4 Ways to Re-engineer Your Business Through Strategic Planning, Part 1

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What is strategic planning? As Brian Tracy explains, it is simply the process of moving people and resources around, reengineering your business, you might say, in order to increase its profitability.

The idea of “business reengineering” might sound intimidating, but it starts with just four simple questions, which Brian outlines in his book The Way to Wealth Workbook, Part III: Blueprints for Success. There are four ways you can re-engineer your business by asking simple strategic planning questions.

In this series of three articles, we will dig into four questions you need to be asking yourself about your business, along with Brian's recommendations for turning those questions into positive changes for your company. Here's the first of those four questions.

“What could we simplify?”

Walk into a big corporate office, and it seems easy to suggest things they could simplify to cut down on costs and increase their profits. These things aren't always as easy to see in a small business, but they are still there, guaranteed.

Start by looking for low-value activities, things you do because you assume they are necessary, even though they aren't turning you a profit, or are actually costing you money. For example, are you buying a certain type of advertising because all your competitors are? Is that particular form of advertising actually making you money, or could you spend that money reaching your customers in a completely bizarre way, an approach that your competitors have never attempted, one that is much more cost-effective, and much more attention-grabbing than your current tactics?

The example above is just one possibility. The truth is that your business is packed with processes and activities that are overly complex and costly, and these are often hard to see when you are close to the business. Consider bringing in a new pair of eyes; not necessarily a paid consultant, consider a friend or colleague who can offer a fresh perspective on the way your business operates.

Find someone you trust, like a professional Business Coach, and invite that person into your office. Ask them to be critical of everything they see. Some of their suggestions may fly wide off the mark, but they may also put their finger on inefficiencies you would never have noticed on your own.

You might not have, or want to eliminate these activities altogether, but you can certainly:

  • consolidate them under fewer staff,
  • simplify processes by removing steps, and
  • dedicate the resources you save to activities that will make you more money.

It's all about moving people and resources around until you arrive at the optimally profitable combination.

In the Business Strategic Planning Questionnaire in Brian Tracy's book The Way to Wealth Workbook, Part III: Blueprints for Success, Brian emphasizes that you as a business owner need to stay on top of strategic planning, and “analyze every step of your business activities. What could you simplify, outsource, eliminate, or discontinue altogether?” In Part 2 and Part 3 of this series, we will talk about the rest of the questions you need to ask yourself.

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