Good strategy starts with reality.

Not where you hoped the business would be by now. Not where you think it should be. Where it actually is.

Look at the current business as objectively as you can.

What is working? What isn’t? What is consuming your time? Where is the business performing well, and where does progress seem harder than it should be?

Your Situation should also consider the resources, habits and systems you currently rely on, together with the consequences of allowing the present situation to continue unchanged.

Questions to explore:

• What stage is the business currently at — early growth, established, scaling, pivoting?

• What is working particularly well?

• What isn’t working or is holding the business back?

• Where does most of your revenue currently come from?

• Where do most of your time and attention go?

• What resources, capabilities, relationships or systems are helping you?

• Where are you stretched, distracted or under-resourced?

• What significant opportunities already exist?

• What would happen if nothing changed during the next 12 months?

You’re not trying to document everything. You’re looking for the few things that best explain the current position.

Facts before assumptions is key here. 

“We need more leads” sounds like a statement of fact. But it may simply be an assumption.

Suppose the business generated 200 enquiries last quarter but converted only four of them into customers. In that situation, increasing lead volume may not be the most important strategic issue at all.

So wherever possible, ask: What evidence do I have that this is really the problem?

A strong Situation statement gives you an honest starting point.​

Now move forward.

Picture the business approximately 12 months from today.

What would meaningful progress actually look like?

Your Target isn't simply a revenue number. It describes the future state you’re trying to create — commercially, operationally and personally.

The Strategy Snapshot asks you to consider the business you want, the income, team or lifestyle you want to create, the outcomes that matter most and what you do not want to carry forward from the present situation.

Questions to explore:

• What would you like the business to look like 12 months from now?

• What revenue, profit or commercial outcomes would represent meaningful progress?

• Which products or services do you want to drive that growth?

• Who do you most want to serve?

• What should become stronger, simpler or more predictable?

• What should your role in the business look like?

• How much time do you want to spend working?

• What do you want to stop carrying forward from today?

• What would achieving this Target make possible for you?

This is why strategy should connect back to your vision and values.

Growing revenue while creating a business you no longer enjoy running is not necessarily progress. Your Target should describe a future worth moving towards.

At the end of this section, ask yourself: What are we actually trying to build?​

Once you have completed Situation, Target and Proposal, step back.

Do the three sections make sense together?

Your Proposal should address the important issues identified in your Situation and create a credible path towards the Target.

If it doesn’t, keep refining. Then compress your thinking into a single Strategic Direction Statement.

Use this structure: Over the next 12 months, we will focus on [strategic direction] by [two or three major shifts], so that we can [desired outcome].

For example:

Over the next 12 months, we will build a more predictable and profitable advisory business by narrowing our target market, strengthening our core offer and creating a more consistent lead-generation system, so that we can grow revenue without increasing the owner’s workload.

The sentence is not the strategy itself. It’s the distillation of the thinking behind it. That makes it useful whenever another opportunity, idea or problem appears.

Ask: Does this support the strategic direction we have chosen?

If the answer is no, it probably does not deserve your attention right now.​

Set aside 30- 45 minutes and complete the Strategy Snapshop by downloading the template below. Keep your answers concise — ideally your completed strategy should fit on 1-2 pages. 

There is one final trap to avoid. Once you start thinking about strategy, it’s tempting to immediately create task lists, timelines and projects.

Resist that for a moment. The purpose of your Strategy Snapshot is to establish direction and strategic choices. The next step is to decide which goals deserve priority and define the outcomes that will demonstrate progress.

From there, you can build the detailed plan. A useful way to think about the sequence is:

- Strategy decides the direction.
- Priorities determine what matters now.
- Goals define the outcomes.
- Planning creates the route.
- Execution produces the result.

Your Strategy Snapshot now gives you something extremely valuable: a filter.

When a new idea arrives, a problem demands attention or an opportunity appears, you no longer have to ask only:

“Could we do this?” You can ask the much better question:

“Does this move us towards the business we have decided to build?”

That’s where strategy starts to become useful.

Creating your Strategy Snapshot gives you something many business owners never take the time to develop: a clear strategic direction.

The next challenge is turning that direction into the right priorities, goals and actions — without falling back into trying to do everything at once.

If you’ve completed the Strategy Snapshot and you’re still unsure what to focus on first, what to deprioritise, or how to translate your strategy into a practical execution plan, that is exactly what we can work through together in a complimentary Implementation Breakthrough Session.

We’ll look at your current situation, the outcome you’re trying to create, and the biggest constraints standing between the two. From there, we’ll identify the priorities that matter most and the practical next steps that will move you forward.

You’ll leave with greater clarity on what to focus on, what to stop doing, and what needs to happen next.