What would you do if you suddenly discovered that your business strategy was wrong? Even worse, you don’t have a strategy at all?
What is a business strategy anyway? Why should you care?
It’s simple. Let’s look at this in another direction.
What Is A Business Plan?
Let’s say you want to go on vacation. Do you just pack your bags and leave your house? Or, are there discussions about where to visit? Research the destinations, hotels, travel costs, and what type of fun might happen.
Your business strategy is your shop’s organizational master plan. What you develop for your business will set the course for action later. Here is where you bake in what is important and outline your strategic goals for the company. All of the critical points are built into the overarching business plan.
The great thing about having a business plan is that once it is created, it serves as a central framework for the company.
Having a business strategy allows your company to grow with less effort as there is a charted direction. Just like that vacation planning. Only with fewer umbrellas in the drinks.
How Vision Serves Your Business Strategy
They say, “Vision drives decisions.” Have you ever stopped to consider how your customers arrived at your doorstep?
For many businesses in the decorated apparel industry, their customers simply popped up one day. They either walked in through the front door, emailed, or called on the phone.
That type of customer arrived by accident. And while probably some of these customers are wonderful, a good many aren’t very good customers. In fact, I’ll bet that if you pulled a report of all of the customers in the past 18 months, the top 20% of customers on the list give you 80% of your revenue.
This means that the bottom 80% of your customer base only gives you 20% of your annual revenue. Don’t believe me? Do your own math.
What If
But what if you had a more purposeful business strategy? Who are your top customers on that list? What business category are they in?
Consider how much easier it might be for a marketing and sales acquisition effort to only go after customers that fit that same profile.
In fact, what if instead of being a reactionary company that waits for the phone to ring, you instead develop innovative solutions aimed at that top customer tier?
Don’t try to find customers for your products; instead, develop products for your customers. Move from a transactional business model to a transformational one.
You can do this.
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success will take care of itself.” – Henry Ford
“Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” – John F. Kennedy
“To be prepared is half the victory.” Miguel de Cervantes
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Marshall Atkinson also shares exclusive blog content at Supacolor.com. Supacolor makes The World’s Best Heat Transfer and provides tips, inspiration, and other resources designed to empower professional garment printers.
