Navigating Business Success with Strategic Planning

As the old saying goes, "The only constant in life is change." This rings especially true in the business world. The first half of the year has passed, and it's time to prepare for the rest of the journey. No matter the turbulence of the economy, strategic planning will ensure your small business doesn't merely survive, but thrives.

Why Mid-Year Strategic Planning Matters

Strategic planning is your compass in the business landscape. It's not about the day-to-day operations, but where you want your business to go in the long term. With the current economic rollercoaster, this compass becomes even more crucial.

Consider Jane, a small digital marketing agency owner. The economic uncertainty led her clients to cut back on their marketing budgets, challenging her survival. Does her story sound familiar?

Leveraging ChatGPT for Workflow Optimization

Now that we understand the benefits of ChatGPT, let's explore practical ways to integrate it into your daily business operations. We'll walk you through actionable use cases tailored to service-based businesses. Whether you want to automate repetitive tasks, generate personalized email responses and proposals, or conduct market research, ChatGPT has got you covered. Imagine the time and energy you'll save by automating routine interactions and gaining valuable insights at your fingertips.

Navigating with SMART Goals

Strategic planning starts with setting SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Jane didn't just aim to 'gain more clients.' She set a SMART goal: "Increase the client base by 20% by the end of Q4 through targeted social media campaigns and networking events."

The Power of Metrics and KPIs

To track your goals, you need metrics and KPIs, your business's vital signs. Jane chose the number of new clients as her KPI. However, as she navigated her journey, she realized retaining existing clients was more critical. So, she adjusted her KPIs.

Your Takeaway Action Plan

Let's recap: Strategic planning is essential, especially during mid-year. Set SMART goals aligned with the current economy. Monitor and adjust your KPIs as necessary.

Now, here are your actionable takeaways:

1. Dedicate time for a mid-year review. Identify what's working and what's not. This analysis will guide you through the rest of the year.

2. Be flexible with your strategic planning. Pivot your business goals based on the changing economic landscape.

3. Regularly monitor and adjust your KPIs. Ensure they remain relevant and continue to guide you towards your business objectives.

Conclusion:

In the ever-changing economy, remember that your small business's journey to success is not a straight path, but a winding road. Keep your compass of strategic planning in hand, and you'll be well-prepared to navigate it.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Collab with Kiva.
See you next time!

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Podcast Transcript:

Kiva Slade 0:01

Welcome to Collab with Kiva, where we let our inner nerd geek out on all the non sexy parts of your business. I'm talking data and operations, neither as flashy or glamorous, but both are foundational to your business growth. I'm your host, Kiva Slade, your strategy and analytics guide here to break down what feels complicated. So it is understandable and executional. Let's dive in. Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of Collab with Kiva. Today, we are going to talk about planning for success, especially strategic planning for the second half of the year, in what has proven itself to be a topsy turvy economy. You know, I love to talk all things ops and all things data. And I felt like both of these are very relevant when it comes to mid year planning. And that's really where we are, whether you want to admit it or not, whether you've been doing planning for quarter one, quarter two, and you're like, Hey, I've reviewed my numbers, I'm not where I want to be, hey, I reviewed my numbers, I'm ahead of where I want it to be, whatever the situation is, or you're like, Girl, I didn't review any numbers, because I don't have any, because I didn't map out anything, it doesn't matter.

Kiva Slade 1:27

This is your restart your refresh your whatever you want to call it for the rest of the year, because the reality is like the first half of the year, presented one set of economic challenges, the second half of the year, might prove to give us a different set of economic challenges. Whatever the case is, you have control over that destiny. When you involve some strategic planning, I'm gonna say some because that might freak some of you out. So when we're talking about strategic planning, it's a really key, like it's so helpful to helping us survive and thrive in any business landscape. We all know like throwing spaghetti at the wall, seeing what sticks is not a plan. Okay, but stepping back from the daily grind from all the minutia that is everything that is related to running your business and actually determining for yourself, what course Do you want to take? What direction do you want to go? So we're not talking about operationally planning? How are things going to focus on a day to day basis, no strategic planning a long term view, when you envision yourself on December 31, 2023? The end of this year, the last day of the year. What is it that you want to accomplish in your business? Who do you have wanted to serve? In what way do you want to serve them? If you are a service based business? Did you have the type of projects that you were looking for? And did they fulfill you in the way that you wanted them to? Did they bring in the revenue that you wanted them to bring in?

