Business strategy might seem complicated, but the way I see it, it boils down to two basic things:

What do I really want?
How do I think I can get what I want?

Business strategy to me is less about leverage, or automation, or multiple income streams, or targeting the affluent.

And it’s more about answering these two questions well.
Fuzzy answers to these questions leads to fuzzy strategy which leads to fuzzy outcomes.

What do you really want?

We have an odd relationship to wanting.

We don’t always know what we want. We don’t always tell the truth to ourselves about what we want. We confuse what-we-think-we-need-to-do with what we want.

Most of us aren’t trained or encouraged to identify what we want and to speak it out loud.

We get belittled or made fun of. Or we grew up with parents trying to protect us and discourage us from wanting things they didn’t believe we could have.

We don’t dig deep enough.

“I want more clients.” “Why? What do you believe that would create for you?” “More confidence.” “Ah, and what would having more confidence do?” “It would help me reach out and show up in the world.” “Ah, and what would that create?” “I’d feel more on purpose.”

So maybe what you want is to feel on purpose. And more clients may or may not be the best way to get it.

Once we know what we want our efforts to create, we can start to ask ourselves How.

HOW am I going to get that?

What actions or efforts are most going to bring that into your life?

Good strategy usually means considering a number of options, and then deciding which is the best fit, which makes more sense.

And drilling it down further.

“What do you want?”

“More of a sense of purpose.”

“How do you think you’ll get that?” “Grow my business.”

“How are you going to do that?” “Use social media more.”

“How are you going to do that?” “Ummmmmm. Post daily on FB?”

“Ok, other ideas?”

Or “How are you going to do that?”

“Post a picture of my cat along with a message relating to my business.”

“Other ideas?”

And so it goes.

With a specific strategy, we know what we need to do when.

We know if we are doing it.

And if we aren’t doing it, we can ask why.

And if we are doing it, and it’s not producing the result we want, that’s useful too.