Strategy – when the feeling’s gone and you can’t go on
March 26th, 2009
It was only when I went to a workshop on Strategy and Risk last week that I realised: I didn’t have a strategy.
I have values – the moral framework that I take with me into the work I do and the connections I have with people – and I have goals – things I want to achieve within the world of work. But Do It Properly didn’t have a strategy. The guy leading the course was calle d John Hector and he defined this as a list of actions to take, a game plan, a vision, a unifying definition.
I’ve been questioning some local small business owners and hearing how they are changing their products and communication methods, to retain existing customers and gain new ones, in this upside down economy. Hopefully, there will be some inspiration in here for you.
I’ve just got back from a 2-day Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) E-business consultants’ briefing. I’m now happily up-to-date on the consulting products that we are going to use to help businesses, from an ICT perspective (Information & Communication Technology) throughout the glorious country of Wales.
You might have a day like I had yesterday at some point: the kids were being rude, both morning meetings were cancelled at the 11th hour, the lunch meeting was cancelled by text (20 minutes after it was due to start and just as the food I had ordered while waiting turned up at my table) plus it rained (on the day I had decided to walk). The meetings were all efforts to attract more business and I could have been doing something far more useful with my time than wondering round in the rain feeling despondent.
Ask yourself this: How would your business be doing without some of the baggage that you are hauling along from day to day? If you could dump some of those crazy monthly outgoings, or ditch that real pain in the ass client, or do work a different way from the because-we’ve-always-done-it-like-that way?
In this article, we look at how you can make lovely revenue streams from putting clients and colleagues together.
I want to share with you something that I’ve realised recently, that allowed me to make my family home mortgage payment, that allowed me to pay my tax bill and ultimately enabled by business to continue and to not fail. It’s a pretty simple business lesson, ask for more money when a project over runs. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
You don’t want to end up a consequence of customers drying up, suppliers closing down and dropping you in it, or major economic sea change crashing your fledgling business into YARF (Yet Another Recession Failure)…
Paolo - glorious leader of 
Andy - runs a 