Strategic Planning | Teik Oh

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Nov 24 2015

In any planning exercise, you will need to understand where you are starting your plan from.

Just as you need to know where you are starting from to get to the end of any journey.

This identifies what you have to do to go from “here” to “there”. It’s no good setting up great goals and a fantastic vision of your journey’s end, if you start from the wrong place. In order to build, say, a great website presence for your business as a goal, you need to be clear about what your current website represents in terms of strengths and weaknesses so that you can change it from the present to “great”.

In order to get a good picture of where your business is right now, the best exercise is called a SWOT Analysis. Read More

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8 Pieces of “Best Advice” on Business Plans

Nov 03 2015

I have often worked with clients and said something to which they have responded “that’s the best piece of advice about my business plan I have ever heard!”

Now, being of the modest kind (really!) I’ve never thought of what I give as “best advice” but rather things I have learned through experience over many years of making mistakes and learning from mistakes.

However, there are some things that seem to get a reaction every time so I thought I’d put down the 8 pieces of “advice” about business plans that seem to be well-received. Read More

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How to Write a Goal

Oct 27 2015

“How to write a goal.” Really? I should write a blog article on how to write a goal?

Unfortunately yes I think I do. I have touched on this in earlier articles and videos about how a list of actions is not a goal, and what a “proper” planning process should look like. However I see it so often that I feel compelled to call it out all the time.

Here are a three statements that I have seen listed as goals, which represent the three mistakes people make when they create goals:-

To provide excellent customer service
To provide our services in accordance with the legislation
To be the biggest

The first is a given. Of course you should provide excellent service, but why is it a goal? Are you saying that you may have a goal “to provide average customer service”? To be in business you must provide excellent service. It is not a goal.

The second is a given as well, but it is also a limitation. Firstly you cannot have a goal that you will provide services outside the law unless you come from certain parts of society I do not write for! Secondly why couch a goal in terms of limitations?

The third is a wish, not a goal. You can aim to be the biggest, but your goal should be about how you get there. Read More

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How to Plan for Your Business

Sep 08 2015

There are three types of plans that you can develop in your business.

But before I go through them, let me ask if you do any planning in your business?

Many people in small business ask why they need to do any planning at all, other than the most basic – they plan what they want to sell, they plan where they open their shop, and they plan to open! They say “I just do it!” Well, just doing it is like saying “Fire, ready, aim!”

In other words if you don’t put one foot ahead of the other, in the right sequence, you are going to fall flat on your face. How can you “just do it” if you don’t know what “it” is, whether you are equipped to “do” it, and at the end of the day have you moved from where “just” is? How can you grow your business if you don’t know where it is you want to get to in order to be successful?

So, let’s get back to the different types of plans and how to plan. Read More

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A “proper” planning process

Aug 18 2015

In over 30 years’ experience in advising clients on planning I believe very strongly that there is a correct process to follow when you are preparing your strategic or business plan.

At the same time, I have also seen many attempts at different ways to prepare strategic or business plans by consultants who have never had to live through the implementation phase of planning, when client staff go “Huh? What exactly are we supposed to do here?”

I have just spent some time with a client who has prepared their plan exactly in that way. While I was advising them on the financial aspects of their business, their Chief Operating Officer was internally preparing their strategic plan, which I had a chance to look at since it would obviously have an impact on their financial strategy and budget. It was not my role since, as a gun-for-hire consultant I can only do what I am contracted to do. However, for the benefit of my client I felt I had to provide some warning about what I felt were the shortcomings of the planning process to the CEO.

As a consultant you have to approach these situations carefully. You do not want to seem critical so that you look like you are touting for more work; you do not want to insult internal staff and put them off side in case you have to work with them on other issues – yet, I always feel a responsibility to provide an independent view of what I see that may affect their business.

Here, for nothing, is a list of what I thought was wrong with the process and the resulting planning document.

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Category - Strategic Planning

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Get Your SWOT Worksheet!

8 Pieces of “Best Advice” on Business Plans

How to Write a Goal

How to Plan for Your Business

A “proper” planning process