Kiva Slade 3:10

So in light of that truly thinking about the long term. Where is it that you see yourself December 31, that you want to say, I achieved this goal, this goal, this goal, whether that's financial goals, whether that's some other type of goals, whatever it is for you, because that's another thing that's so important is to understand that mid year strategic planning is about you. It's about you and your business. It's not about Sally's business. It's not about Jane's business, of course, unless your names are Sally and Jane, and you're listening, but it's about you and your business. Where is it that you want to go? What is the path that you want to follow as you move forward? And the AI, chat GPT generative AI so many things have, in some instances drastically altered the landscape of how we were doing things and have opened up possibilities that I don't even know if we fully have tapped into yet. I was speaking with a client who we're doing a strategic mapping session right now. And her business is a salon. There's literally AI for the salon that helps with appointment bookings, and you feed it the information about your your business so that it can actually help you the Chatbot can help you in responding to customers inquiries. I've read stories where AI is going to be used to help kids learn reading. There's just possibilities upon possibilities. And in light of these possibilities, it creates a shift in the landscape of how we do things of the tools that we have access to in order to do run our businesses, the tools that we have access to, in order to serve our clients.

Kiva Slade 5:05

So considering all of those things, it's important for us to carve out time to strategically plan to plan what it is that we are going to do in our business between now and the end of the year. Grab hold of that. And literally give yourself the time and the space, to think to dream to vision, what it is that you are hoping to wanting to would like to accomplish. So obviously, with strategic planning, there's lots of ways that you can go about this. There's goal setting, you can have smart goals, specific, measurable, achievable, or attainable, relevant and time bound. I think key parts of that is really about the timebound, we are talking December 31, I want you any goals that you set in this process, they have a deadline of what are you going to accomplish between now and December 31? They should definitely be specific. I do not want to hear the goals of increase my client base by just increase my client base No, like, I want to increase my client base by 20%. By the end of Q4, how am I going to do that I'm going to use targeted social media campaigns and networking events. That's a goal that you can say is smart, it's specific, it's also measurable, you can actually calculate 20% more of a client base, it's achievable. It's relevant, it's time bound, end of Q4, December 31. That's when this is going to happen.

Kiva Slade 6:41

So really thinking through what those goals look like thinking through what it is that you want to do, and how you want to accomplish it. Again, the lofty dreamy things that aren't specific, really don't help us move forward. And recently, also reading, grow your small business by Donald Miller. And I love that he also takes it a step further and is like, you know, set up what are the critical actions that you need to take, okay, maybe it's you and your team and those actions that they need to take, what are the key characteristics that you need to have as it relates to achieving those goals. So these are all things that you need to do in that fold into that process of strategic planning. And it's really important that you think through these things, again, a lot of times it's giving ourselves space and time, in order to do that the space being not where you do work, so that you're not distracted by the work or something else of that sort space is really helpful because it allows our brain to actually think about things and also not have the physical constraints around us that might inhibit some of that thinking. So that's why I tell everyone to give yourself time and space. So again, you want to have goals that are truly specific, that are measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. Also, though, and number this goes back to the beginning, whether you had metrics and KPIs that you were tracking for yourself in your business, or if you didn't, now is a time to revisit those that you have set. If you haven't set any now's the time to set them. It's an you know, what's that?

Kiva Slade 8:33

The best time to plant a tree is now. I mean, the best time was five years ago, the second best time is now if you didn't set goals and have metrics and KPIs, and January of this year, the second best time to do that snow. So when you have goals, and you have metrics and KPIs, it allows you to track you know, just like we were talking about if things are measurable, that's where that metrics and KPIs come in. They're also vital business signs. We've talked before about leading lagging indicators and different things of that sort. But if you want to increase your client base by 20%, you can monitor that, and what that looks like. So at this mid year point, I don't know you've had two clients, I'm assuming they're really large ones. And you want to increase that by 50%. So you want to add one more client, you can measure that come December 31 that you have increased that. Did you get that one more client? Of course you did. So you're able to measure that you so whatever your metrics are your KPIs, revisit them, look at the numbers. How are you tracking? If you have numbers setup are where are you at in terms of your revenue goal for this year? 60% 70% 95% 120%. Great, wonderful, terrific wherever that is.

