Ride The Waterfall

I love January, because January is all about the "big picture".  We set goals and prep ourselves to knock 'em down like bowling pins over the next twelve months.  It's an optimistic time of year, and since I'm an optimist by nature, I feel like I'm tuned into a huge positive vibe.  So, like many others, I want to leverage that tidal wave to its full potential.

You start to hear things like "strategic planning" being thrown about- and if you are in business it's not something that you can ignore.  The strategic plan is your blueprint that says what you consider to be the key components to keeping your business profitable and on track now and in the future. 

And creating one usually sounds as fun as a dental appointment.

But it doesn't have to be hard or terribly painful.  It just requires some time and willingness to capture what you want to do down on paper. 

Think about riding the waterfall.  You start at the top, and momentum will carry you down.

Write It Down

Personally, I like doing the first draft by hand.  Not so much because I can't type it out, but because it's a way for me to be creative, do some mind mapping, and just open up my mind in a different way.

If I'm just doing some doodles, I can't take myself too seriously right?  (Although it is, but this just a way for me to add some fun into the exercise too.)

Make sure that you aren't just coming up with a to-do list either.  The easiest goal should be a revenue target of some kind, and then you probaby will want to focus on growing (aquiring new customers) and retaining your existing business.  Don't be afraid of stretch goals- remember, you have all year to accomplish them!

Be Selective

Once you start going, my guess is you'll come up with a lot of different things that you'd like to accomplish this year.  But realistically, you can only focus on the most critcal ones.  So once you have your list, then whittle it down. 

If you are a small operation, I wouldn't recommend trying to take on too many.  (I have 6 strategic objectives for ThinkBlot for 2011, and that feels like a lot!)   The items that remain on your list should be high-level enough that you can break them down into several pieces to work on throughout the year.

Break It Down One Level

Once you have your annual goals established, then you move down to quarterly goals.  So each goal will have 4 subgoals, and this is important for tracking purposes.  You want to be able to say in June for example that you are, at a minimum, 50% of the way towards completion of each goal. (And if not, then you hopefully have a good idea of where things are out of balance so that you can correct for them.)

Cascade To The Bottom

Your quarterly goals can be broken down in monthly goals.  From here, if you want to track to weekly goals you can, but only do that if that is something that you can hold yourself accountable too.  There can be as much harm in limiting your time for each task within a subgoal (leading to quitting because you didn't make it) as there can be in giving yourself too much time (that you will procrastinate).

The Waterfall Becomes Your Scorecard

Now you've created a simple, tangible, measurable map of your strategic business goals for this year.  You have a quick reference for everytime someone asks you about the state of your business.  By showing forward progress on each goal, you will keep your own internal momentum going so that you don't quit.

Have you sketched out your annual strategic plan yet? How are you planning to stretch this year?

(photo credit wwarby)

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Don’t Let Tools Drive the Strategy

(photo credit Will Scullin) 

When I listen to people discussing different strategies for their businesses, like podcasting, video blogging, generating site traffic, etc. it doesn’t take long for the conversation to turn to the tools we use to do these different things. 

• What microphone is best for recording a podcast?
• What video editing software should I use?
• Which ESP is the best?
• Do different site themes work better than others?

Now these are all important questions to ask when you are in full blown implementation mode, but until you’ve reached the point where you have something to record, something to edit, a newsletter to distribute, or content for your site, you are putting the proverbial cart before the horse.  There has to be a lot of pie-in-sky planning and idea generation before we can get down to brass tacks.

In the excitement to get going, it is much easier to focus on the tools we can use.  I’ve lost hours of productivity researching tools that I think I may use in the future.  What this does is cause a kind of analysis paralysis. The more I learn, the more I agonize if I’m making the right decision.  “Tool A over here has feature x,y, and z, but Tool B over there has benefit s and t which seem really useful.”  Then I get stuck.

I’m stuck because I’m operating under a flawed assumption that in order to bring my idea to life, I need to know exactly what tool is best to distribute it.  This has the exact opposite affect: it stifles my creativity.  Worse yet, if I start creating something to work within the  framework of a tool, I have unconsciously established limits that may cause further issues down the road.

This is where things start getting a bit uncomfortable.  You have to give yourself mental permission and approval that when the time is right You Will Figure It Out.  You are smart and resourceful, and you have the ability to ask for help (or hire it) when the time is right.  Until then you need to focus on what is important: your strategy.

• What are you using these tools for?
• How will they help you engage/inform/incent/motivate?
• Do you have the requisite content (or product) ready to go?
• Do you know how you will measure the success of this idea?

Your strategy is the cement of your foundation.  Once you have that ready, you can utilize any tool that fits the framework of your creation as opposed to the other way around.  The tools will always be there.  Don’t limit yourself by choosing them before your strategy.

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Spicin' It Up

I haven't thought about Old Spice for years.  And when I used to think about Old Spice, I linked it to either a) young men who had no money to buy the good stuff, or b) old men who didn't know other stuff existed.  So imagine my surprise to see Old Spice taking the social media scene by storm.

Have you met Isaiah Mustafa aka "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" yet?  He's tall, he's handsome, and he's definitely easy on the eyes.  In case you are in dark about this man's sudden popularity, do a quick search on YouTube. You'll find him there responding to people in his Twitter feed.  Or in this example, he's doing a customized answering machine message in response to a fan on Reddit.

Old Spice is rockin it, and people are responding.  They've created a character who appeals to men and women alike.  They are using Twitter intertwined with video response on YouTube which give a more personalized (and generally longer) response than the standard 140 character @reply that makes him feel accessible to the masses.  The team behind the scenes is trolling social media sites for mentions of him so he can respond to those as well.   This isn't smelling like an old fogey campaign anymore.

Now if this new strategy is translating into more dollars to Old Spice's bottom line is a question that is under a lot of debate.  Some reports are giving fantastic estimates of jumps in revenue for last quarter.  Others are claiming that it has had no effect.  In either case, it can't be denied that the campaign has gotten everyone's attention.

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