Positioning Your Business For Growth

Strategic
Planning
Workbook
Your BluePrint for Strategy and
Tactical Implementation

Date:

10/24/2015

Name:

Carol Scalzo

Email:

carol@hitthewebmarketing.com

Phone:

TEST

INTRODUCTION
Questions? Contact:

Why is Strategic
Planning Important?
What is it? Strategic planning helps you
pave the most direct path towards your
vision, saving you time and money.

Having a clearly stated strategic plan will

allow your company to grow efficiently
with a collaborative effort while minimizing
losses due to confusion.

Its a RoadmapIt helps you set Goals

Positioning Your Business for Growth

page 2

SECTIONS
Questions? Contact:

Instructions
There are a few parts of the Strategic Plan that need to be done prior
to our meeting. Please fill in the appropriate sections and bring this
workbook to our Strategic Planning Session.
Your workbook is broken down into the following sections:
SECTION 1:

Long-term financial goals

SECTION 2:

SWOTT Analysis
a. Strengths
b. Weaknesses
c. Opportunities
d. Threats
f. Trends

SECTION 3:

Core, Values and Beliefs

SECTION 4:

Purpose/Mission Statement

SECTION 5:

BHAG Big Hairy Audacious Goal

SECTION 6:

Brand Promise

SECTION 7:

Elevator Pitch

Positioning Your Business for Growth

page 3

SECTION 1
Questions? Contact:

Long-Term Financial Goals

1. What year would you like to exit
your business?(sell, retire, give
away, close)

2025

2. If you are a non-profit -how

many years would you like to
project your revenues? (3, 5, 10)
3. What would you like the Sales/
Revenues/Income to be the last
year of your business or 3, 5, 10
years out?

$60 m

4. What were the Sales/Revenues/

Income in the previous year?
5. What are the planned Sales/
Revenues/Income this year?

2016 = 150,000

6. What were the expenses for the

previous year?

$48,684

7. What are the planned expenses

this year?

Positioning Your Business for Growth

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SECTION 2
Questions? Contact:

SWOTT Analysis

SWOTT: Short for

Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Threats
and Trends, is an analysis
that will identify the
positive- and negativeinfluencing factors
inside and outside your
organization

TRENDS
A thorough SWOTT analysis will serve as your dashboard
to your product or services to help you navigate and
implement a solid strategy for your business, regardless
of company size

Positioning Your Business for Growth

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SECTION 2
Questions? Contact:

SWOTT: Strengths
What are the strengths of your organization?
Strengths are the qualities that
enable you to deliver your service
or product from resources that can
be continued/sustained.
Strengths can be either tangible
or intangible qualities such as;
expertise, talents and qualities of
your employees (individually and
as a team). They are any distinct
features that give your company its
consistency.
Strengths could also include:
processes, capabilities, financial
resources, programs, services,
positive customer experience and
brand reputation.

Ask yourself this: What

makes you proud of being the
owner of this company in your
community or industry?

Positioning Your Business for Growth

1. Risk Taker, Analytical, Diplomatic, Creative/innovative Problem

Solver, Decisive based on fact and a little gut/instincts. Fearless.

2. years in internet marketing, customer service oriented, able to

deliver thee technical to the non-technical.

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

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SECTION 2
Questions? Contact:

SWOTT: Weakness
What are the weaknesses of your organization?
Weaknesses are the factors that
fail to meet the standards you
feel your company should meet.
They are qualities that
prevent your company from
accomplishing its goals and
achieving its full potential. These
weaknesses influence your
success and growth.
Other weaknesses in your
organization may be technology,
services, equipment, lack of
innovation and employee
development, internal
communication, etc.

Ask yourself this: What

problems exist within your
company related to your
customers experience with
your brand?

Positioning Your Business for Growth

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

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SECTION 2
Questions? Contact:

SWOTT: Opportunities
What are the opportunities for your organization?
Opportunities are presented by
the environment. If you plan
well, you can take advantage
of environmental conditions to
become more profitable and more
competitive.
What is critical is that you
recognize any opportunities and
be able to act on them whenever
they arise.

companies who need help dealing with abandoned shopping

1. retail
carts.

& mfg companies with short time frames uploading products

2. Retail
to distribution points that charge 50% retail if not online in 48
hours.

3.

real estate agencies need technology savvy companies who can

connect their websites to mls.

