A map can help you get places, and a business roadmap – a clear, practical guide to objectives and next steps – is a great way to guide your business.
After all, running a business is a voyage. You need to know why you set off in the first place, where you hope to end up, what you need to reach the next milestone and how that will prepare you to continue further.
A good business roadmap contains:
– Objective: What’s the long term goal? Your goal can be monetary (take home $100K per year), strategic (sell the business in five years), product based (bake the best chocolate chip cookie in Milwaukee), cultural (create a place people want to work) or whatever drives you and your team.
– Practical next steps: there are almost certainly myriad ways to reach your objective. So here’s a hint: find the one you can do. Based on what you know about your customers’ needs and your own skill set, what’s something you can do now that will help you learn, build your brand or get you farther along the path.
– What do you need: the key word here is “need”. Your wish list may be long, but there are comparatively few essentials. So pare down your list. Focus on the key skills, people or equipment you’ll need – and then figure out how you can get them without spending more than you can afford or taking on undue risk.
– What are the risks: just because you’re not writing a long business plan doesn’t mean you should ignore the competition, neglect customer research or blithely assume your supply chain is solid.
– Measurable targets: what does success look like for this tangible, practical, doable task you’ve set yourself? What might you do if you’re not hitting your targets?
– Where will that take you: how will this initiative prepare you to take the next step? What will you have learned, what skills, contacts — and revenues! — might you have gained?
Concentrate on the next big thing and, before you know it, you’ll be repeating the process as you embark on the next, bigger, brighter, bolder stage of growth!
