Strategy, made practical for small businesses.
Plain-English guides to business strategy for owners and small teams: the basics of strategy, turning it into a plan and priorities, and getting help from a strategy coach or advisor. Every guide links to its sources.
Articles
18 articles
What Business Strategy Is (and Isn't): A Guide for Small Firms
What strategy really means for a small business, how it differs from goals, plans and hard work, and a quick test you can apply to your own business.
Read · 6 min read →Strategy BasicsMission, Vision and Values: Statements That Actually Guide Decisions
How to write mission, vision and values statements a small team can actually use, why most fail, and how to tell real values from wishes.
Read · 5 min read →Strategy BasicsSWOT Analysis Done Well: From Four Lists to Real Choices
How to prepare, run and follow up a SWOT analysis for a small business, avoid its common traps, and turn the grid into strategies with a TOWS matrix.
Read · 5 min read →Strategy BasicsCompetitive Advantage: Porter's Generic Strategies for Small Firms
Michael Porter's cost leadership, differentiation and focus strategies explained for small businesses, plus the stuck-in-the-middle trap and how to avoid it.
Read · 5 min read →Strategy BasicsChoosing Your Target Customers: Where to Compete and Where Not To
How a small business can define, compare and choose customer segments using evidence, and why deciding whom not to chase matters as much.
Read · 6 min read →Strategy BasicsPorter's Five Forces: Sizing Up Your Industry as a Small Business
Porter's five competitive forces explained in plain terms, with a step-by-step review a small business can run in an afternoon and ways to use the results.
Read · 5 min read →Planning & PrioritiesThe One-Page Strategic Plan: What to Put on It and Why
How to fit your strategy on a single page: what each section should say, a worked hypothetical example, and the mistakes that turn a plan into a wish list.
Read · 5 min read →Planning & PrioritiesAnnual Planning for Small Teams: A Simple Step-by-Step Process
A practical annual planning process for businesses with a handful of people: look back, stop things, choose a few priorities, test them with the team, and set the first quarter.
Read · 5 min read →Planning & PrioritiesStrategy Deployment: Hoshin Kanri Simplified for Small Businesses
What hoshin kanri (strategy deployment) is, how catchball and PDCA connect yearly goals to everyday work, and a lightweight version a small business can run.
Read · 6 min read →Planning & PrioritiesQuarterly Priorities: Choosing a Few and Keeping Them in View
How to turn an annual plan into a short list of quarterly priorities with clear finish lines, owners and limits, and how to keep them visible once daily work takes over.
Read · 5 min read →Planning & PrioritiesStrategic Trade-Offs: How to Decide What Not to Do
Why real strategy means giving things up, how to tell a true trade-off from a fixable inefficiency, and practical tools for deciding what your business will not do.
Read · 5 min read →Planning & PrioritiesA Strategy Review Cadence: Monthly Check-Ins and Quarterly Resets
A simple rhythm of weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual strategy reviews for a small business, with agendas, after-action questions and tips for keeping them short.
Read · 5 min read →Working with a Strategy CoachStrategy Coach, Consultant, Mentor or Advisory Board: Which Fits?
How a strategy coach differs from a consultant, a mentor and an advisory board, and how small-business owners can combine them without confusion.
Read · 5 min read →Working with a Strategy CoachHiring a Strategy Coach: A Buyer's Checklist for Business Owners
A practical checklist for small-business owners hiring a strategy coach: write a brief, check two kinds of competence, get the terms in writing and spot red flags.
Read · 6 min read →Working with a Strategy CoachSBA Resource Partners Explained: SCORE, SBDCs, WBCs and VBOCs
How the SBA's free and low-cost resource partners work nationwide, which one fits your strategy question and how to get real value from a free advisor.
Read · 5 min read →Working with a Strategy CoachRunning Your Own Strategy Retreat: Agenda, Roles and Follow-Up
How to plan and run a do-it-yourself strategy retreat for a small team, with a sample one-day agenda, facilitation tips, a premortem and a follow-up plan.
Read · 6 min read →Working with a Strategy CoachStrategy Session Questions: What to Ask Before You Decide
A question bank for owners preparing for a strategy session with a coach, mentor or team, organized from framing the decision to locking in follow-through.
Read · 5 min read →Working with a Strategy CoachPeer Advisory and Mastermind Groups: How They Work
How peer advisory and mastermind groups for business owners run, how to choose or start one, and the ground rules and antitrust cautions that keep them useful.
Read · 5 min read →Glossary
55 Strategy and planning terms explained in a sentence or three, from balanced scorecard to value proposition.