It’s important to have a strategy for your business. Your strategy crystallises your vision of the business you want to be building, from specific aims you might have in mind, to the values you want to embody and not compromise on, and specifically how you’ll put your product in front of customers and convince them to buy it – your go to market strategy. It’s a resource that prevents you from being blindsided by the unexpected long term consequences of short term decision making. But it’s not infallible. Today we’re taking a look at when you should look again at your strategy and make sure it’s fit for your current aims.

If you do want to make changes, it might be worth looking for strategy consulting firms who can help you get the most out of this process.

Regular Reviews

It’s important to strike a balance here. On the one hand, every element of your business should be subject to regular review to make sure it’s performing for you. On the other hand, there’s no use setting a long term strategy if you’re going to tinker with it relentlessly in the short term. An annual check in is sufficient to make sure your strategy is still in line with your aims, and has led to good results.

When Your Life Changes

When you’re the owner of a business, your strategy is your personal vision and this means it’s your responsibility (and your privilege) to make sure it reflects your priorities. It’s something to revisit when you reach big milestones in your personal life, to make sure the business you’re committed to building isn’t diverging from the person you’re becoming.

For example if you find yourself starting a family you’ll develop a whole new set of priorities and may not have the energy or the drive to develop your business in the same way as you once did, especially if you were initially committed to the intense demands of a start-up model.

Rather than fall into the gap between your new life and the strategy you made for doing business, this means it’s time to review your strategy to make sure it’s applicable to your current vision and priorities.

When The World Changes

The other side of the coin is that sometimes there are big changes in the world that mean the strategy that you worked hard on and had performed well for you previously is simply no longer relevant.

Looking at the last few years in the UK, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by the huge rises in utility bills and costs across the board mean that many businesses are operating in economic circumstances that were hard to predict three years ago and mean changes of strategy are in order.

Even if you’re not sure a full overhaul of your strategic vision for your business is in order, it’s worth looking at the way the way the business world has changed since you laid your strategy down, how it might change in the next few years, and develop some fallback plans for different possibilities.