Why is it important?

Having a clear vision for the business allows you to align your team and resources so that you’re all rowing in the same direction. It gives purpose to everything you do rather than just existing or surviving. It reduces friction, improves focus, and helps eliminate distractions. It also creates the foundations for guiding principles, which makes delegation, recruitment and retention far easier.

A 3-year outlook.

Why three years? Five years is too far out for most small to medium businesses, especially if you’re in a growth phase. And with the amount of uncertainty and rapid change in the world and economy, planning more than three years out is more of a guess than a plan. 1-2 years is usually too short to make meaningful progress on a large goal. Three years strikes a great balance where it's not too far out to be daunting or completely unknown, but also enough time to create and achieve significant goals.

What makes a good 3-year vision?

A good three-year vision clearly articulates what the business will look like, the market it serves, its competitive advantages, and its values. Ideally, this should be a creative and visual document that can be shared easily with the internal team, new hires, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Anyone reading it should be able to “see” what you, as the leader, see for the future of the business.

Start with a compelling and exciting goal. Something that would make a meaningful difference to you personally and your team if you were to achieve it. Something audacious enough that it scares you a little, and you’re not quite sure how you’d make it happen. You may have heard the term BHAG (big hairy audacious goal). Start here. Figure out what it is that you really want to achieve.

But then dig a little deeper - consider why you want to achieve this goal. What would achieving it mean to your business and you personally? What would it mean for your family? For your team? For your community?

Think about this as if you are already there three years from now. You’ve reached this goal, your BHAG. Where are you? What are you doing? What does life look like for you? What does your business look like? Who’s on your team, and what customers do you work with? What do your customers and suppliers say about your business? What feelings do your customers get when interacting with you or calling your customer service department? What do your numbers look like - how much profit are you making? Are you contributing to causes or charities, and if so, in what way?

Think through each area of your business and note what it looks like. Where are your offices? What teams do you have? What products or services do you provide?

What does your business do that gives you a competitive advantage? What do you specialize in? What are you known for being best-in-class in your industry? What are your core competencies as a business? What abilities, skills, assets, or methods allow you to dominate your competition in your niche?

At this point, we just want to think about what it will look like three years from now, not how we’re going to make that happen. This is not the time for “how” thinking, only “what.”

This process can take some time, and it's best to dedicate some creative space to working on this. Get out of the office and go somewhere inspiring. Turn off all distractions and get into a creative thinking space - set the stage for what could be.

Let go of what is practical or reasonable. This is the time to be bold and ambitious and create excitement about the possibilities.

You may need to work through several drafts, letting them ‘simmer’ between iterations before finalizing and sharing them with your team.

If you involve business partners or your leadership team, I suggest having each person work on their own first and then compare notes, creating a single vision that is exciting and compelling for each of those involved.

Next Steps

Once you have your compelling vision, the next part is to turn it into an actionable plan that will move you closer to achieving it over the next 12 months and even the next 90 days.

Watch this video for more info on breaking it into an actionable plan.