Off-roading is just like your business strategy

I bet you’re asking yourself how can I say this? Off-roading isn’t like business strategy! Oh, but it is.

Recently my fiance and I were out enjoying some trails in our Jeep. We got to explore our beautiful province of Nova Scotia and make some memories, plus have some fun.

As I was enjoying the views and taking pictures (because of course you need pictures!) it got me thinking about the parallels between exploring off-road and business strategy.

You may be asking how these two very different things are related.

The first thing you need is a plan

When you decide you are going to go exploring, there are a few things you need to do. In other words, first, you need a plan! And in business, the first thing you need is a plan.

Our plan for the day was to join up with some friends and have some fun. We knew where and when we were meeting them, and what we needed to bring with us so our day was a success. We had a direction in mind! Just like developing your business strategy, you need to know where you are now, where you want to be, when you want to be there, and what you need along the way.

First things first

So before we got on the road we packed up what we needed to take with us and double-checked we had gas, tools, spare tire, snacks, and that we had the right people in place. This is like developing a plan for your business. You know where you want to be and you look at everything you need to implement that plan. You need to look at your operations (making sure the Jeep was running well, we had tools, gas, etc), your human resources (the people in our Jeep and the friends we met up with), marketing (the trail was as advertised), and accounting (ok, I have nothing for this one with off-roading).

Once we reached the meeting place, we again checked that both Jeeps had the right equipment (and we added tea, coffee, donuts…we met up at a Timmies) and that we knew where we were going and that our friends were going to make sure we didn’t miss any turns. Then we started out to find the trail!

Next, stop and check everything is still good

Just like with your business strategy, you stop along the way and make sure that nothing has changed, everything still looks good, and the plan is still the same. Things can happen unexpectedly, and if you don’t stop and check, what starts off small can become a big problem down the road (or off-road in this case).

At the start of the trail, we again checked the Jeeps, aired down, and made sure we all knew where we were going. Then we started off and followed our friends to make sure we didn’t miss any turns. On the trail itself, as it was a trail we had never been on before but our friends had, they stopped and made sure that we knew what lines we had to take to miss obstacles and which trails were the right ones to follow.

This is just like building and implementing your business strategy. No, really it is! It’s hard to go down a path that you haven’t been down before. You don’t have a roadmap, and even with the best plans in place, a guide can help make sure you don’t lose your way. We know all of the equipment we need to have, and we’re pretty good at knowing the best path to take while out on the trails, but we still could have gotten lost and it’s easier to avoid obstacles, even those you can clearly see, when you have someone guiding you and there with you every step of the way.

Stop and check your progress

After we explored and had some fun, and saw some amazing views (you can see some of them in this post!), we stopped and checked over the Jeeps, aired up, and checked in to see how it went before we went home. While your business strategy doesn’t come to an end as our exploring did, you can still have projects and goals that have a definite end. And even when you don’t, you still want to stop and check in on your progress.

In your business, even if it’s not the end of a project or a launch, there are still ‘end points’ when you want to check in with everyone involved to make sure that things are going smoothly and that no issues came up that needed to be addressed. This might be periodically checking in with long-term clients to make sure they are happy and everything is working with them. It might be asking for feedback or a review after someone has purchased your products. It can also be checking in with staff to make sure they are happy and know what the processes are that they need to do.