Businesses often evolve rather than being built strategically, and a lot of the evidence supports this as a route to building a strong businesses. However, whilst we are not a great fan of business planning at the start of a business (insert link to relevant blog) we think there are some great ways to use business planning approaches to review your established business. This blog series contains exercises to encourage you to review and refine your business.

I wouldn’t start from here

The process of planning at the start of a business is fraught with uncertainty – most people simply don’t have enough data at the start of the process to plan their business out fully. Once you are up and running you’ll have a better sense of what works well for you. Now that you are in your stride it’s a great time to write a start-up plan. Ignore what you are doing now, and write a brief outline of what you would do if you were starting your business from scratch. You can then map the gaps between what you’d do in the ideal world and how you currently operate to see if there are opportunities to improve how you work.

This can feel like a bit of an artificial exercise, but done with enthusiasm and an open mind you may be surprised by what you discover. Give it a try and let us know how you get on – tellmemore@rubystarassociates.co.uk/dev

 

Blog by Isla…