Two months ago my wife and I were camping in Santa Barbara.  We woke up on Saturday morning with no specific agenda other than to do some wine tasting.  We drove around Los Olivos and Santa Yenz.  We were only planning our day one winery at a time. It was wonderfully relaxing.  What if we had taken this same approach on the Friday before, when we drove up there?  Well, we probably would not have made it to Santa Barbara.  We would have arrived someplace by night fall, but it would not have been the location we wanted to be.  We had a bigger plan which gave us flexibility once we arrived.

Business planning is much the same way.  There are times when in-the-moment planning makes sense.  The problem is that too many businesses stay there.  They regularly think 1 week to 3 months ahead.  This is okay if a company wants to remain small.  But to grow up and become a big company, the owner must create a strategic plan.  Not only will it make decision making easier along the way.  It will also speed the pace of the arrival.

So what is a strategic plan?  It’s a plan that outlines the strategy a company will take to arrive at a destination.  We typically place them inside of a business plan.

1. Where do you want to go?
2. Where are you now?
3. What’s the plan to get where you are to where you want to go?

Strategic planning for small businesses is different than strategic planning for big businesses in that the entrepreneur is manifesting his dream in the small company.  So we must base the company’s vision on his dream.

In the first section, time is spent understanding where you want to go.  For an entrepreneur to be congruent, the company’s vision must tie into their personal vision.  For a vision to be compelling, the entrepreneur must get more of their values.  Research has shown that happy people do things on a regular basis that feed their values.

So in order to be happy, we must understand our values, then write a vision (written picture) that shows us getting more of our values, and then create a company vision that helps us get our personal vision.

So what are your values?  One way to find them is to look at the things that make you upset.  If something bothers you, or makes you upset, it’s because a value of yours is being crushed.  For example: When I have to do work by myself, and I feel like I’m on an island, I procrastinate like crazy.  I *hate* it.  On the other hand, when I’m working on a team, and what I’m doing helps the team, I get fired up.  One of my values is camaraderie/teamwork. 

What things drive you crazy?  Slow drivers?  Fast drivers?  People who are unorganized?  Perfectionists?  Domestic violence?  Abuse?  World hunger?  Capitalism?  Socialism?  Integrity?  Too much truth?  Etc.  What does that mean regarding what’s important to you?  This will give you a key into your values.

(A special note on values.  Do NOT pick a superficial “should”.  For example, do not say “Integrity is generally known as a good trait, so that should be mine.”  I will be able to see my values by looking at my life.  If being trustworthy is a value, you will not see examples in my life where I was untrustworthy.)

Once you know your values (most people have 5-6 core values), then write a personal vision statement.  They are written in the Present Tense, Powerful, and must always be in the Positive. 

For example: “It’s January 1st, 2013 and we just returned from a trip to Hawaii.  Each year for the last 2 years, when our company reaches its sales numbers, we take every employee and their family to Hawaii for a week.  The weather was so nice.  This last year has been exceptional in that we receive a large contract worth $2M from Boeing as a result of John’s hard work on this account.  Personally, I moved to Huntington Beach earlier this year, and my wife and I now own a 4 bedroom house downtown with a large number of windows because I love the light.  My home office is 20x20 which provides me a lot of room to think when I need it.  Valerie and I have been very happy lately.  We typically take the weekend off and relax together.  Vacations are frequent.  A month before the Hawaii trip we camped in Santa Barbara for the weekend.  In August of last year we traveled to Europe for 2 weeks, visiting France, Italy, and Spain.  In March, we took a month off to sail around Australia.  Having a key man in place that I can trust at my machine shop has allowed me to leave, knowing that it will be running just as well without me.”

This is not a complete vision, but the point is made.  A personal vision statement typically includes these eight areas: Business/career, personal finances, social life, community, spiritual, personal time, family, and health.  My personal vision does.

Once I’m clear, as an entrepreneur, on what my personal life should look like in 3-5 years, gaining clarity on my business is next.

In the next few issues, we will continue creating the strategic plan by turning our attention to the business.

Your fieldwork:
• Spend time thinking about your values.  What gets you upset?  What is important to you?
• Spend time painting a picture (a vision) for 3-5 years from now that clearly show how you are doing more of what is important to you.

Have a great month!

Cory Halbardier
SBA Network
www.SBANetwork.org