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Kaya's Easy 5 Step Strategic Planning Process

Guest post by: Kaya Singer

Article Overview: If the idea of strategic planning scares you or makes you want to crawl into a hole,
use my 5 easy steps to begin the process and you will be on your way.

Kaya's Easy 5 Step Strategic Planning Process

Here it is December again, and over here in Oregon, it is creeping
towards winter solstice, the darkest day of the year. This time of the
year provides a perfect opportunity to go inward into the shadowed
corners of your business, to review the year, and look at what needs
to die, what needs to live and what new energies need to come into
being next year.

For those of you who live in the northern hemisphere like me, it is a
perfect time to align your cycles with those of nature.

This can sound a bit strange, but in fact if you look at your garden
right now, this is exactly what is happening out there. I just cut down
my dahlia stalks yesterday, and when I dug into the darkness of the
soil I noticed that some of the bulbs have healthily multiplied, while
others have died and withered.

I wouldn’t want to replant the dying bulbs because they are ready to
turn into mulch. They’ve lived their life purpose, so to speak. It is
much more productive, in the spring, to plant the healthy ones
and also add a few new ones into the mix. Business is similar.
Change and growth happens.

Ideally, my 5 step process should be done twice a year at the
Solstices, which provide a perfect backdrop for your business planning
sessions.

If you live in the southern hemisphere, you are near to summer
solstice; the longest day of the year. So for you, it’s not about going
into the darkness, since you have sunshine until late at night, but as it is still
the end of 2009, there is an opportunity to do focused strategic
planning for 2010. December, regardless of where you live, is an
excellent time to evaluate, assess and make decisions for the next
year.

Here is a 5-part process you can do to help you begin your new year
strategic planning session. This process can be done on your own, but
it will be even more powerful to do with your team, your mentor or
mastermind group. It always feels good to share with others, and just
the act of sharing and having a witness can feel empowering.
When you share you can also get feedback and respond to questions that will
enhance your focus.

Use a clean sheet of paper for each question and do a
mind mapping by writing down everything you can think of. From there you can
pull out the most potent points.

1. What were your successes for 2009? What are you proud of accomplishing and why?

2. What obstacles did you need to overcome in yourself in order to reach those goals?
How did those obstacles slow you up?

3. How did you manage to overcome them? What did you learn from that process and
how can this awareness help you next year?

4. Where in your business did you put in a big effort without enough payoffs?
What needs to die or where do you need to let go and move on?

5. What is your main new goal you want to accomplish for next year?
Does it feel exciting and challenging and how will it help your business overall?
What kind of support do you need to get started?

This easy process will bring up more questions and more ideas
that you can take into your full planning sessions. Successful entrepreneurs
take the time to work on their business. I hope this will be a helpful
and empowering process. Let me know!

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Article Tags: focus, overcome obstacles, small bsuiness help, strategic planning



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