Most businesses I work with don’t have a strategy—at least not one written down and available as a document. I’ve never had a business say to me, “Bernard, as our newly appointed marketing consultant, we’d like you to familiarise yourself with our strategy—here, take a look.” And yet, on social media and business publications, “strategy” is the predominant topic the gurus talk about. You need a strategy! And by the way, make sure your strategy isn’t a plan…and not a vision. Make sure it is a real strategy! It’s such a stark contrast. Everyone talks about strategy, but hardly anyone has one. Small businesses don’t need a strategy Strategy is like the steering wheel of a car—it gives direction. The thing is, for many young businesses, the owner isn’t yet sitting behind the steering wheel but is still outside, pushing to gain momentum. Only once the car—their business—hits a slight downhill can they jump in and start steering. Only now do they need a strategy. A business with zero revenue

You can replace the word "strategy" with "focus". Where are you going to focus? Understandably, entrepreneurial businesses prefer to refrain from concentrating their efforts because they aggressively explore every possible opportunity. Yet, they have the most to gain from targeting their limited resources instead of following a spray-and-pray approach. The Consequences of a Lack of Focus  The problem with not putting enough effort behind a single point is that many ideas remain sub-critical - they never receive enough support to either work or fail entirely. In our experience at Firejuice , doing more of one thing allows the business to get a clear sense of whether it works or doesn't. Unfortunately, in too many cases, a chronic lack of focus often leads to murky decision-making and companies that end up chasing their tails. Structured Opportunity Exploration Entrepreneurial businesses will always search for opportunities, but exploration should not be unrestrai

Strategy discussions typically start with a SWOT analysis, but what if one asked a far simpler question: What are the biggest problems we face?  Not challenges, weaknesses or threats - just straightforward problems.  Using plain language to formulate strategy is a passion of mine and is much more effective than business speak, as taught in MBA classes. Aside from the biggest problems, here are some other everyday language sentences with strategic usefulness: Who is our ideal customer? Why do they choose us? Who else do they compare us with? What does winning look like for us in the coming year? What are the two or three things we can do that will have the biggest impact on us winning? Crucially, strategy is a discussion - not an exercise, PowerPoint, or "process" - or even worse, a "consulting engagement". The best approach for owner-managed companies is to do so and start talking about where the business is today and where it wants to be going.  We've made the

I see many owner-managed businesses on the verge of collapsing. It isn't so much the economy that is bad, but rather that a bad economy exposes poor management practices. The fact is that without the cushioning of a strong economy, most owner-businesses are exposed as badly managed. They simply aren't competitive.  As I consult on business development, I see nepotism to the point of incompetence, zero evident succession planning, owners being treated as gods, and no healthy debate to challenge the thinking. Things become stale.  To be fair, this is the natural path of all owner-managed businesses unless intentional countermeasures are taken. All owners are treated like gods - they often started the business from scratch and now provide a livelihood to staff. No wonder they are revered. Nepotism is standard practice and an accepted, effective tool to manage risk - it's not all bad. The problem isn't so much the existence of these factors, but that left unchecked, they b