How’s Your Strategy?

Posted by Jim Van on September 14, 2011 under entrepreneur, small business | Be the First to Comment

Last Monday. we held the first monthly meeting of the Providence Entrepreneurs Meetup Group for the 2011/2012 season at the Cafe at Whole Foods in University Heights, Providence. This is a monthly get together that varies in size from a handful to a couple of dozen members who get together to network and share stories. While the meetup itself was interesting, the communications I had with members who couldn’t make the meetup was even more interesting. A clear majority of them talked about strategy in this economy.

You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘work on your company, not in it’ a thousand times. Countless books, such as the E-myth by Michael Gerber spend pages elaborating on just that point. And almost every small business forum I’ve ever attended has at least brought up the same point. What some of them miss, however, are defining the leadership skills to, indeed, work ON the company.

We’ve all worked for someone where we’ve worked more alongside them than for them. These types of owners tend to focus on short-term, almost immediate tasks at hand, and generally miss the long-term strategic view that it takes to remain in business. Being a true owner/entrepreneur takes a very different mindset than that of an employee, even managers.
Sometimes, especially in microbusiness, this can create some conflict among entrepreneurs, as we, by default, tend to be technicians working in the company, rather than on it.
Yet, focusing on the long-term vision and guiding the company to success, or continued success is what differentiates us from being an employee.

It’s actually one of the reasons that PEMG exists. While not reflected at meetups, and not (yet) reflected on the meetup site, I probably spend at least a couple of hours a week in phone and email conversations with entrepreneurs who are struggling with this very issue. It’s pretty common, and it can really drag one down into simply doing a job, rather than running a company, small that it might be.

Strategic planning is an essential piece in the success of any company, large or small. While the process is largely driven by the entrepreneur, it’s critical to engage your staff, even if it’s one person, into the process. Start thinking about where you’d like the company to be in 2012. Think budget, marketing, new product/service introduction, and the like. Engage your staff, and start creating a calendar. NOW is the time to make the commitment and create the calendar.

Given time, in coming weeks I’ll be posting a series of files to help on tis very subject into the file section of the PEMG site: http://www.meetup.com/ProvEntrepreneurs . You’ll have to join to access the files, but membership is free, and as long as you visit the site at least once every six months, you’ll maintain access.