How Strategic Planning Can Make Your Business More Successful

When you first started your business venture, you probably had a clear vision for what you wanted to accomplish. It was just you, perhaps a partner or small team, working towards a common goal. Everyone knew their role, and it wasn’t overly challenging to stay on track.

And then something happened: Your company became successful! Customers flocked in, new employees were hired, and profits flowed. Now, everyone is busy””incredibly busy””and suddenly, it hits you. That clear vision you once had isn’t so succinct anymore. It’s becoming obscured by the increasing complexity of your business.

At this point, you might realize it’s time to make strategic planning one of your top business priorities.

Why do small business owners need a strategic plan?

Some small business owners feel that strategic planning is only for large companies. The truth is every business, no matter what size or industry, increases its chance for success over the long-haul with a strategic plan. This plan is your roadmap for how the business will grow and evolve over the next three to five years.

Strategic planning is your opportunity to set goals for the company’s future and develop the initiatives that will help you achieve those objectives. Without this map to guide you down the road to success, you may find you’ll lose your vision along the way.

What are the benefits of strategic planning?

Despite the plus-side of strategic planning, some business owners still fear the effort will take too much time and distract from day-to-day operations. While it’s true that proper planning requires dedicated time, most leaders find the exercise well worth the extra effort. The chances of improvements attributed to planning have been estimated to be nearly 80%!

Let’s take a look at some of the significant benefits of strategic planning:

1. Planning sets the course. If you don’t know where you’re headed, how will you know when you’ve reached success? Strategic planning starts with setting realistic goals for the business. Moreover, the planning process determines how these objectives will be tracked and measured and who in the company will be accountable for them.

• Planning creates focus. When a business is in whirlwind mode, it’s difficult to know where to focus. At any given time, a company can potentially have dozens of initiatives it might undertake when, in practice, only a handful will move the needle. Strategic planning helps narrow the focus to those few most likely to achieve your business objectives.

• Planning increases operational efficiency.  Every business has limited resources; even the larger corporations have to make decisions about how they will allocate their financial, time, and employee resources. The strategic plan aligns those resources to the activities most critical to operational success. Managers are more effectively able to allocate budgets and workforce to most efficiently accomplish set objectives.

• Planning brings everyone on board. As the leader of your company, you may be well versed in your mission, vision, goals, and objectives. But, do your employees know the plan? If they don’t, you may find outstanding workers spending too much time on activities that have little to no impact on your goals. Bringing key personnel into the strategic planning process not only ensures better execution against the plan but also conveys a collaborative, empowering approach.

• Planning puts it in writing. As part of the planning process, it’s essential that you document all decisions. This document is how you will communicate to the entire organization the company’s goals, action plans, and other critical elements of the plan. Once you have gone to all the work to reach a consensus on the business priorities, your written plan will ensure that all responsibilities are understood and strategies implemented.

How to implement a strategic plan

Now that you have a strategic plan, it’s time to implement it. If any of your strategic initiatives include these goals….

●      Reducing inventories

●      Shortening lead times

●      Improving asset utilization or cash flow

●      Increasing capacity

●      Streamlining operations

●      Optimizing brain power

 …it’s a smart idea to consider outsourcing your logistic implementations to Ohio Valley Goodwill’s Industrial Services Division! All of our packaging, kitting, assembly, and fulfillment outsourcing services are performed by a diverse workforce of skilled employees who care deeply about the quality of their work. This means we can complete jobs on a massive scale while utilizing the problem-solving power of an intelligent workforce.

When you outsource with Goodwill, we work with you to develop customized solutions that result in benefits such as lowered overhead costs, reduced lead times, improved efficiency, and simplified operations.

By partnering with our Industrial Services Division, you’ll not only benefit from the improved implementation of your strategic initiatives, you’ll also know you’re making a life-changing difference for individuals with disabilities in Greater Cincinnati. Ohio Valley Goodwill is a highly respected non-profit organization, and our Industrial Services Division has been putting people to work so that they can earn a good living and make a positive impact in our community.

Outsource with Goodwill as part of your successful strategic plan! To learn more and receive a free tour of our facilities, please contact us today.