All successful businesses start out with a list of goals to a strategy to accomplish them for the year.  Incorporating a strategy and a list of goals to accomplish for the year will help keep you on target throughout the year, increase motivation and keep you organized on priorities. 


Have you every started out the year wanting to accomplish a particular task? For example improving your website. Soon the weeks turn into months and before you know it, you are in the middle of the busy season and the task never gets accomplished.    Here are some ways to help you stay motivated and give you clear-cut guidelines on how to develop a strategy for your business.


The following is a list of questions to ask yourself to get the ball rolling:


  1. What are the scuba store goals for 2019?  What are the most important things for your business to accomplish?  Write them down.  Separate  - short term and long term goals.

  2. What strategies, programs or promotions worked well last year?  Ask your employees to give feedback on their thoughts of the programs ran in 2018.

  3. What are some of the lessons you learned and how do you want 2019 to be different.  Example – Did we book all the slots for a particular trip?  How can we make this more successful. Example: Do an email blast, add social media postings

  4. Organize your goals into quarters. Q1-Q4.  Set realistic deadlines for the goals.

  5.  Break the goal down into tasks.   Assign them to individuals and provide a deadline. Give your team new task.   Let the younger employee focus on your social media.  Let your seasoned employees work on a promotion or sales strategy. 

  6. From time to time, as often as twice a week, schedule an alignment meeting and have each person assigned to a task report on the progress as well as the outlook to complete it on time.  This will add accountability to the task and keep you progressing to the goal.



Some areas you might want to explore in more detail for your strategy are the following: 


  1. 2019 Summary – A quick to the point focus on what your store will accomplish this year.

  2. Sales Strategy  -

    1. How are you going to increase sales in each area of your business?

    2. Specify missing and potential revenue streams and detail the steps needed to open them up for your company. 

    3. Review every step of the sales process from the customers point of view.  Set a plan to make improvements.  (Does the customer get to a person quickly?  Is our online presence intuitive?

Marketing Strategy –

  1. How are you going to promote your store in the local market?  (Advertising, Cross-Promotions, Social Media, Website and Events etc…)

  1. Operations Strategy – How are you going to make your store work more efficiently in 2019.

    1.  Identify bottlenecks in efficiencies and create a plan to resolve.   Do not accept your current workflow as efficient or acceptable.  

  2. Competition – Evalue what your competitor are doing and be familiar with their approach.  This is a great task to give to one of your employees as it gives them a better sense and buy in of the needs.

  3. Milestone and Metrics – Include the timeline of the strategy and how you are going to measure the success.

  4. Expectations – Forecasting and Financial needs.  We will provide a detailed lesson on business plans and forecasting in a future issue.  But plan now for your cash needs.


Taking the time to develop a strategy for your business will pay off.  Keep the information close and refer to it in your alignment meetings.  Also, keep the timeline and metrics handy to keep you motivated.  Get your staffs buy in and keep them involved.


The fact is, when we plan our growth we see weaknesses.  The biggest weakness most business owners face is executing the plan.  Follow these steps and keep a high level watch over your business.  Take time to keep your efforts on track and you will surprise yourself at the difference it makes to your customer and employee satisfaction as well as your bottom line.

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385-374-0444  Customer Service email   Salt Lake City, Utah