Bill McRea

Part of the appeal of being an online solopreneur is the ability to move quickly, think on your feet and launch new business ideas on a short timeline because you are addicted to fast results.  There is nothing wrong with that, however, sometimes it makes sense to take a step back and take the time to do some planning for what lies ahead. Strategic planning is about taking a longer view of your business now, and how you would like for your business to scale up in the future. In this article we’ll take a broad look at the strategic planning process and some tools and resources that small business people can use to execute an effective strategic plan that will help them to achieve their goals.

What do I need a strategic plan for?

One of the most appealing things about starting an online business is that there is the potential to start with nothing but a laptop, an Internet connection and an idea and launch what could become a million dollar business. But, you’ve got to first have a plan for how you will move from zero dollars to positive cash flow. After you have completed your overall business plan, you will create a strategic plan that will mark out a path from where you are to your goal of a million dollar business.

How can a strategic plan help my business?

A strategic plan will help your business in the same way that a map helps you to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B.’ If you don’t know where you are going, any road essentially can get you there. If you do not want to waste a lot of time and money spinning your wheels doing fruitless activities on a daily basis, then you will see the logic behind developing a clear strategic plan for your business—even if your business is just you right now.

Can I develop my own strategic plan?

While it is suggested that you get a fresh set of eyes to review your plan and offer you some constructive criticism, you can come up with your strategic plan on your own. An outside, objective party will not share the same blind spots that you have and they will be able to help you to see things from another perspective, which can be a great resource for you.

Who can help me to create a strategic plan for my unique business?

A business coach would be a great person to consult about helping you to create a strategic plan, or they could simply create the plan for you with your input. There are business consultants that specialize in business planning and they might be a good resource to help you with your own strategic plan.

Regardless of whether you hire a professional or do it yourself, having a solid strategic plan in place can help you to feel more confident as you go about your work. It can help you to become more focused on the individual actions that you must take in order to achieve the goals you have set and to meet the milestones in your plan.

We have only touched on the basics  of strategic planning for small business in this short article. For more information to help you grow your online business, visit, http://www.mcreasite.com/blog today.

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internet marketing experts are thriving today as never before; more people are making money online than at any time in the 14 years the World Wide Web, and Internet marketing, has existed. But those considering starting a business online may not realize that Internet marketing is still viable during the current world-wide financial meltdown.
The global recession is an accepted fact – right now every major economy in the world is suffering a recession, as defined by two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Worldwide, for more detail go to: www.squeeze-page-profits.com.media outlets scream their headlines of the latest layoffs, foreclosures, bankruptcies, bailouts, devastated retirement savings, repossessions and the like.
On a personal level, every intelligent, caring human hates it – the pain, suffering and stress it generates, and the jump in hunger, homelessness and true poverty that results in more and more instances.
Offline businesses hate it too. In the business-to-business realm, keeping your own business afloat, supporting your share prices and maintaining a positive cash flow are just the start of it – but what about your customers and suppliers? As businesses slash their expenditures, customer lists are shrinking and average order value is plummeting.
And ‘Just-In-Time’ supply systems, the darling of the 80′s and 90′s with it’s reduced inventories, has become a major headache. With no existing inventory to fall back on, corporations are finding it necessary to prop up their suppliers or face a lack of product while they search for new sources.
Business-to-Consumer business is just as bad, if not worse. Millions of jobs have evaporated in the past year alone, taking those salaries with them. Falling home values in the US and UK, for example, for more detail go to:www.tube-traffic.com.have dried up many equity lines of credit, and the general credit squeeze is making it even tougher to ride out the storm on credit. Credit card companies are lowering limits and/or raising the interest rates for those already struggling, exacerbating the situation even more.
And even families with no job losses or income reduction are realizing that savings are at all-time lows while household debt is reaching record heights. So again spending is curtailed in an attempt to pay down debt and rebuild a financial cushion against the unexpected.
Yet Internet marketing and its subsets – affiliate marketing and niche marketing – continue to thrive and even boom during it all. If you’ve been considering getting into Internet marketing but have hesitated because of the recession, it’s time for a major reframe of your viewpoint…
Let’s start with the headspace of people using the Internet in general. In tough economic times people don’t head out to the mall as often – because the mall is a place to shop and spend money. But the main reason people go online is for information, so that psychological barrier isn’t there. While they’re still willing to spend SOME money, they just aren’t heading out LOOKING to spend it.
Second, no market is expanding, or has ever expanded, at the pace the Internet community is growing today. Every single day tens or hundreds of thousands of new people come online, and some will be potential buyers for any online business. Even if Internet marketing had reached market saturation, new blood would provide a new potential market every single day.
But the truth is, Internet marketing is nowhere near market saturation – not by a long shot. Think of the number of stores in the offline world. Not in your locale, your city, your state or even your country – but in the WORLD. Obviously, the number dwarfs current Internet marketing ventures. Even the biggest Internet marketing opt-in e-mail lists have just millions of subscribers out of the billions of Internet users – and most Internet marketers have lists of less than 50,000.
But even if the market wasn’t growing, sales and profits would still be climbing fast due to higher conversions through new tools and techniques. Like Internet marketing itself, the World Wide Web is still in it’s infancy – new technologies like audio & video are being developed all over the world. And as older phone company and cable company hardware systems are upgraded, these technologies will advance faster and faster, both in penetration and presentation.

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