No matter the size, all businesses can benefit from knowing where they’re headed. A bit like being on a car journey without a roadmap (or GPS!), you’re likely to get lost in such unknown terrain. Yes, you can stop and ask for directions along the way, but this may mean taking detours, delays until you find the right someone, or encountering obstacles and unexpected challenges due to incorrect information.
This can significantly slow your progress and who knows when you’ll get to your destination. Yet, with a clear roadmap to where you’re headed, you will be able to get there more quickly and get back on track after experiencing unexpected roadblocks!
A business development strategy can provide that much-needed roadmap and help you to establish your destination and navigate your way through.
Here are the basic steps to create your small business development plan.
Reflection
Spend some time analysing your experiences and performance over the last few years. Looking back on the road you’ve travelled down in your rear-view mirror – review what worked well, the challenges you’ve faced and what you have learnt about your target audience.
How are you faring against competitors? Look at their websites, have any of them revamped their brand or developed business apps that are setting them apart in the market? Are there any glaring market gaps that are waiting to be filled?
Which areas of your business have significant room for improvement? What is happening in the wider business landscape?
Take some time to document and assess these answers.
New Destination
Define your new destination. Where are you headed? What are you realistically looking to achieve over a 2-3 year period?
Undoubtedly this will be related to revenue generation, but what and how specifically? If you want to increase retention, this will be linked to an improved customer experience and if its linked to expanding your reach to new potential customers, then marketing and branding need to be key elements.
Get precise and detailed about what success looks like as an end goal. For example, X percent increase in new customers by xxxx date or increase customer retention rate by X percent by xxxx date.
Your Route
This is the how of your roadmap. Define each step of the journey, include points to review your progress and potentially assess and adjust your journey.
How will you keep track of your progress towards your destination? Will there be specific business milestones which tell you if you’re on track?
What action needs to happen to get you there; do you need to ensure a refuel and refresh stop?
These goals need to be measurable i.e. they need a specific outcome that needs to be achieved in a specified timescale.
Required Resources
Just like on a long car journey, your car will need fuel and oil to achieve the outcome (i.e. arrival at the destination) and you’ll need some snacks, sleep and perhaps a change of clothes, depending on how far away your chosen destination is.
Before you set off, you’ll need to have enough money to be able to pay for all the things you’ll need to get you successfully to the end of your journey.
With your business strategy, your resources might be people, expertise, money, technology, etc. Ensure you have the budget to invest in these elements and that they’re all built into your strategic plan.
Review
Remember to pause and review your progress and adjust your approach as required. After all, this is a roadmap, which means you can take many different directions to get to the same outcome. There is always the flexibility and choice to change course when what you’re doing is no longer working.
