The fifth eBook in the Foundations category. It hands you a single-page go-to-market strategy template and walks each section so the page is filled in by the end of the eBook - customer, offer, positioning, channels, budget, timeline and review.
Members ebook·5 chapters· 15 minute read
Chapter 1
Why Templates Help
What a strategy template does for a small business and what makes the difference between a template that gets used and one that doesn't.
Templates have a bad reputation in some quarters - the suspicion that they're a substitute for thinking, or that they flatten what's distinctive about a business. In a small business they do the opposite. The blank page is where most strategies die. A good template removes the blank page without removing the choices.
The template that helps a small business is short, opinionated and the same every time. Short so it gets filled in. Opinionated so it forces a choice rather than allowing a paragraph. The same every time so quarter four can be compared honestly to quarter one.
This chapter is the case for the template and the standard a good one has to meet. The next chapter hands you the template itself.
The full chapter has the four jobs a strategy template does for a small business, the five tests of a good template and the failure modes that make most templates die in week two.
The four jobs the template does
First, it makes the strategy visible. A page on the wall is reviewable. A thought in the owner's head is not. Second, it makes the strategy delegable. A new freelancer or hire can read the page in three minutes and know what the business is trying to do. Third, it makes the strategy editable. You can cross a sentence out and write a better one. You can't do that with a thought. Fourth, it makes the strategy comparable - quarter four versus quarter one is a real conversation when both are on the same template.
The five tests of a good template
A good small business strategy template is
1. One page, not three
2. The same headings every quarter
3. Forces a single choice in each box, not a list
4. Has a customer row at the top, not the bottom
5. Has a review date written on it
Most templates downloaded from the internet fail at least two of these tests. They run to four pages, they leave room for a paragraph in each box, they bury the customer behind SWOT analyses and they have no review date. The template in chapter two passes all five.
Why most templates die in week two
Three reasons, in order. The owner fills it in once and never opens it again. The owner writes a paragraph in each box and the page becomes a wall of grey text no-one wants to re-read. The owner writes the template for an outside reader - a bank, an accountant, a future investor - rather than for themselves and the team, and the page reads like a brochure rather than a tool. The template in chapter two is a tool. The bank can have a different document.
The honest test of a template
A small business strategy template is working if, three months in, the page is dog-eared and crossed-out. If it still looks tidy in week twelve, no-one is using it. The template is meant to be marked up - that's how it improves. Don't laminate it. Print it on plain paper. Replace it every quarter.
What to do this week
Decide where the page is going to live. On the wall above the desk is the standard answer. Behind a tab in a notebook works for owners on the road. Pinned at the top of the team chat works for remote teams. Wherever it lives, it has to be somewhere you'll actually see it on a Monday morning. Pick the place now, before chapter two hands you the page.
The recurring principle this chapter sits on is review results and improve the system. The template is the system that lets review happen. The next chapter, The GTM Strategy Template, hands you the page itself.
The rest of this chapter walks through the practical steps, the templates and the checklists you need to put it into action. It includes worked examples, copy frameworks and the small decisions that make the difference between a plan that sits in a drive and one that gets used.
Inside you'll find a step-by-step playbook, a downloadable template, a checklist you can run this week and a short list of common mistakes to avoid before you start.
The full action plan, broken into weekly steps.
Ready-to-use scripts, templates and checklists.
Worked examples for different sized businesses.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them.
Members-only chapter
Become a member to read the full chapter
Members get the complete chapter, the step-by-step plan, the templates and the checklists. Cancel anytime.
