Put another way:
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.” ~ Yogi Berra

I like to compare a business vision to a road map. Let’s say we’re in a non-COVID time and we are able to safely travel at will. If you’re planning a little weekend getaway with some friends, you need to be crystal clear on where you are going, right? If you decide you want to spend the weekend up in the mountains, you need to be much more explicit than to say, “let’s meet up in the mountains this weekend.” That is no way to plan and expect people to arrive at the destination. Rather, you would be specific about where you will be meeting, what time, and what activities to plan for when packing.

When it comes to a business vision, you have to be even more thorough and specific. You need to be clear on where you want your business to be in 10 years, 3 years, and next year at this time. You need to know where you want your revenue and profit to be, the strategies for getting there, your values for doing business, and what you want to be known for. You need to know your target market, what you will uniquely deliver to them, and how you’re going to do it. The more crystal clear you are about where you want your business to go, the closer you will get to achieving your vision.

For example, if your business sells shoes, that might seem pretty straight forward. You may assume that everyone knows what it means to sell shoes. However, there are a million things to clarify within that market. Questions like:

• Do you want to sell all the shoes to all the people or do you want to serve a very narrow market?

• Is your goal to sell world-wide or within your community?

• Are you going to sell at a store, at expos, online, via home shows, or another avenue?

• What is your price point?

• How will customers learn about you?

• What makes you unique?

The list goes on and on. How is this like a road map? Let’s say that you want to be known as the premier outlet for high-end running shoes serving serious runners in a boutique store setting by understanding the customer’s needs and unique running style. If you are not crystal clear on what you want your business to be, you may have staff selling shoes to customers based on what color they like best. You may have casual exercisers who are appalled at the prices of your shoes. Customers might not understand the individual attention you provide and want to order something online. Issues like these could lead to poor customer experiences as well as wasted time and energy.

If you are not already crystal clear on your vision, your values, your market, your strategies, the qualities that make you unique, and where you’re taking your business – this is the first step in calming the chaos and gaining control of your time and your success. Once you are crystal clear on all of those components, you need to make sure everyone on your team understands your vision and is on board. That’s a topic for another blog post. Let me know if I can help – kim@athena-coco.com.