Have you ever been in a helicopter and looked down to see an amazing vista? The helicopter view is one of a big picture view. When you are standing on the shoreline, you don’t realize how long the beach actually is, as you only see a small part of it. When you get up in the air in a helicopter, you can see the length of the beaches along the coast. You need to look at your business in the same way as you would look out of a helicopter window.
One of the best reasons to go back to your business plan and complete a review (or a health check of your business) every six months is that it gives you a chance to reflect on the big picture issues of your business. Each day, and sometimes each hour of the day, you can have a specific task to complete. Each week and each month, you have many tasks to complete, just to keep your business running. It is so easy to focus on the day to day details and forget the big picture.
Yet the big picture view of your business can help you to stay focused on your goals and can inspire you to achieve more. Seeing the big picture gives you a good perspective from which to plan smaller details or actions. Let’s think about what a helicopter view of your business can tell you.
The helicopter view is different to your every day view. You may not see all the finer or minute details, but you certainly gain a new perspective of your surroundings.
Take a walk down the street of your business and look back at your business. What would be a customer’s first impression of your business? Then, think about how customers see your business. This is a different perspective to how you see your business.
Next, think about how others in the industry or even the local area see your business. Do you even interact with others in the industry or do you get caught up in the day to day details of running your own business? If you only focus on your own business, you could miss the opportunities to grow your business by increasing your business’ reputation in the industry as a whole. Do you ever look at new or proposed legislation that could impact your business? Do you receive updates from industry experts to help you plan your own business actions? If not, maybe you could implement some simple actions to help you see the big picture of the industry your business operates in.
Think about where your business is really heading. What future do you dream about for your business? As you complete your health check of your business plan, allow yourself some time to consider the big picture destination of your business.
Once you decide on where your business is heading in the big picture, it can help you to sharpen your focus on the little details or the small tasks you need to complete to achieve your big picture goals.
When you take a helicopter view of your business and see the beautiful panorama that gives you many options of where to take your business in the future, you will be able to decide on where you really want to take your business in the next year or so.
As you step out of the helicopter of your imagination, you can now focus your attention on the path you need to take to get your business where you want it to go. You can decide on the actions you need to achieve over the next six months to help you to achieve the big picture goals of your business plan.
Photo Credit: 
photo credit: Tubroos!
