12/15/25: Turning Your Business Goals Into A Strategy:  Simple Steps To A Path of Success

Remember last week when we were setting professional goals and I said we were going to come back to creating a business strategy?  Well, here we are, coming back to it.  

Business strategy or business planning can sound incredibly scary, especially if you are new to it, but really it is creating a path from where you are to your desired outcomes (goals) by understanding each step and the time it will take to get there.  Think about it like a roadtrip.  When you go on a vacation, you have a pretty good idea how long it will take to get to your destination, how often you will stop for gas and restroom breaks, and where those stops will happen.  Your business strategy is like that!

But where to start?  In this case, let’s start at the end!

If you’ve done your “End of Year Wrap Up”, you’ve at least thought about your goals for next year.  If you haven’t, hopefully you make time to do that before the end of the year.  For the sake of this blog, we’ll use an example from my business (although I haven’t done my wrap up yet).  

My goal (strategy) is:  Increase visibility and offer training support within my community by offering quarterly Lunch & Learns.  Now I think about what all that goal entails and put it to paper.  Some immediate thoughts include:  

• What would I train on?  This actually adds a task within the task within the goal of determining topics and creating content.
• What would I charge?
• Where could I host them?
• When would I host them?
• How would I advertise?

Really there is so much more to consider, but you get the idea.  Once you start putting the tasks and thoughts to paper, you start creating your path.  So at a quick glance, here is what I come up with:

• The Lunch & Learns will be quarterly-March, June, September, and December
• Because I want to be a partner in the community, ideally I rotate locations
• Although it would be nice to know all four topics now, settle on something for March so you can prepare and advertise.  The other three can come later
• I’ll use usual channels of advertising

Once I have the goal and the tasks, I can work on my timeline.  In this case I probably need to consider when my content needs to be ready, when I need to begin advertising, how far in advance I need to book a venue, etc.  The nice part with something that repeats (like a quarterly Lunch & Learn) is I can take my best educated guess at a timeline the first time and adjust going forward.  You may be able to do the same with some of your goals.

Once you have that “rough draft” of the goal/strategy, tasks, and timeline, it is time to make it a structured plan…this means put it to paper.  List the goal at the top, list the tasks with deadlines underneath.  Once you’ve done this, you can start to see gaps that need to be filled or maybe tasks within tasks that are needed, like when I needed to create content within wanting to make a presentation.  You will review and revise the document until you feel confident you have covered all the steps.

Now do it with the next goal and the next and the one after that!  Obviously this is a very quick run through of how to create a business strategy, but it is effective.  A business strategy/plan should be revisited at a minimum annually, but definitely if there is a need or priority shift within the business.  

The other thing I like to do within a business plan/strategy is create a 90-plan.  Our goals are designed for a year, but within them we can break them down to smaller time blocks and small goals and tasks within those time blocks.  This will make everything seem a bit more manageable.  This would largely involve looking at the timelines you already laid out and determining what goes into the current 90 day plan.  And then repeat this quarterly.  As you do this, you may find gaps in your original business strategy.  Use the opportunities to make updates. 

We covered creating a business strategy and breaking it down to a 90-day plan…WOW that is a lot in a quick read!  But if you create goals without direction you will find yourself wandering aimlessly along the path in your business.  Thoughtfulness up front will create results at the end.

Have you ever created a business strategy?  If yes, what tips do you have?  If you’re new, what scares you the most?

Creating a business strategy is just one thing we will cover in the Balance & Business with Melissa 10-week Group Coaching Mastermind.  If you want collaboration and coaching as you prepare your business plan, join us in January as we build toward a balanced and coordinated 2026 and beyond.