Business programme
Start-Up, Scale-Up by Lloyds Bank Academy
Create your business strategy
Develop a strategy that reflects the purpose, aims and values of your business.
Introduction to 'Create your business strategy'
Owning and running a business is an exciting journey—but it can also feel overwhelming at times. You’re often making big decisions with limited time, resources, or certainty. That’s why having a clear business strategy matters. It gives you direction, helps you stay focused, and supports you in making confident, informed choices.
In this lesson, we’ll help you create a strategy that works for you and your business.
What you'll learn
- What a business strategy looks like.
- How to set your overall direction and purpose.
- What makes your business unique.
- Ways to identify opportunities and risks.
- How to set meaningful goals.
How long it takes
13 minutes
Your vision and mission
Chapter 1
How long it takes
3 minutes
Your vision statement
The first step to creating your business strategy is to set out your vision.
What is a vision?
Your vision is a short statement that states the long-term purpose of your business.
It describes the desired future state for your business, the impact it aims to make on the world, and what it hopes to achieve.
A good vision should be clear, concise and memorable. It should capture the essence of what your business is aiming to achieve.
"Each part of the organisation works in quite different ways, but what unites us is our overarching vision.”
Debbie Hewitt Business leader and Chair of the English Football Association
What should you consider when writing your vision?
Ambition
Where do you want your business to be if it achieved all its goals? This should be challenging and inspiring.
Your focus area
What are the markets you work in? Your vision should be relevant to these.
Customers
Who are your target customers and what do they want or need from your product or service?
What makes you unique
What makes your business stand out from its competitors?
Purpose/impact
What is the positive change that your business wants to make?
Craft your vision
Think about your answers to these questions. What stands out to you? You might see some common themes.
Three top tips for your vision:
- Think long term – Your vision should be ambitious. Think about where you want your business to be in 5-10 years.
- Be optimistic – Your vision should be realistic, but detail what would happen if you achieved all your goals.
- Keep it simple – Write in plain, simple language. This will make it easier to remember and share with others.
Activity
Take 5 minutes to reflect and attempt to write down your vision.
Don’t worry about this being perfect. Allow yourself to be creative.
Finding this hard? Here’s some example visions from well-known brands, to inspire you:
“To provide access to the world's information in one click.”
IKEA
“To create a better everyday life for the many people.”
Nike
“To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
Your mission statement
Once you have a clear idea of your vision, the next step is to craft your mission statement.
What is a mission?
Your vision is all about your future. It answers the questions of where you want to be and why.
Your mission should say what your purpose is right now. It answers the questions of what you do now and why you do it. Quite simply, it says how you’ll achieve your long-term vision.
For example:
Vision statement
“To become the world's leading provider of sustainable energy solutions.”
Mission statement
“To create high-quality solar panels that allow our customers to reduce their carbon footprint and achieve energy independence.”
Start by answering these questions:
Purpose
Why was your business set up? What does it aim to achieve?
Ambition
How will you achieve your business goals?
Your focus area
What specific products or services will you focus on?
Customers
Who benefits most from your products or services?
What makes you unique
What makes your approach different from others in your sector?
Craft your mission statement
Think about your answers to these questions. Now ask yourself – what do you do daily to achieve your vision? Here, you’re working out the essence of what your business does.
Activity
Take some time now to jot down what day-to-day activities will move you towards your vision. Once you have a list, look at what these things have in common. We also suggest looking back at your answers to the vision questions too.
Again, don’t worry about this being final. The ideas you write here will help you start.
Your unique business
Chapter 2
How long it takes
3 minutes
Your unique selling point (USP)
A USP is a benefit that sets you apart from other businesses in your market. Your business can have one or many USPs.
It might be a feature of a product, how you operate or your brand. The key point is that it acts as a reason for a customer to pick you over another business. So you’ll need to compare yourself to other businesses that work in your target market or markets – your competitors.
Why have a USP?
Being clear on what unique benefits you can bring to your customer helps you to stand out. Plus, you can use your USPs to help you make business decisions.
Once you’re clear on what your USPs are, you should aim to make choices that protect and market them. Like creating a marketing and sales strategy that uses your USPs to appeal to your target market.
What aspects of your products and services can be a USP?
USPs for your target customers
There are two factors that contribute to an effective USP. We’ve covered the first – being unique. The second is your ability to sell your target customer what they want, the way they want it.
To make sure you’re set up to do this, you need to define your target market. There are lots of ways to do this. We’re going to look at using 'personas'. A persona is a fictional character you create. It represents a group of people who will use your products or services.
Personas can help you:
- Focus on your customer’s needs – what’s important to them, plus what they don’t want.
- Work out how to help people like them get the best out of your products and services.
You can then start to narrow down what you can offer them that’s unique.
Building your personas
Your personas can include information on:
Who they are
For example: Name, age, location. What their role is, in life and in relation to your business?
Everyday activities
Family, work, hobbies and interests. What they enjoy, and what they don’t.
Their communication choices
How they like to interact with you and other businesses, including any sites and apps they use.
Activity
Sketch out a few persona profiles to represent your main user groups.
