Question

Why is it important for the business to have its focus and direction?

Answer 1

A business strategy, in simple terms, is a documented plan on how an organisation is setting out to achieve their goals. A business strategy contains a number of key principles that outlines how a company will go about attaining these goals. For example it will explain, how to deal with your competitors, look at the needs and expectations of customers, and will examine the long term growth and sustainability of their organisation.The reason why having a strategy is so important is because it gives business time to get a sense of how they are preforming, what their capabilities are, and if these capabilities are able to help them grow.

Not all businesses get it right straight away. There are natural weaknesses within all organisations for various reasons. What a business strategy does is try to remedy these weaknesses so that companies don’t trip up and suffer their impact too greatly. Strategies look at these future risks and help develop ways in which they can overcome these obstacles. In an age of multiple distractions, it is more than ever important for business leaders to have a strategic focus for the direction of their enterprise and clear goals so that progress can be measured.Especially in the early stages of starting a new venture enthusiasm may be high, but if insufficient thought has been put into the aims and goals and the direction of travel, activity may become scattered in too many directions at once.It is a waste of time, energy and possibly resources and a lack of focussed effort can lead to disappointing results, even to business failure.One of the biggest benefits of a business plan is the direction it can give your organisation. Setting out a well-planned business strategy will ensure your entire organisation is working towards the same goals and instills a sense of shared responsibility amongst employees.More than likely, you understand that focus is important. You’ve probably been told that most of your life after all. However, when starting a new online business, entrepreneurs tend to forget about focus.

The problem is that a lack of focus leads to scattered resources. Devoting time, energy and money to multiple strategies and marketing channels at the same time leads to none of them being executed well. It’s just not possible. On a daily level, a lack of focus leads to wasted time. All of this in turn leads to frustration, lack of progress for the business and ultimately failure.To achieve extreme focus for your business there are three major areas to consider. The overall strategy for your business, campaigns and initiatives for achieving your overall strategy and finally the daily activities and tasks associated with executing those campaigns and initiatives.A clear focus for your overall strategy, your campaigns and day-to-day tactics are vital to every business. Without focus you run the risk being just one of two billion websites in a sea of four billion people online.

The good news is that it's never too late to find and regain focus for yourself and your business. Use this post as a roadmap and begin by re-evaluating your overall strategy, making sure you have a clear and unique value proposition and product/market fit. From there, re-evaluate your marketing channels and campaigns to make sure they are in line with your overall strategy and you'll be well on your way to a more focused business.