As a business growth strategist, I often recommend undertaking a strategic planning day to work out where the business owner and their businesses are.

When I say this, I often get a response that they know where they want to go so what’s the point in working out where they are now.

Let me give you an example: You get in your car and use your satellite navigation to work out your route to wherever you are going. You punch the destination in and then wait. What does your Satellite Navigation system do?

The first thing it does is work out where you are. Only then can it calculate a route to get to where you want to go.

Your business is no different.

Most of the businesses I work with want to increase income – in most cases significantly. In order to do that, we really need to know if the current business systems are in place to actually deal with increased sales. Do we need more staff? Do we need revised Terms and Conditions? Are our reporting systems ready to cope with increased sales?

These things all need to be put in place; otherwise, the business will end up fire fighting and will struggle to meet demand which may upset the new and existing customers.

So what should you cover in a strategy planning session?

There are 4 parts of your business:

• Your figures and reporting systems
• Your team/ staff matters
• Your sales and marketing
• Your systems and strategy

No matter what kind of business you run these four areas must be covered.