Development Plans – One Size Doesn’t Fit All

What has a onesie to do with business?

The whole idea of a onesie is that it is a piece of clothing designed to fit a wide range of body sizes and shapes. They fall into the category of ‘One size fits all.’ In terms of covering up what they must then they do a pretty good job but one could hardly call them stylish and well fitting (unless you happen to be that one person who has the body to exactly fit the garment). And therein lies the point – to fit well it is the body fitting the garment NOT the garment fitting the body.

One size doesn’t fit all with development plans

Why talk about this? Well, some people treat developing a business very much like a onesie. They have a series of formulae that are stuck to and all businesses are put through the same process. Now don’t get me wrong, good business development does involve having good processes to make sure that you can measure what you do and repeat what works really well. The point is that what works really well for each company will be different because in the world of business development one size most certainly does not fit all.

The first step has to be working to understand the business you are working to develop, whether it be yours or someone else’s. This will involve asking a huge number of questions to elucidate what drives the business, who the target market is, what is the USP, who are your main customers, which products / services are most profitable, where do you want to be in 1, 3, 5 years etc. Without truly understanding the business how can you possibly develop it and drive it to greater success?

From the answers to all these questions a business development plan can then be created. As we keep saying in the office: “You’ve gotta have a plan Stan!” and the more detailed the questioning above, the easier that plan is to write. This will be a unique plan that is tailored to your business, not the other way round, after all – onesies will just not cut it in the world of business!