Strategic vs. Operational And How It Affects A Small Business Owner


by Renee Shupe - Date: 2006-12-03 - Word Count: 439 Share This!

For everyone who runs their own business, they know how easily they can be pulled from one task to another and eventually they can have the sense that the business has begun to spin out of control. Not knowing how to keep the focus of the business and how to handle the day to day tasks has a large impact on how a business runs and how well it can succeed.

As a business owner, it exciting to come up with the ideas of where you want to take the company and also how you see the company getting there, is it ideal for you to also handle the task and details of actually taking the company to the level, not necessarily. Forward thinking business owners look inward and determine where their strengths lay and seek out personnel, contractors or virtual assistants to strength their areas of weaknesses.

Understanding strategic thinking and planning versus operational planning can assist a business owner in understanding how to effectively manage their business. Strategic thinking and planning is how a progressive business owner designs and anticipates for the future rather than reacting to what is thrown at them. Strategic thinking involves creating a long range vision for your business over a 2-4 year horizon. Strategic planning is often market driven relying on "market based data" in giving the business a mission, as well as assessing strengths, weakness as thoughts. A lot of this sounds like some a large corporation would do, but whether you business drives revenues of $120,000 per year or $5 million per year has no bearing on whether or not some level of strategic thinking needs to occur.

Operational planning on the other hand provides focus for a business on the day to day operations often only looking forward the next 12 months. Operational planning focuses on creating controls and efficiencies, but doesn't look past the next 12 months to see how an organization is going to grow. Operational planning focuses on the day to day tasks and often for a business owner this is the area that they can benefit most from when seeking outside help. Whether the assistance comes in the form of a new employee or simply an Administrative Solutions Provider such as a virtual assistant, the virtual assistant can offer advice and assistance in handling the operational tasks of the business giving you the business owner the opportunity to dream big and build the strategic vision for the organization.

Whether you are a solo business owner or a corporation of 500 differentiating between the strategic and operational silos of a business is a key component to operating a successful business.


Related Tags: small business, business planning, virtual assistant, operations, consulting

Renee is a Administrative Solutions Expert having worked in both the private and public sector for more than 15 years before venturing out and opening her own business, 3Rs Business Solutions. Named after the 3 Rs in the family; herself, her husband and her step-son; Renee strives to provide insight and administrative solutions to other small businesses and solo professionals. She can be found on the web at http://www.reneeshupe.ca

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