4. Increase involvement in the industry - NRF - national retail

foundation.

Opportunities could include

increasing your involvement in the
community or industry, potential
community or industry pain
points for service or products that
your company can help solve.

Ask yourself this: What

environmental factor, related
to your service or products,
would allow you to grow
and take advantage of any
unfulfilled market demands?

Positioning Your Business for Growth

5.
6.
7.
8.

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SECTION 2
Questions? Contact:

SWOTT: Threats
What are the threats for your organization?
Threats arise when conditions
in external environments
jeopardize any of your
resources, productivity and
product or service demand.
If compounded with your
weaknesses, it is particularly
difficult to recover from.
Threats are uncontrollable
and unexpected. Examples of
threats are things such as poor
employee motivation, changing
technology, new competition,
rising costs of providing services
or product manufacturing and
new government regulations.

Ask yourself this: What

keeps you up at night...
What factors pose the most
risks to your companys
viability and growth?

Positioning Your Business for Growth

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

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SECTION 2
Questions? Contact:

SWOTT: Trends
Developing an ability to
anticipate emerging trends in
your industry is an essential
strategy to building an agile
organization. Understanding
key future trends will prepare
your businesses for future
challenges and risks.

What are the 8 top trends that must be integrated

into your future business strategy?
1.
2.

Ability to prove ROI to clients. Set expectations/results of marketing.

Direct marketing management software ever evolving, moves quickly.

3.

Omni-Channel Retailing, Cyber Security(critical, disallow info sharing), Vertic

Ask yourself this:

What are the top technologies
and business processes that
will shape your competitive
advantage?
What new opportunities does
science offer?
How will changing customer
demographics affect business
strategy?
What workforce shifts will
affect services or production?
How will future economic
trends affect markets?

Positioning Your Business for Growth

4.

workforce shifts: irregular work scheduling. http://www.epi.org/publication/irre

5.

Changing Demographics Generation of wired world, retailers must learn to co

6.
Wearable technology, Mobile Communications, , Cross-Border Ecommerce

7.
Talent Req's: CEO's must be versed in Analytics, Tech, Eng

8. Analytics helps retailers understand needs of consumer to

maximize customer experience.

page10

SECTION 3
Questions? Contact:

What is the culture of your company/Organization?

Core
Values &
Beliefs
The Shoulds and Shouldnts
that guide your organizations
Decisions, Attitudes, Behaviors
and Performance. Should be 5-10
commandments upon which
your vision for the future is built.
It will be the basis for selection,
Performance Review Evaluations,
Promotion, and Retention of Key
Players going forward.

1.
2.
3.

How do I conduct my
business?

Discipline: People, Thoughts, Actions. Moving in the same

direction.
http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/7-insightful-questions-only-the-be
st-job-candidates-think-to-ask.html
Fire burns in you to - solve an issue, - influence a moment,
- rework the norm, - alter the norm. "Happy to Help"

4. Open minded. Ability to change for the good of all.

5. A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, with meaningful

projects that exercise your creative instincts. We want people to

come to work to contribute passionately, not just collect a
paycheck.

6.
Ask yourself these
questions:

Integrity, Honor, Respect. Don't say anything about a person

you wouldn't say to their face.

7.

When talking to new potential clients, we don't go in selling, we

go in asking questions and listening to the business needs and
pain points so we can be solution provider.
We don't try to please everyone. We target retail: furniture and
apparel, and luxury builders.

8.

What makes up our unique

culture?
These guide the attitudes,
decisions, behaviors and
performance of your whole
organization.

Positioning Your Business for Growth

9.

Our Culture: We are passionate about what we do. Teams

collaborate and work toward solutions in efficient and effective
manners that profit our customers. Nobody comes to a job. We
join forces to contribute to the success of the company and the
clients we serve.

10.

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SECTION 4
Questions? Contact:

Ask yourself these questions:

Why are we doing what were doing?

Purpose
& Mission
Statement
What is a Purpose Statement?
Its your written word for your
companys reason for being; why
you do what you do. Your products
and services may change, but
this message will outlast all your
business goals ...

Its the primary reason for your

companys existence.
A Mission Statement is a written
proclamation of your companies
specific focus that may shift
over time as your market and
environments change.

