Small Business News: Building Better Strategy

Building a better strategy should be the constant goal of every small business owner and entrepreneur. Think your business is running as well as it can, has grown as far as possible, has no room for improvement in terms of efficiency. Even if you believed all of this, let’s not forget that in today’s highly competitive economy, things will always be changing. Adapting your strategy to adjust for that change is, at the very least, key to your company’s survival. Here are some tips for improving your strategy today.

Getting Organized

Your strategy for starting 2011 right. Often running a business well comes down to organization and the importance setting things up effectively from day one for your business to succeed. Here’s a checklist that should help you build a strategy either for running an existing business more effectively in the new year or for starting a new business and getting it off the ground successfully in order to insure success. Personal Dividends

The best plan for getting organized. Following the theme of getting organized as a strategy for getting your business ready to go in the New Year, here’s a step-by-step for those of us who always seem to be playing catch-up without as much of a strategy as perhaps we should have. The first step, by the way, is that this will take time! Entreprenant

Adopting a Plan

Got a strategy? Why not share it? Seriously, Sarah Mitchell suggests, if you’ve got a plan to grow your business, products or services, reaffirm your mission and insert a bit more personality in your brand, why not turn it into content and transform it into marketing. She’s even got some samples. If you’ve got a strategy to make 20011 awesome, don’t keep it a secret. Share it with your customers. Global Copywriting

Why you need to set goals…NOW! Want to set a course for your business? First you’ll need a destination. Are there outcomes you would like to change. Formulate them into actionable goals then watch what happens. Too many small business owners let their businesses happen to them. There’s a better way. It starts with a decision to make things better. Clutch Consulting LLC

Social Media

Social media: What are you doing wrong? The social media revolution has certainly changed business, perhaps as much and as completely as online search and the concept of the Internet itself. But now that businesses large and small have begun to develop social media strategies, the big question remains, what will work and what will not. Forbes

What do you want from your community? A big part of any strategy, is knowing what outcome you hope to achieve. If this sounds obvious, remember that a large part of the problem small business entering the social media sphere experience in terms of ROI has to do with not fully determining what they want from their campaign in the first place. It’s not just nice to have a strategy for Twitter and Facebook, it’s vital! Professional Door Dealer

Adopting a Foursquare strategy. Marketing consultant Fiona Bosticky gives this detailed overview of the geo-location site and shows us why, with Foursquare’s new focus on venue owners and brands, managing a Foursquare presence must be looked at as much more than simply a part of your social media campaign. It needs a strategy of its own. Abnormal Marketing

Time Management

Sometimes a strategy involves doing less. Could it be that the key to your success has less to do with what you do than with what you don’t? Could the answer to creating a more efficient business strategy and a better life strategy for yourself as an entrepreneur is less about how many things you can fit into a day…and more about making more time for the things that matter? Adopt a strategy that cuts out wastes of time and effort and see how this changes the outcome in your business. ScottFox

Outlook

Set your goals then enjoy the ride. OK, you may be thinking that setting the goals implies a laser-like focus later as you follow them to your eventual goal. After all, who puts together a strategy and then fails to follow it to its logical conclusion. But, as Frederique Murphy suggests, part of the idea is to enjoy the ride. Your goals and strategy will still be there. But don’t miss the trip while working to attain them. Your strategy is a road map, but they shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying the ride. Mountain Moving Mindset

Survival Strategy

Planning for disaster. Finally, not all strategy should be aimed at meeting your goals. Some must also be about preparing for unexpected outcomes. How would your small business fair in a disaster? Do you have the strategy in place to cope? Of course, disasters are the kinds of things everyone want to believe will not occur. But do you have a strategy to meet an emergency if it should arise? Grow Smart Biz

9 Comments ▼

---