Have you created your strategic business blueprint?

Now, before your overwhelm monitor goes to full tilt, you need to know, it does not have to be a difficult, arduous project.

Simply put, strategic blueprinting is the streamlined planning process of developing an architectural plan for your future business.  It is setting direction.  And, it is common for consultants and coaches to tell you that this will be a lot of work and will take an inordinate amount of time.  But I disagree.

You can do a basic plan on a dinner napkin if you want.  Of course, I am a big fan of napkin plans – I did my first will on a napkin over lunch.  But let’s move on.

So, where do you start?  Basically, there are three strategic questions you must answer with laser focus and precision when planning the future of your business.

1. What business are you really in? What is your business going to do and sell?  Sound too simple?   Well, this is where many small business owners go wrong.  They assume that they know what business they are in but after delving into the topic, they find that they are not clear on this point. Without clarity, business success can be challenging.
2. Who are your going to sell to? Who is your ideal consumer in your market niche.  Be clear, concise and specific. This is the opportunity to profile your perfect prospect.
3. How do you beat, avoid or crush the competition? Here’s where the action is.

These questions may seem so simple, you want to brush over them.  But your first answers will rarely be the right answers.

On the other hand, if you answer these questions precisely, you will have the basic building blocks for your business blueprint.  Just give it some time – this may take you hours, days, even weeks to get to the right answers.  And, as your business grows, you need to ask these questions again and again just to stay on course.  I recommend revisiting this process annually.  This plan provides the basic building blocks for your entire venture. 

Strategy Talks Tip: Do not do this alone.  Engage a team or group of buddies to brainstorm with you.  Offer to buy pizza and beer – that should get the ideas flowing.  When you are ready, you can hire a coach or consultant to guide you through the process.  They should offer an objective perspective that can literally make or break your business.

If you liked this post, click the like button. Thanks.

Amelia Brazell, Strategy Source, Inc.

Have you been trying to increase your business with DMO-CVBs?

You know you have a product that will benefit them.  But they aren’t buying it…sound familiar? 

The DMO-CVB market can be extremely lucrative.  So how do you tap into that business?  

The answer is simple….you must identify, communicate and connect with the correct person in the organization. Sounds simple, right?  However, the process can be complex and challenging.

Travel-Tourism expert, Robert Baracz is going to share his insights into the world of DMOs and CVBs. As a former Vice President of Business Development with the San Diego CVB, he knows first-hand, the insider strategies that you can use to gain access to DMO-CVBs.

Join us for this event: 

Date:    Thursday, July 29, 2010

Time:    1 PM Eastern, 10 AM Pacific

Click here to grab your seat.

Hope to see you on the Tourism Strategy Talk.

The graphic in this post is a large version of the favicon created for this site.  Look at your browser bar to see how it shows up.  Pretty cool, huh?

Guess what, you need to create one for each of your sites.        

Why bother to add a Favicon?

• It adds sparkle and splash to your site
• It shows you are not a marketing novice
• It demonstrates you are serious about your business
• It says you pay attention to the details
• It supports your brand image
• It differentiates your site from competitors and other sites
• If you don’t add your own favicon, your browser will put something up for you.  And, these generic browser favicons are ugly…nuff said.
  

Here’s a free tool for creating favicon graphics…

The favicon for Strategy Talks was created at cooltext using their free graphic generator.  I played with various versions before I landed on this one.  Then cooltext rendered the graphic in just seconds.  The entire process took less that five minutes.  That’s not bad for a professional logotype graphic.  Once the graphic is rendered, download it to your computer.  Then upload it to your blog or site.  The theme used for this wordpress blog makes it very simple.  Even for non-tech types like me. 

If you prefer to generate a favicon from an existing graphic, you can do that as well.

Tell me what you think about the favicon on this site. 

Strategic blueprinting vs strategic planning

Merely mentioning strategic planning can strike terror in the hearts of small business owners.  Many entrepreneurs think it’s not for them; it’s for the big guys.   Usually, they dread the process because they don’t understand the process.  They envision months of work and piles of paper.   But this does not have to be the case.

It is this archaic image that made me rethink how planning is traditionally done.  Streamlining the process to accommodate today’s fast-paced business environment led to a more concise and easier system to implement – strategic blueprinting.  This system provides a more contemporary and visual mechanism designed as a guide for how and where you want your business to grow.  The more visual and concise, the better.

Still not clear?

Forget your business for a moment…let’s consider how you build a house – big or small.  You begin with blueprint drawings.  You lay a foundation, then build according to the plan.  And, you get what you drew on the blueprint – be it a 500-square foot cottage or a 20,000 square-foot mansion.  The outcome is predictable.  And, predictability is the key to success.

Now, let’s look at what you are doing.

Do you want to build a company, launch a new product or sell a service? Do you want to generate a part-time income from a hobby, create a one-person consultancy or build a multi-million dollar mega-corporation?  You know it can be done.

So, where do you begin?

You begin with a vision of your desired result.  What are you going to build, create or grow?  Once you decide what your goal is, developing a strategic blueprint will get you where you want to go.   Some of my clients have found that mindmapping the process helps visually.  While you can do a mindmap with pen and paper, there are a number of free sources for mindmapping software available – just do a google search.   Another free tool you may find helpful during the blueprinting process is The Brain.

Strategy Talk Tip:  visualize before you venture.

It will save you time, energy and money.

Before you go, share this post with your friends it you found it helpful.   Thanks.

Amelia Brazell, Strategy Source, Inc.

Little Known Facebooks Facts.

[Source: Online PhD Programs for MashableMashable.com]