Engineering Success

Engineering Success

Empowering STEM Entrepreneurs to Shape the Future

Long Visions, Short Plans: Your Strategy Is Your Compass

27 views 6:05 pm 3 Comments January 15, 2025

A plan with no results is wishful thinking at best and a complete waste of time at worst. Guessing your way through business is like trying to win darts blindfolded. Spoiler alert: it’s not going to work. Your business plan strategy should be your compass, pointing you toward success. But let’s get one thing straight—it’s not a rigid, all-knowing map.

Instead, think of your strategy as a dynamic, adaptable system. Start with the end in mind. What’s your goal? That’s your North Star. Next, craft your vision—your big-picture direction. Then take your best “first shot” based on your passions, strengths, and what excites you. Finally, build an agile plan that evolves around your findings, results, and ever-evolving circumstances.

Start With Your Goal

When starting up, goals aren’t optional; they’re essential. Without a clear goal, your business plan for startup is just a list of random tasks with no destination. What are you trying to achieve? Define it. Write it down. Tattoo it on your brain if you must.

Your goal is your anchor. It keeps you focused when the entrepreneurial seas get choppy. But here’s the thing: your business plan strategy must connect to that goal. If it doesn’t, toss it out and start again.

ATTENTION, SPOILER!

It is easy to get entangled in the most obvious goal: make money.

Make money is the outcome of a much deeper goal, which is different for everyone.

Take your time to search your brain and find yourself. Your goals are yours and nobody else’s. Yes, some goals may be like others’, yet the way we want them to manifest in the reality and the way we act upon them may differ based on our desires and passions.

My goal is time and financial freedom, to enjoy life fully, spend time with family and friends, enjoy hobbies- including travelling- and live my days at my own terms.

But I have a specific lifestyle associated to this goals which may differ from yours or others’. So, steer clear from people who try to impose on you their own lifestyle. I see so many times mentors selling their luxurious lifestyle as the end goal for everyone. And if that’s yours great, but if not, don’t let them fool you into believing we all want the same thing.

What is your goal then?

If you want to gain more clarity, please read our article “How Not To Start A Small Business

Vision: Your Compass Tool

Your vision is the grand “why” behind your business. It’s the driving force that gets you out of bed, even when your to-do list feels impossible. Vision isn’t about spreadsheets and projections; it’s about passion, purpose, and what you’re working toward long-term.

But here’s the kicker: a great vision without action is just daydreaming. Your vision provides the direction, but your business plan strategy is the engine that gets you moving.

The First Best Shot

Nobody has a perfect blueprint for success—not even the “gurus” who sell overpriced courses. So, stop waiting for certainty. Use what you know, trust your gut, and take your first best shot.

Your first shot is the starting point of every great plan. Just don’t let it become your endgame. Test your ideas, gather results, and adjust. That’s how you turn your first best shot into progress.

So how do you take your first best shot?

Once you have identified your goals and vision it is then time to determine how you can use your passions and skills to fix a problem for which people are willing to pay.

Yes, my friends, you need to identify the gap in the market you can contribute to. And even more, you need to assess if people are willing to pay for you to fix that gap, otherwise you are setting up a hobby not a business.

ATTENTION, ANOTHER SPOILER!

Finding the gap in the market and the right target audience to serve is crucial for your goals.

This is one of the areas where entrepreneurs fail when starting up, quite often because pumped up by mentors who sell the wrong ideas that all the problems are worth to be fixed, and all the target customers are good customers. Or even worse, that one solution fits them all.

Wrong. Some problems are too complex to be fixed when just starting up – maybe consider breaking it down and select a specific niche. Also, some target customers are just not willing to pay for the gap to be fixed, most likely because they do not feel the pain enough OR they are not in a decisional position. In this scenario, you are setting yourself up for a flop.

Learn more in our article “Audience Apocalypse- Choose The Right Customer Segment”.

Keep It Agile

Here’s where most entrepreneurs mess up: they think planning means mapping out the next five years in detail. Wrong. Long-term visions set the path, but short-term plans win the day.

Focus on the next one to three weeks. What can you realistically achieve? Break it down. Execute. Then revisit and adapt based on what you’ve learned. Agility isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a survival skill.

Why the Canvas Model Is King

You don’t need a 30-page business plan. You need the Canvas Model. It’s lean, visual, and brutally effective. You can map out your business plan for startup in minutes.

The Canvas forces you to focus on the essentials: the problem, the solution, the customers, the value proposition, the revenue/costs streams. It’s simple but powerful—exactly what a great business plan strategy should be.

Your business plan strategy is your compass, not a ball and chain. Use it to guide you, adapt it as you go, and let your vision lead the way. Remember: long-term vision, short-term planning, and ruthless adaptability. That’s the recipe for startup success.

 

So my friends, are you ready to transform your expertise into entrepreneurial success?

If you are an entrepreneur in the STEM field and struggling to build a marketable product, email me at info@engineeringsuccess.co.uk. Tell me your biggest challenge and I will be happy to help you.

 

We would also love you to join our Linkedin page here.

And of course, keep reading our articles!

Tags: ,

3 thoughts on “Long Visions, Short Plans: Your Strategy Is Your Compass”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

error: Content is protected !!