For many business owners, fully absorbed in the day-to-day running of their company, the process of developing and implementing a strategy can sound like an onerous one.

But with the right guidance, developing and implementing a business strategy is a set of logical steps that can be accomplished quite quickly at most stages of business growth, and costs relatively little in terms of time, effort, and expense.

But what’s the importance of strategy anyway? Surely a competent business owner with drive and tenacity knows how to make the business achieve great things without writing it all down in a plan.

The point here is that without a strategy, you don’t know what’s coming over the horizon – and that could be an unmissable opportunity or a serious issue with potentially show-stopping impacts.

For ‘strategy’, then, read ‘vision’ – both in the sense of where you want your business to go, and the clarity of sight you need to get it there, without falling prey to the barriers, and bumps in the road along the way.

How to Use SWOT Analysis for Effective Strategic Planning

Developing a strategy is like planning a journey:  What’s the starting point? What’s the end point? How are you going to travel? What costs and potential risks does that mode of transport present, and how can you accommodate or mitigate them?

And how long will the journey take?

A vital tool in this process is a SWOT analysis, which helps you:

• Assess internal strengths and weaknesses within your business.
• Identify external opportunities and threats in the market.

This combination enables you to take the critical first strategy step – understanding where your business is right now.

Key questions to consider include:

• Where are you performing strongly, and why?
• Where are your shortfalls and what are they down to – lack of resources? Skills? Suitable technology (could AI help here?)
• What are your competitors up to, and how could you steal a march on them – by changing your pricing to undercut them?
• And if the Government hiked interest rates tomorrow, what would be the effect on your borrowing and overdraft, or your access to sources of external finance?

By answering these questions, you gain a comprehensive understanding of your business’s current state and the factors influencing its future.

Kicking off the process

Scores more factors will enter the mix here, but the businesses that we, as outsourced Finance Directors, work with are often surprised that much of this information and data can be obtained internally, even if you don’t have many systems or reporting tools in place, simply by asking and involving the right people.

It’s possible you can glean as much as 70% of what you need in this way, with the rest (particularly external information and data) being largely available from news sources, free and paid online reports, and business intelligence sites.

Likewise, kicking the process off doesn’t require complex scoping or preparation.

• A few hours with a growth advisor skilled in Finance and financial management will help you define your vision for the business.
• A quick workshop away from the hubbub of the business should then enable your leadership colleagues, with a little bit of forewarning, to come armed with the knowledge you need to flesh out the SWOT analysis together.

Steps to Implement Your Business Strategy Successfully

The implementation phase is where your strategy comes to life. Here’s how to ensure its success:

1. Prioritise Actions: Focus on strengthening internal capabilities, addressing weaknesses, seizing new opportunities, and mitigating threats.
2. Assign Responsibilities: Clearly define who is accountable for each action item. Specify the resources needed and set deadlines for delivery.
3. Execute Quick Wins: Start with straightforward initiatives, like:
   • Bridging skill gaps through online training.
   • Improving internal communication with regular company-wide meetings.
4. Tackle Complex Projects: Plan for more demanding efforts, such as:
   • Launching a new product or service to meet untapped demand.
   • Migrating to systems that enhance forecasting or customer relationship management.
   • Strengthening credit control or expanding your customer base through targeted campaigns.

By breaking implementation into manageable steps, you can ensure steady progress toward your strategic goals.

Staying on track but remaining flexible

The challenge here can often be twofold: keeping actions on track and aligned with the strategy over time, (especially if circumstances change, as with the recent employer National Insurance increases, for example), and getting everybody pulling in the same direction.

Two key practices can help:

1. Schedule Feedback Loops: Conduct regular review meetings—at least quarterly—to assess progress against measurable metrics and adjust as needed.
2. Maintain Open Communication: Share updates on the strategy’s progress at all levels of the business. This ensures alignment and fosters engagement from your team.

With these practices, your business stays adaptable while remaining focused on its goals.

Budgeting strategically, operating proactively

The effect of all of the above is that the business becomes able to prioritise choices, focus effort and work on the things that are going to make the most difference, not just a difference.

This, in turn, means the budgeting process – allocating spend to activities, and modelling finance – can be managed with much less guesswork, and therefore stands a much better chance of delivering improved ROI and growth.

What happens without a business strategy?

Without a sound strategy and solid implementation, the opposite is often the case.

Your business can be blindsided by what it doesn’t expect and hasn’t foreseen, forcing it into reactivity, firefighting, and unplanned or even out of control expenditure.

Almost worse than this, however, is the prospect of not seeing, and therefore missing out on, opportunities that could be game-changing for your business.

If you’re struggling to see the bigger picture, a trusted partner can provide clarity and guidance.

For more information on how EFM can help you develop and implement a strategy that optimises your business’s opportunities and growth, get in touch.