Everyone wants to know the secrets to building a successful business. The secrets are not really complex. You just need to implement them. In essence, a little more work than to rub Aladdin’s Lamp. The importance and the need to have a clear business vision, mission and plan cannot be stressed enough. Then again, it is a useless exercise! It is worthless to spend the time and the effort to create these!
Yes, you read that correctly. It is useless if all you do is create a mission, a vision, and a plan, and never review them on a regular basis to ascertain if they are still relevant. It is not worth the time and effort if you do not regularly measure where the business is against where your expectations are, according to these items.
Now you are creating a valuable method of moving your business toward achieving success. For Example, let’s look at Borders Books. They took their eyes off their Business and their customers wants and needs. They did not even recognize the real threat, Amazon, until too late. They were too busy looking at what other businesses were doing, like rewards programs, and not their own business and direction for bottom-line results.
This is not to say you should not watch what your competition does or what other businesses are doing. What is being said is that you do not need to copy what is being done. You must focus on your vision, mission and plan. You must measure and track and revisit and make adjustments as needed.
A business of any size should have a process in place in order to obtain these metrics. There are times when the largest of corporations have created such a nightmare of numbers, the ability to readily and easily know where you are and what direction you need to take is lost in the jumbled mess. It is time to break it down and simplify. If the most senior people are not able to explain in five or ten minutes with a pencil and a napkin where you are and where you are going, you have made your business too complicated. If that is true for the large corporations, it is even more so for a small to medium sized business.
You might not like to read this, yet it is a fact. There are about a half dozen numbers which should tell the facts about what your business has been doing, and what the future holds. Know these and make the adjustments necessary to stay on track or to get back on track.
Contact Mitch Tublin for an appointment today – info@easysmallbusinesssolutions.com or call 877-907-8223.
Oh I sure agree about bureaucratized and way too complicated metrics. If they are THAT complicated no one will run them, understand them, or use them. Total waste of money and time.
Sue,
Unfortunately Wall Street and many Public Companies thrive on this exact situation. There are departments full of people working on the next quarter
numbers to report. Meanwhile there is a real business being run somewhere
within this bureaucratic system.
Mitch
Thank you for this reminder Mitch! Clear vision, mission and plan IS so important and something I know that I need to spend some time with. Its so easy to get caught up with the every day doing of the business that I can lose track of any vision or plan to reach a goal! Wise words Mitch!
Sheila,
Good for you to recognize the need. Once created always revisit, revise and recheck your vision, mission and goals to confirm they are still consistent with the direction you want to take.
Mitch
Mitch – You own, unique clear vision, mission, and plan are critical!
All too often we see business owners skip this when it comes to their website … they start a business, they know they need a site, and the immediately look at their competitors’ websites to see what they have on them, what they say, how their sites look … and they copy them so they look the same!
When in reality, they should be doing their research not to copy or emulate, but to see where there are gaps in the market that they can fill, and how to approach their positioning, branding, and marketing in a completely different way!
Jennifer Bourn, Bourn Creative
Jennifer,
I had a feeling your would appreciate these tips. If your client
would really look in the mirror more than out the window they would
determine more readily how to allow you to work your magic with them.
Mitch
Knowing your numbers works BOTH ways — knowing what you are doing and knowing where you are headed and a number-driven plan to get you there…
Katherine,
Yes and for those who are number challenged just hire someone to regularly
go over your numbers with you.
Mitch
Knowing the numbers, and reviewing them on a regular basis – both are KEY! I am always surprised at the number of people who make a plan, get started, and then never bother to check to see if they are ahead, behind, or off somewhere in the weeds…
Terry,
Sure glad they are not driving me to the airport.
Mitch
Yes Mitch – this is so important! good reminder, thanks
Trudy
Trudy,
It is like creating your favorite healthy recipe from scratch when you think about. Then doing it the next time.
Mitch
Mitch,
You are speaking my language. And you make a crucial point when you say we must track and measure.
Write on!~
Lisa Manyon
Lisa,
Once we know we are moving along a certain path, we have to check in every so often to make certain we are still on the path.
Mitch