Having a vision and long term goals is essential. After all, if you don’t know where you are going, you’ll never know when you get there.

Think of it this way. When you get into a car, turn on engine and roll out of driveway, 99.9% of time you always have a destination in mind. Whether it’s office, fast food drive through or a town that is miles away, you know exactly where you are going. And because you know where you are going, you can choose from several routes to get there. Each route will take you where you want to go, but there may be pros and cons associated with choosing one over other (traffic considerations, length of trip and so on). Still, you can consciously choose a specific path, to meet your needs on that particular day.

Now imagine getting into your car with no destination in mind. You wouldn’t know when to turn right or left, or when to stop altogether. You could go forwards or in reverse – depending on your mood. You could keep driving around aimlessly forever - until you run out of petrol or car breaks down.

Not having a long term destination for your business puts many business owners in “aimless driving” category. If you don’t know where you are heading, then you can make any choice and go in any direction (including backwards). Plans are made based only on current situation and short term goals. Decisions are taken without having a broader context.

Why do so many companies languish and watch as their business turns into a zero profit zone, while others seem to thrive?

When you look at your business, whether it’s a new venture or a company with a long history, can you answer following questions? •What does my company do better than anyone else? •What unique value do I provide to my customers? •How will I increase that value next year?

Companies that fail to answer these questions, and don’t believe they are of paramount importance, relegate themselves to marginal profitability at best and failure at worst. But companies that can answer these questions are able to raise value bar for their customers and reap benefits of success.

Of course, being able to answer 3 simple questions does not ensure success, but it is an important step in creating a strategic and focused operation which leads to a successful business. With today’s business environment being so competitive, businesses need to re-invent rules on which they compete in order to be successful. Companies like Wal-Mart have figured this out and have redefined competition in their market by delivering a unique value to a selected customer group. By maintaining a focus and discipline, they make it difficult for other companies to compete under old competitive terms.

Simply, competitive strategy has never been more important to success in today’s business environment. It does not matter what type of business you are in or whether you are small, big or just starting out, a company can not survive without an adequate and focused strategic plan to best competition. Yet many companies fail to execute a successful strategy; it is these companies that languish in zero profit zone.

In simple terms, for a company to achieve success and enter profit zone it must first decide where it will stake its claim in marketplace and what kind of value it will offer its customers. A company needs a clear marketing thrust, a precise knowledge of its customer base, and a product or service with a niche or some competitive advantage to be successful. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and business owners get stuck in process of defining their competitive strategy. They often have idea and product, but being technician they are not sure how to define its market. Even worse, many entrepreneurs assume or guess their target market and often glaze over a competitive strategy, usually to detriment of business.

So what are steps to laying out a competitive business strategy? While there are different methods you can follow, I have laid a series of 6 basic steps to help you.

1.Financial perspective

This step may not seem to have much to do with strategy, but it is important to determine value of success quickly. Why? Because, in simple terms if venture can’t deliver significant returns, it may not be worth risk, and you have to ask yourself if it is worth continuing with your business. In this scenario you complete a reverse income statement. You start by defining how much profit you want to see at end of a certain time period, and then determine amount of revenues needed to generate that profit and costs to deliver that profit. Do numbers add up and make sense? The goal here is to be objective, if expected revenue is not sufficient to generate your required profit at end based on an estimate of costs, don’t simply fudge numbers and assume you can reduce costs or increase revenue. Be diligent in your assessment.

2.Understand industry and competition