Kiva Slade 10:00

How many clients did you want to serve? How many workshops did you want to lead? How many speaking engagements did you want to have? whatever it is that you're tracking for your business, not what everybody else is tracking for their business. That's where you focus, you revisit them, understanding, they are not set in stone, I want to say that, again, they are not set in stone. These are your goals. Again, if you what's the saying. Like basic, if you fail to plan you plan to fail. So with that being the case, like if you don't have any, you know, no desire to increase your client base, or, you know, no number attached to that, or whatever, I'm not saying you're gonna fail, but I'm just saying you have nothing to work towards. So with that being the case, though, again, if you shoot for the moon and land amongst the stars, you still wind it up when you know, in a good place. And that's the same thing with our business as if you were looking to increase your client base by 50%. And you increase it by 45%. You didn't hit 50, but daggone it you better celebrate, do a happy dance and congratulate yourself for actually the 45% if you did not have anything at all, you know, you may not celebrate. So really looking at that adjusting your KPIs? You know, for those of you that have them, adjust them, maybe because of this economy, you see that things are shifting and changing. Clients aren't interested in one particular offer of yours or product of yours. And you might need to shift resources to another one. You may need to adjust those metrics and KPIs. Why because of the topsy turvy economy that we find ourselves in.

Kiva Slade 10:00

Yay, we're hiring lots of people, ooh, payroll only, you know, paid this many people. Like there's so many ups and downs that really, it's global, if you look, there's there's problems everywhere. It's not just contingent upon the US and their economy. We're just so globally interconnected, and everyone's having some topsy turvy economy issues. So with that being the case, though, you may need to adjust your KPIs and your metrics. And that's okay, because again, they're not set in stone. This is about setting a plan in place. And realizing that steps along the way to the completion of the plan are still steps in the right direction. And it's still increase in many of our businesses. So if that's the case, revisit those metrics and KPIs. If you don't have any set, now is the time to set them, whatever they might be, again, for your business, that's going to be contingent upon what your business is, what are your goals for this year, depending on your family situation, a single mom might have different business goals than a married woman who's an empty nester, whatever the situation is, again, you want to make it specific to you and your business. So, again, we want to have a mid year plan. In order to do that you have to set aside time you have to carve it out, you have to make it a priority.

Kiva Slade 13:27

You want to actually create goals in that strategic planning. If you feel that these aren't things that you're like Kiva, I don't know about all this. I don't do this, I don't play and I'm fly by the seat of my pants, well, that's great. But I'm a stable you have seat and pants to the chair so that we can get by and out so that we know exactly where we're trying to go. Which is important. So as you are looking at this this mid year, this time of reflection as you look back, but out so like anticipation, in terms of what is to come. It's such a beautiful time to take stock of what has taken place. And what would you like to take place? Where do you see yourself? Come December 31 2023? What will you have accomplished? Who will you have served? What impact will you have made? These are all things that you get to take the time to think through, to dream through to really put some meat on the skeleton bones of those thoughts. By again, setting aside time in which to strategically plan to make not only those dreams and visions, like you want to make them a reality.

Kiva Slade 14:53

So as we looked close because this is short and sweet and to the point I want you to dedicate time to conducting a media review and want you to identify what's working, what's not working. This helps you not only analyze, but map and navigate the rest of the year. Number two, be flexible with that strategic plan, you may need to pivot some of your business goals based on the economic landscape based on the technological landscape. It's a plan, it is not written in stone, neither are your metrics and KPIs. Regularly though, monitor them, adjust your KPIs, adjust your metrics, ensure that they're still relevant, and that they can continue to guide you towards your business objectives. Those things that you know, put in that plan. So with those things being considered, those are your three takeaways, that I want you to truly carve out time before the end of this month and actually engage in those activities.

Kiva Slade 16:01

And if you feel stuck, definitely feel free to reach out, we can get a strategic mapping session going and get you where you need to be on December 31 of this year accomplishing those goals and kicking butt in the things that you do. So thank you, again, for tuning into this episode. I really want you to implement those takeaways. Make a strategic plan. I want you to do that. And to feel free to ping me on LinkedIn and say, Hey, girl, I did it. And I'll be like, yeah, cheering you on. So whether or not this economy continues to be topsy turvy, doesn't matter. We can brave it together, because success is not a destination. It's a journey. So I will see you on the next episode of Collab with Kiva thanks for tuning in to another episode of Collab with Kiva. I'm wildly cheering you on as you go forth and execute data and operational efficiencies in your business. If you need additional support, connect with me via my website, the516collaborative.com your reviews on Apple are appreciated. See you next week.

Meet Kiva Slade - the Founder and CEO of The 516 Collaborative. With a unique background in high-power politics on Capitol Hill and sixteen years as a homeschooling mama, Kiva found her calling in the online business world as a trusted guide for entrepreneurs looking to build the business of their dreams.

Kiva's work began behind the scenes, orchestrating the back end of businesses and managing teams. But her inner data diva couldn't help but notice that small businesses needed help harnessing the power of data for growth. So she and her team set out to uncover and tidy up the data required to enable clients to grow their businesses confidently and easily.