Brian Tracy's book The Way to Wealth Workbook, Part III: Blueprints for Success contains a wide range of strategic planning tips for entrepreneurs and businss managers. Throughout this three-part series of articles (article 1 and 2 are available in our blogs), we have gone through strategies that include defining your company and your market to working through the nuts and bolts of some changes. Each step builds on the one before it, and we've used those steps to generate and answer some pointed questions about how your business works.

Now, in this third and final article of the series, we explain how to translate those learning into concrete results.

Commit to specific actions.

By the end of the first two steps, you should have a lot of data points on your business's strongest and weakest areas, and what you could change to take advantage of opportunities and guard yourself against threats. Now you're ready for the third and final step, committing to concrete changes in your business.

To help your team decide which changes should be at the top of your priority list, start by asking each person on your team to give you a numerical grade, from one to ten, on:

• the quality of your products,
• the organization of your company,
• your understanding of your market,
• the competency of your employees,
• your momentum in sales and marketing, and
• the speed at which you're acquiring new customers.

Once you've got numerical grades on all six of those areas, you'll be close to knowing what you need to change.

One of those areas should come out the clear winner in strength, which means it's the area where you need to move to exploit your advantage in the marketplace. Commit to one concrete action in that area, and set a specific timetable for it. For example, if your team rated you strongest in your understanding of the market, you might commit to designing and rolling out some new advertisements that take advantage of that understanding, within the next three weeks.

Another area should clearly show where you're weakest. Commit to one concrete action in this area, too. For example, if your team rated your company low in product quality, it's time for some serious research and development, and the rollout of a product that provides better value to your customers.

No matter which areas of strength and weakness you choose, your ideas for reorganizing, restructuring, reinventing and reengineering will offer clues to the actions you can take to consolidate your strengths and shore up your weaknesses.

As Brian Tracy says in his book The Way to Wealth Workbook, Part III: Blueprints for Success, “Your ability to think, plan and act strategically will have a greater effect on your sales and profitability than anything else you do. A few small changes can often lead to major results down the road. Start with a willingness to adapt, and you'll see strategic solutions right in front of you.

A FocalPoint Business Coach can provide you with tips like these, along with others which you will find throughout the FocalPoint Business Coaching and Training website. Our professional global Business Coaches will assist with making your customers and employees into passionate supporters of your business. All it takes is a little kindness, and a lot of attention to detail. Contact a FocalPoint Business Coach today.