What entrepreneurs are bad in strategic planning

Strategic planning has long been treated as something complex, expensive and exclusive for large corporations. But for intelligent entrepreneurs, especially those that are just starting or scaled with limited budgets, the strategy have to be slim, agile and useful.

In my book Entrepreneur SmartI devote the full strategy section because I think it is one of the pillars of building sustainable and intelligent business. I also say that traditional models-from monthly planning cycles and expensive consultants are now not suitable for today’s business landscape.

Contemporary entrepreneurship requires something more practical: a strategic plan that you could start implementing from days, not quarters. Most importantly, it must be adapted to the current stage of growth.

Why simplicity breaks the complexity of the strategy

Let’s be honest: when you hear “strategic planning”, many imagine consultants in suits, PowerPoINts and limitless meetings. But how often I say: “If planning takes six months, it’s too late.”

Your strategy must reflect the speed and transparency you act. That is why I teach entrepreneurs to ask direct questions as a substitute of building detached documents:

• Who do I need to serve?

• What unique problem will I solve?

• What resources do I already have?

• What does the win in 90 days appear like?

These easy questions about a high level cause clarity and rush-two ingredients that are more essential than Poland.

This approach resembles what AG Lafley and Roger Martin are arguing in the book Playing to win: how the strategy really works. An effective strategy comes all the way down to difficult decisions about where to play and easy methods to win.

Frames that work: brightness, focus, motion

The basis of the intelligent method is the three -part strategic process:

1. Claim: Define where you need to go

Peter Drucker once said: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” But to create your future, it is advisable to know what it looks like.

Start by selecting a direction. What is your great goal for the next 12 months? This can double your revenues by expanding to a recent city or starting a digital product. Be specific. Avoid a unclear language. If you may’t measure it, you may’t manage it.

The brightness is not about certainty. It’s about selecting a direction and commitment to him. Without it, you mostly react to noise as a substitute of building the path forward.

2. Focus: Identify the basic levers

When your goal is clear, select three key levers that move with a needle.

In the early days in Coworking SmartI selected:

• Reduce unnecessary costs by 30%

• Improve team efficiency through training

• Increase lead flow using a digital sales line

You don’t need 15 priorities. You need three. Made consistently create results.

This is in line with the 80/20 principle. According to Harvard Business School, 20% of activities normally result in 80% of results. The strategy consists in identifying and doubling these 20%.

3. Action: Transform the strategy into on a regular basis practice

There are many plans here. They look great on paper, but they are never translated into motion.

Divide each lever into weekly tasks. Follow your progress. Build the rhythm of performance. For example:

• A weekly budget review to cut back costs

• Daily team check -in to strengthen the performance goals

• Launch one recent digital campaign weekly

Secret? Treat your plan as a living document. Customize based on what the data is telling you. And follow it for 90 days. This short-cycl realization reflects the rules of the DIRCs (goals and key results) that were used by firms similar to Google and Intel to stay aligned and focused.

Lessons from a global educational journey

After traveling to different countries, in order to review entrepreneurship, one became clear to me: complexity is often a mask of indecision. The best entrepreneurs I met had easy strategies, clear performance and prejudice.

They didn’t wait for ideal conditions. Moving forward, they measured the results and refining so far as the engraving. This inspired me to simplify our own strategic process in Coworking Smart.

Today we serve six units in Brazil, including a recent inexpensive model in Rio de Janeiro, which focused only on virtual office services. Our growth does not come from spreadsheets. It comes from execution in line with a easy, approved strategy.

Intelligent strategy is slim, not light

Let me explain: Chuda does not mean being superficial. This implies that being effective.

Intelligent strategy does not ignore the depth – it simply reduces waste. You are still analyzing your market. You are still studying your client. But you do it quickly using tools similar to:

You can even quickly confirm your assumptions using tools similar to Typeform or Google Forms to collect an opinion before committing to large -scale actions.

The strategy is not a document – it is a discipline

Most entrepreneurs do not disappoint because they lacked vision. They are falling because they didn’t build systems supporting the vision.

Strategic planning must be the steering wheel of your organization – not a document on the shelf, but a tool that you simply seek the advice of every week.

Start from a young age. Ask higher questions. Define your 90-day win. Build your plan around what you may do, not what looks good.

And remember: the strategy is not perfect. It’s about making higher decisions.