Before strategic planning, consider these 3 areas to boost your chances of success

Strategic planning season has arrived, and with it the search to find someone who doesn't work in your company to come and help you get started.

Here's a two-part suggestion: First, before you sign that hefty contract, consider the disappointments of past strategic planning processes (many of which emanate from not being able to overcome current operational roadblocks). Second, using your own team and vetted partners, fix the things you already know are holding you back.

If you do these two things, you may have a better shot at achieving your new, forward-looking objectives.

If you don’t, your new strategic plan may be less likely to succeed.

Here are three examples of areas to focus on before formal planning begins:

1. Do your own version of “clean up on aisle 7.” Conduct a tech audit to help you prioritize and calendar your critical need “to-do” list. Projects like updating apps, streamlining your website and reducing friction for customer transactions will enhance the success of whatever subsequent strategies you decide on.

2. Remember the definition of insanity. Do a postmortem on your last two strategic planning efforts. What worked? What didn't? Evaluating the overall value from past years' plans will prevent making the same mistakes and help you optimize your time and focus going forward.

3. Strengthen your financial foundation. Consider this: how much of your computer's capacity do you actually use? How much more useful could it be if you put that additional capacity to work? The same goes for your business banking tools. Here are three ways our VeraBank team will help you dig deeper into your banking tool box to help you optimize your access to capital, manage risk and increase efficiency:

• We’ll help you make a decision about the benefits of proactively establishing a line of credit. Knowing capital access is available gives you the power to act quickly when opportunities arise.
• We’ll help you set up online tools like Positive Pay, dual control and account alerts that work to reduce exposure for payment risk.
• We’ll help you increase efficiency with Lockbox and cash management solutions that can streamline and automate routine processes. The good news is that these action steps are in our wheelhouse at VeraBank and we can make them happen for you right now.

Imagine how much better your SWOT will look when you get these three areas cleaned up. Imagine how much more time you can spend on go-forward strategies.

Strategic planning is still important.

By taking care of your existing, obvious and recurring operational issues now, the money you spend with your strategic planning facilitator won't finance a strategic plan that sits on a shelf, but one that powers a positive trajectory for your company's growth and success.

This article has been republished with permission. View the original article: Before strategic planning, consider these 3 areas to boost your chances of success