It answers the questions

What value does our product
or service provide? And For
whom do we do it for?

Positioning Your Business for Growth

I love retail. I've worked retail making $10 an hour and hated it. I love
being on the side of retail that is helping the company increase the
bottom line, only my way and that is through internet technology.
Make more money using what I know about digital marketing to get
their company rediculously profitable.

Why does this organization exist?

Building websites has always been a passion for me. People who
write OpenSource are genius and I am intrigued by the solutions they
have come up with that can help any size business. I know we can
help non-technical companies grow online, improve inhouse
processes into efficient ships. Marketing before google is obsolete. I
know technology and how to apply it.
In a U.S. economy that is more than two-thirds consumer spending,
GDP growth is chained to income growth.
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201511/paul-keegan/does-more-pay-m
What
is the reason we are in the business weve chosen?
ean-more-growth.html
Internet technology is changing the way we do business. My
technical, creative, innovative solutions for retail companies in
marketing their products and managing their business process.
Incorporating marketing strategies with their business goals.

What is our passion for this business?

It's fun, meaningful and exciting the pace of internet technologies and
the way they reshape the way things are done. Remote collaborative
teams. There are no walls in online marketing and doing business
online.
Requires tenacity, creativity, business knowledge and a desire to
succeed at and above the client's standard. the client doesn't know
what we know about getting them more business online.

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SECTION 5
Questions? Contact:

What is your Big Hairy Audacious Goal

We are legendary in....

BHAG
From Jim Collins and Jerry Porras
Your Big, Hairy, Audacious
Goal.(BHAG) should be: 10-25 years
out; would make your organization
lofty and legendary; challenges
you to greatness; and must drive
your business fundamentals. This
is something that may take some
time to figure out, so do not rush this
process.
For non-profits what is the ultimate
goal of your organization?

A true BHAG is clear and

compelling, serves as a unifying
focal point of effort and acts as
a clear catalyst for team spirit.
It has a clear finish line, so the
organization can know when it
has achieved the goal; people
like to shoot for finish lines.

...combine growth of mfg company and internet knowledge and

marketing tools to shock the pants off CEO's of Retail companies
at how much revenue we can increase for their companies with
our innovative marketing strategies and tactics.
We are teaching other women owned businesses to build a
successful business.
We are teaching companies how to use internet technologies to
grow their sales on line; web site, growing leads, growing sales.
We're teaching retail companies how to manage their online
stores. Or we're teaching other digital marketing companies how to
help retail companies grow online.
Pay a minimum wage of $70,000, over 3 years.
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201511/paul-keegan/does-more-pay
-mean-more-growth.html
$60 million by the time I"m 60 - 7 years.
Philanthropist or start organization for kids with Absentee parents foster kids, homeless. Never have to be in a bad foster home.
Teach them to be bold, take risks, have big hairy audacious goals
and mentor them to achieve them.
Be a Speaker on TED
http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_uglow_an_internet_without_screens
_might_look_like_this

Collins & Porras, Built to Last

Positioning Your Business for Growth

page 13

SECTION 6
Questions? Contact:

To identify your organizations Brand Promise,

ask yourself these questions:

Brand Promise

What specific need can we best satisfy for our customers

better than any of our competitors?
ecommerce solutions

When attempting to create

your brand promise, it may be
very tempting to simply list the
attributes of your business or to
describe your product line. But
a brand promise is more than
that your brand promise should
clearly state what your unique
benefit to your customer is.
Heres a great example:
Entertainment with Heart...
Making memories that will last
forever ... this is what weve all
come to know as Disney

What is our absolute Value-Added Proposition or Market

Differentiator?
We bridge the gap between web sites and content; lead
generating content.

A Brand-Promise is ... Your

customers total experience
and why it will be better and
unique with your brand ...
your companys Promise-toPerform brand guarantee.

Positioning Your Business for Growth

page 14

SECTION 7
Questions? Contact:

What would you say to a stranger to describe your company

during a 15-second elevator ride?

Elevator Pitch

Using Online Marketing as Your Strategic Weapon

Heres a good rule of thumb:

60 seconds 150 word count
30 seconds 75 word count
15 seconds 36 word count

Positioning Your Business for Growth

page 15

Next Steps

Strategic Planning
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