Put yourself in their shoes and try to create personas that could be real people.
Tips:
- You may have a range of different personas – You can do this activity as many times as you need to cover the different types of people you want to target.
- Use analytics and data – If you have a website or social presence, this helps to get a clearer idea of who visits your pages and sites, and what they like.
Turn personas into USPs
Your USPs are how you support your customers’ needs in a way that others don’t.
Here's how to use your personas to craft your USPs.
Match customer needs with what you offer
For each of the personas you create, think about how your business might meet their needs.
Do competitor and market research
Look at how other businesses position themselves in the market. What do they offer their customers? Note their strengths, weaknesses and USPs.
Use your insights to outline your USP
Take this research and compare it with how you meet your customers’ needs. Are there ways in which you’re already unique? What could you tweak to do things in a unique way?
Define your goals
Chapter 3
How long it takes
3 minutes
Why set business goals?
Setting goals is key to business success, as they create direction and purpose. Once you have goals, you can measure your progress against them. This can help to motivate your team, and allows you to make decisions based on how things really are.
Clear and achievable goals inspire and create a sense of accomplishment. They serve as a benchmark to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
By setting goals, your business can prioritise its time, money and efforts. This can help you focus on the things that matter most to your business and your customers.
Setting goals is key to business success, as they create direction and purpose. Once you have goals, you can measure your progress against them. This can help to motivate your team, and allows you to make decisions based on how things really are.
Clear and achievable goals inspire and create a sense of accomplishment. They serve as a benchmark to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
By setting goals, your business can prioritise its time, money and efforts. This can help you focus on the things that matter most to your business and your customers.
List your key challenges or aims
You may already have an idea about what your goals are. It’s good to write these down. Phrase them as either problems you want your business to solve or goals to achieve.
If you’re starting to build your goals
Start by looking at the overall vision and mission of your business. Your vision is your long-term goal. For example, 'To be the UK's number one provider of garden furniture'. Your mission shows what you do. So, it might be 'To provide accessible garden furniture that caters to all customer needs.'
Once you have these, you can now write a set of SMART goals. Each one should help the overall aim of your business.
What's a SMART goal?
SMART is an acronym that gives you a framework for setting and achieving goals. SMART gives you a clear idea of what goals should look like, so your goals can be more consistent and effective.
SMART stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Let's take a closer look at what each of these mean. Select each one to find out more.
-
Goals should be clear and ideally focus on one area. They should set out a specific action you are going to take. For example - Increase sales.
-
You must be able to measure the success of your goal. This means setting targets to track progress. For example - Increase sales by 50%. You can then say without doubt whether or not you have achieved this, using data.
-
It's good to stretch your business to be better. At the same time, goals should be realistic. They should reflect the resources, skills and time you have or can get.
For example - You might lower your target to 25% after reflecting on how hard 50% would be for your business to achieve. It can be helpful to look at your track record. If you've only been increasing sales by 10% each year, how realistic is it to expect 50% with extra focus?
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Goals should always align with your overall mission. This ensures that everything you do helps you get closer to your long-term vision.
Always consider if there's anything you can add to a goal to help achieve your long-term goal. If you're increasing your sales, how can you do so safely, sustainably, or in other ways that better reflect your purpose.
-
Goals should have a specific deadline. For example - Increase sales by 25% by the end of the year, without lowering our customer experience score.
SWOT analysis
Chapter 4
How long it takes
2 minutes
What is SWOT?
SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used by organisations and individuals, to assess their current situation and identify areas for improvement or growth.
What does 'SWOT' stand for?
Strengths
Internal attributes that give you a competitive advantage.
Weaknesses
Internal limitations or areas for improvement.
Opportunities
External factors you can exploit to gain a competitive advantage
Threats
External factors that can negatively impact your business
Let's look at some typical examples.
Strengths
- Skilled employees with expertise in their field.
- A strong brand that customers recognise and trust.
- Unique products/services that set your business apart from others.
Weaknesses
- Outdated technology that slows down operations.
- High employee turnover leading to a loss of skilled workers.
- Lack of specific expertise that is key to staying competitive.
Opportunities
- Emerging markets with a growing demand for your products/services.
- New technologies that can improve efficiency.
- Consumer trends that create new needs the business can meet.
Threats
- Increased competition from other businesses.
- Economic downturns that reduce consumer spending.
- New regulations that impose additional costs or restrictions on your operations.
To make sure these help your overall strategy, it’s a good idea to focus on finding SWOT aspects that are related to your goals. For example, say you want to increase your revenue. You would focus on the aspects of your business that currently help you with this, the weaknesses that are current blockers, the new opportunities you have to do this and any external factors that may stop you from achieving your goals.
Remember
Think about SWOT for each of your business goals, as well as your vision, mission and USP.
This will help make sure you’re working towards your future vision with every growth plan decision you make.
Write your strategy
Chapter 5
How long it takes
2 minutes
What your strategy looks like
This is where you put everything together. But it doesn’t have to be in a lengthy document. Essentially, you’re just saying ‘This is where I want the business to be, and how I plan to get it there’.
At this stage, the ