Strategic Planning Calls for Peer Support and Advice
There is no doubt that running a business is no easy task, and there are so many things to do, so many matters to attend to, that invariably strategic planning takes a back seat.
Strategic planning is something that business owners know they have to do, but somehow never get down to actually doing it.
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning can be for the short term (up to 3 years), or the long term (up to 10 years). Nevertheless, it can get you on track to achieve your goals and objectives, or even to rework them if necessary. How you go about your strategic plan depends on the outlook for the future and various trends in your business and the industry your business serves. Unrealistic expectations for the future can derail everything.
Business failure usually comes from analyzing situations in the wrong manner, or not taking stock of things as they are and how they are expected to be in the future. The reason strategic planning so often takes a back seat is that business owners are required to face market situations as they really are, and not how they would like it to be. Sometimes this means facing harsh realities and accepting bitter truths.
Peer Support
Peer support and advice can play a big role in this exercise, and such a group, if seriously interested in each other’s well being, can help with the challenge while expecting the same help in return. You need to consider every key area of your business – such as the budget, financial forecasts, and predictions of future earnings – to get the most out of peer support.
With your group of peers providing honest feedback and confidentiality, the outcome will be a collective of constructive suggestions based on your peers’ experience. All this will help you to successfully predict future needs in areas such as human resources, capital, upgrade in technology and equipment.
Managers and supervisors mainly act as information gathering resources for the small business owner. They can bring certain facts to your attention, and let you know the situation as it stands today; however, they will lack some of the skills required to make decisions and charting out a course for the future. Peers can offer
solutions, or suggest options. They can do this based on the fact that some of them have probably gone through such situations in the past, and can tell from experience whether a particular approach will work, and to what limit.
A peer group can provide you with regular mentoring, as well as two-way business coaching. The group stays in touch and may often meet either personally or online. Brainstorming sessions can be carried out at regular intervals, and various meetings can help your business stay on track. This way, you are not only looking at a larger picture but also getting the best advice and honest feedback, which will go a long way to making your strategic planning venture a success.
