Brooklyn's Progress
October/November 2007

BY JILL D’AMICO

It’s the difference between working in – or on – your business.

Danielle Douglas, President of Inspire Enterprise Inc., led a seminar on Sept. 19 called “Strategic Vision Planning for Your Small Business” at the Brooklyn Business Solutions Center (BBSC). The seminar, presented by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce's Small Business Seminar Committee (SBSC) in cooperation with the BBSC, explained the whys and hows of creating and implementing a strategic plan for your business.

Ms. Douglas gave a convincing argument why a business needs a strategic vision – pitfalls to avoid, and why it shouldn’t languish on the shelf.

Beyond the Business Plan
You are not redoing your business plan, stressed Ms. Daniels. The key here is to be forward-looking.

Ms. Douglas said that the benefits of a strategic plan are limitless. Among some of the returns you will get are en exercise in defining the organization’s purpose, developing a sense of ownership about your business, measuring progress, and building a consensus your entire organization can get behind.

It begins with a mission statement, according to Ms. Douglas.

“If you’re not sure where you’re going; you’ll probably end up somewhere else,” she said at the start of the seminar.

The importance of the “vision” element of a strategic plan is that is serves as a good mental model and shows the way to identify goals, even if, as a business, they are never achieved. They will simply keep ambitions high and goals clearly defined.

Starting Early
Ideally, a strategic plan is created as the business is getting started, and then updated once a year. A well drawn out plan will have an effect on your entire business.

Sometimes, business just takes off before any planning is done. These business owners can sometimes find themselves as ‘technicians’ in their business, doing everything themselves to make sure it is done correctly, and too busy to think about what’s coming around the corner.

Ms. Douglas advised that business owners should be able to see unplanned change as a spontaneous opportunity, instead of having to make a knee-jerk reaction, which could prove costly and unwise.

One of the most vital parts of creating a strategic plan is to first do a strategic analysis. Commonly called a “SWOT Analysis,” it is a useful exercise used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that are involved in your business. Knowing to build on the strengths, resolve the weaknesses, avoid the threats, and exploit any opportunities that come your way is key to any successful action.

To learn more about the Brooklyn Business Solutions Center, contact Rick Russo, director of the Brooklyn Business Solutions Center at 718-875-1000 ext. 118, or at rrusso@brooklynchamber.com. For more information about the Small Business Seminar Committee and upcoming events, contact Special Events Director Maggie Beaute-Lucien at 718-875-1000 ext. 105, or at mlucien@brooklynchamber.com.