A Well Defined Business Strategy Will Add Rocket Fuel To Your Growth

Your business strategy is your roadmap to success. It will help keep you from getting distracted and keep your brand from getting derailed. It should keep you on the path toward achieving your goals. 

A well written and well-defined business strategy can help you get your product on more store shelves and into the hands of more shoppers. It can also make your brand more attractive to potential investors while it can help you get more runway out of your current funds. It can be a huge differentiator between your brand and your competition, giving you a significant and substantial competitive advantage.

Most brands overlook the importance of a well-defined business strategy. As a result, they tend to get easily distracted always looking to the next shiny object – for example getting your product on a retailer's shelf thousands of miles outside your current trading area. While this may sound like a great opportunity, it will cause you to overlook important things like how to support and maintain it with your current sales force. 

I see a lot of brands go down this rabbit hole. This is a huge mistake. You are gaining good traction and slowly increasing your distribution footprint. You are able to provide excellent customer service to the stores and you have solid systems to get your products delivered and merchandised. Don’t allow yourself to lose sight of your long-term objectives – the objectives and goals in your business plan. 

Accepting an opportunity to sell your products in stores well outside your current trading area diverts resources from your existing customers while you are still proving yourself. Trying to be all things to every retailer before you have the proper infrastructure in place to support the increased demand on your business can derail and even kill your brand.   

This is just one example of why a well-defined business plan is critical to your long-term success. 

Your business plan should be a living breathing document that you re-visit, update, and modify as you grow. It needs to include proactive strategies to properly support your growth. While many of your competitors are being re-active, you can leverage your business plan to include incremental sales and distribution opportunities. This is how you build a thriving legacy brand!