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Strategic Planning Articles

1. Four Important Reasons to Consult with School Stakeholders
In school strategic planning it is important to consult with all stakeholders even though this is time consuming. This article explains why.

2. Business Intelligence -- Tools for All Companies
Business Intelligence the act of tracking and analyzing company data. Most companies have business intelligence tools in place, but may not realize how focusing on this data and using technology to track business events can greatly improve the operations and bottom line of any company.

3. How To Write A Mission Statement
A mission statement should very quickly and succinctly define your business, your ideals, goals and history in a brief paragraph. Sounds simple, huh? It can be far more difficult than it seems to write a mission statement, so where do you start?

4. Measure What Matters, Dump What Doesn't
I recently met with my friend Neil to discuss several business building strategies. I shared with him a tool that I use in my own business on a daily basis. You can create this tool on your own, it's super easy to use, and I guarantee it will help you grow your business exponentially. The tool is a simple text document (I created mine in Microsoft Word) that you use to measure your daily KPIs. KPI stands for key performance indicator, and every business - even yours - has them. The first step in creating your KPI measurement tool is to figure out what your Key Performance Indicators are - what activities do you do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis that directly contribute to the success of your business? Some examples of KPIs might be the number of phone calls you make, the amount of time you spend networking, the number of presentations you deliver, the number of articles you distribute, etc. Next, create a simple sheet where you can measure your performance in each of these areas. The document I created for myself is a single sheet of paper in landscape view (that's the wide-way) divided in half so there are two columns. In the first column, I measure Monday through Friday activities, and in the second column I measure weekly activities. I cut the sheet in half (so each column became its own page) and took it to the local print shop. I had them make 52 copies of each page and turn the copies into a notepad. (Most print shops or copy shops have this capability.) I can keep the notepad handy and use it on a daily basis. Before making 52 copies and turning them into a notepad, you'll want to spend some time testing out your Key Performance Indicators. Your KPIs might not be immediately evident, and you might be wasting your time by measuring things that don't really matter. For instance, you might think that distributing press releases in an important KPI for your business. Test it out for a while. Send out press releases on a regular basis, measure your performance, and determine your results. What has this activity done for you? Did you get more sales inquiries after sending press releases? How valuable were those inquiries? Will you be able to attribute an increase in the bottom line to sending out press releases? If so, then this activity is definitely a KPI. But on the other hand, if you think adding a new article to your blog on a daily basis is an important Key Performance Indicator, try it out for a while. Write an article every day and track the results. Did you add more prospect names to your database as a result of your articles? Did you see your sales increase? If not, this activity is probably not a KPI for your business, so there's no point focusing on it and measuring it. After a few weeks, you'll be able to figure out which activities are actually contributing to your progress. If you notice your sales increase as your networking increases, then networking is definitely a KPI. If the time spent on a certain activity varies but your sales remain stagnant, you'll know that activity is not a KPI. It can be dumped from your list. Once you've identified your KPIs and you've measured them for a set time, you'll then have an awesome tool to plan for your sales growth. You'll know exactly what to do in order to grow your business. Let's say you've identified "making prospect phone calls" as an important KPI. And in your measuring process, you've discovered that when you make 5 phone calls each day, you average $15,000 in sales for the week. If you'd like to increase your progress to $30,000 in sales every week, you know you'll need to make at least 10 phone calls. Identifying your KPIs is the most important step in effectively using this tool. That step is extremely personal and will differ from business to business.

5. Business Simulations -- Meeting the Training Needs of Today's Companies
Businesses today are forced to operate in a vastly different way than they did 20 years ago. Business simulation services are an excellent way to provide training and find solutions for some aspects of your business.

6. Pay a Little Now or Pay Someone Else a Whole Lot Later
Champagne strategic planning approach on a beer budget. Rapid contingency planning on your business during our turbulent roller coater world may stench the bleeding to save your company or provide money to pay for a more sophisticated system later. This article suggest a framework to hunker down in your business as your customers, vendors and financing sources go through a similar process.

7. The Best Five Tips for Successful Strategic Planning
The article provides simple, clear tips for people beginning school strategic planning

8. Top 10 Tips for New Consultants and Freelancers
Shorten your learning curve by utilizing these top ten tips to boost your new consulting business. It takes some consultants years to learn these valuable lessons the hard way, but you can have an inside advantage over your competition by following this advice from the start.

9. Proven Formula For Setting Your 2009 Income Goals
I just finished up my business plan for 2009 (and if you haven't updated your 2009 plan yet, I urge you to get started soon!) and I'm working with several clients to update their plans also. One of the roadblocks many of clients run into is the difficulty of setting concrete goals and objectives.

10. If You Cannot Stand The Heat, Get Out Of The Commercial Kitchen
Planning in any business venture is essential, l;earn more about the crucial elements of planning a commercial kitchen in this impartial and expert account.

11. Do You Really Need a Business Plan?
If you're about to look for an investment of capital it is likely that you will need to have your own business plan.

12. What's The Best Way To Write a Business Plan?
If you're currently looking for an investment to inject capital into your business it is likely that a business plan will be required.


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