. Automation, Automation, Automation

• • Automate whatever you can. There are applications out there that can help you with automating email responses, social media posts, etc

5. Revisit Sales Strategies

• • Take the time to think through your sales strategy for 2023

• • Be intentional about weeding out what is not working

6. Communicate & Market Effectively

Develop communication strategies for your various audience segments:

           Communication streams

• • Current Clients

• • New Leads

• • Referral Partners & Speaking Engagements (to become an SME)

             Communication Campaign for Lead Generation: New Leads

• • Video marketing – Stick to an introduction of who you and and what your One offer is

• • Pull them into a Funnel (Attract the audience you want) – Attract with a freebie (or new member discount)

• • Ask to schedule a call through your email or sign up to receive your Newsletters

• • Set up a sequence of emails to engage them

• • Speak to how your service or program will help them (Consider setting up 5 to 8 automated emails in a sequence)

• • Technology used: Convertkit
•     Communication Campaign for Fulfillment: Current Clients

• • Onboarding – Welcome to the new client
  • Invoicing communication
  • Meeting invite to schedule a kickoff call or service call
  • Status email for where you are in the service
  • Upon fulfillment, email to thank you for your business and ask for a referral
  • 2 weeks later, an email to review your business

•  
•    Communication Campaign for Referral Partners
  
  • Thank them for their support and schedule a call to re engage this year
  • Share a downloadable about your new offerings and services
  • Email with glowing reviews on how you’re helping your clients
  • Email to announce openness for speaking or podcast opportunities 

7. Review Your Website

Your website is the digital storefront of your business. It needs to be kept in line with the latest web design trends and use the latest technologies. It also needs to tick the boxes for being: 

• • Appealing

• • Interesting and engaging

• • Easy to navigate

• • Mobile-friendly

• • Optimized for search

• • Optimized for speed

Make it easy for your visitors to navigate their way around and utilize simple call-to-action buttons to convert visitors into leads. Analyze navigation and loading times and consider an SEO audit to make sure your website is working for you.

8.  Take Advantage of Social Media 

Marketing has never been easier, cheaper, and more accessible. Today, you can run social media marketing on a budget from the comfort of your home and watch your brand soar. You also get customized insights into how many people have consumed your content and how they are reacting to it. 

• • Understand your target audience and strategize your marketing efforts to meet their needs.

• • Social media branding is just as important as social media marketing. If your branding is inconsistent, your marketing strategy can only take you so far

• • Focus on creating authentic content and repurpose it across different channels
    • • YouTube is great for cost-efficient marketing

• • Be sure to keep track of your marketing budget and ROI. 

9. Use Text Marketing Effectively

Mass text marketing is a very effective way to reach your audience. You can leverage texts to solicit feedback, raise awareness of discounts and other campaigns, exchange links and pose brief queries.

10. Email Marketing

• • Start building your Email marketing is an extremely effective instrument for expanding your business. Consider incorporating email signup forms into your website and social media pages to further grow your email lists. 

• • Leverage landing pages and marketing funnels can also bring people to your signup forms. 

11. Review your service offerings and/or redesign as appropriate 

12. Develop your Internal Operations Handbook (SOPs) for yourself & employees
13. Establish a Playbook for Client Engagement
14. Review Your Comprehensive Branding Profile 
15. Develop an Action Plan to Operationalize your 2023 Plan