For many small businesses it is very tempting to "go with the flow" and try to follow the market wherever it may take you. Often, the owners and directors of smaller businesses believe that they lack the scale and resources to act "strategically"; they feel they are at the mercy of their markets.

The problem with this approach is that it can be very easy to lose track of why you went into business or into your profession in the first place. Somewhere at he backof your mind you still have all the motivations and aspiraions that kept you going through the first few months or years, back when you wondered if you'd make it, if you'd made the rigth decision; when you wondered whether all the heartache and uncertainty would be worth it.

Without a clear vision of what you want your business to become, what you want the business to achieve, it can be difficult to pull your staff together, and it can be difficult to ensure that the business delivers against the aspirations that inspired its formation in the first place.

Over the course of a business day, our facilitators work with the owners and/or key management of the business to get real clarity around

1. why are we in business?
2. what do our customers expect?
3. who else could they buy from?
4. where do we want the business to go?

The output of this second step is a Strategic Vision document. This is not just another vision statement, promising the world that you will be the leading supplier in your market. It's a detailed picure of where your business is going. Who will be working for you? Where will you be operating? Who will you be selling to, and how will you be serving them? What level of income will the company generate? What lifestyle will it support for the owners and for the staff?