As an entrepreneur or business owner, it is YOUR responsibility to get your organization ready for 2021. One of the most useful tools in your tool belt that you can implement is the strategic planning workshop. Here's the who, what, where, when, and how…

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Transcript of video:

My name is Nick Leighton and for the next few minutes, you are exactly where you want to be.

This is originally recorded on October 20, 2020, for Facebook Live - uncut and uncensored.

Last week we looked at business planning - how to get ready for 2021.

This week - let’s look at the strategic planning workshop.

As an entrepreneur or business owner, it is YOUR responsibility to get your organization ready for 2021.

One of the most useful tools in your tool belt that you can implement is the strategic planning workshop.

This is usually a one or two-day - off-site event - focused solely on setting goals and preparing you for the next 12 months.

If you’re a solopreneur or have a couple of people in your team, it may seem strange, but you need to do this - go and set up your hermit nirvana - and get this done.

If you have a close, small group it could be for your total team. If you have a General Manager and an owner dynamic duo - that works, or if your team has three or more levels of hierarchy, then your leader and the top executive team.

Now we know who - the questions it when

Now. The sooner you start, the more lead time you have to get preparations complete before 2021. But, if you can’t complete these until January or even February due to other commitments - don’t fret.

Where? Off-site could be virtual, on a rooftop, at a hotel meeting room, in a church, or on the beach. I’ve facilitated strategic planning meetings in all of those locations. As long as it’s NOT your physical office space, you can’t go wrong. You need detachment. Once small piece of advice - choose a place with natural light.

More importantly the what and the how.

Let’s tackle the What first. You are going to make your goals for 2021 - and then prioritize your strategic work.

First you are going to confirm your vision - that’s the long-term idea of where you want to take your business that I hope you already have written down somewhere. We need to confirm that your vision is still valid, and after the craziness of 2020, it’s a very legitimate question to ask.

If your vision is solid (or you have tweaked it) you should be able to look at your past financial performance and set future goals. Ideally, your setting annual 2021 financially goals, and able to break that down by quarters or months.

Next - a question for the whole team if that’s how this is being achieved - what do you need to do to hit the financial goals. Here’s the brainstorming part.

There may - and frankly SHOULD - be a lot of ideas at this point. Things to start doing, areas to improve and things to stop doing. Take a note of all of this. Nothing is too small or too stupid. OK somethings are stupid, but for the sake of brainstorming, you can’t say so at this point.

Once all the ideas are out, it’s time to start condensing all those great ideas into strategic groups or projects.

Then you need to prioritize. You may only get through the top 4 or 5 on this list. The rest can be handled in the future. Taking each in turn, from the most important, work through strategies - what needs to get done, how, by whom and by when.

This section is THE MOST important part of your strategic planning workshop. Why? Because people HATE meetings. Yes, it’s true. Even yours. For them NOT to suck, they have to feel like their time was not wasted, and the way you do that is actually achieve something in your meeting. That’s exactly what you do when you take the most important thing to achieve in your business and you build out the strategy - you get stuff done. And that DOESN’T SUCK.

OK, there is a bunch more you could be throwing into your strategic planning workshop depending upon your team structure and the amount of time available. Maybe some team building and learnings are important. Maybe you need to work at a deeper level for some of your company initiatives. I have a great overview of what can be achieved in a one or two-day strategic planning workshop - and sample agendas available for free on my site. I’ll put the link in the comments below.

Now it’s your turn. What does your 2021 strategic planning workshop look like?

Any good advice for others?

Post here – I would love to know.

If you found just one nugget of advice or inspiration in this quick video useful, then please do me a small favor - like and share.

Follow this page & join me next Tuesday - when we’ll take another look into Entrepreneurship and business ownership for today’s economy.

My name is Nick Leighton and I wish you passion, profit, and happiness.

Link to Strategic Planning Workshops:

https://www.tabsocal.com/strategic-planning-meeting-facilitation

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