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A lot of virtual ink has been spilt about the importance of your business strategy. About how it allows you to crystallise your decision-making processes, your red lines and your brand’s values to give you a guide to follow when you’re under pressure. It’s an investment of time and effort to set your best practices when you’re not under stress so you don’t make bad decisions when you are.
What’s spoken about less is the importance of flexibility. Your business strategy has to be a living document, regularly under review and adaptable to the times you’re living through. While it’s worthless if you don’t abide by the principles you’ve laid down in it, you must remember that it needs to serve you rather than you serving it.
Today we’re looking at some of the times when you might want to review and update your business strategy, so if you’re looking at using a strategy consultant you can make some informed decisions about when and why to go to them.
What Do You Want?
If you’re running a business for a number of years your personal ambitions are likely to change. As you get older, you might be less comfortable throwing all your energy into growing a business and want to reorganise your priorities to allow for a more balanced life. If you start a family you might want to be more present for them, both physically and mentally.
Conversely, age might see your ambitions sharpening, as you develop the experience and skills to achieve the things you’ve previously only dreamed of, or your new family might inspire more growth so you can support them!
The important thing is not to have a fixed, arbitrary idea of what’s right. Think regularly about what you want from running a business – there’s no point leaving the security of regular employment for the independence of entrepreneurship if you don’t use that independence.
Changing Times
The other thing you need to be aware of is the landscape around you. We’re in a time of economic flux, with the prices of basics rising, inflation going up, and the government response to it doing little to provide stability. That means a strategy created for more prosperous, stable times might not meet your needs when your customers are tightening their belts.
This is a good time to work with consultants. Experts can help you identify the core, immutable values of your business and the dials you can alter to ensure those values survive tough times.
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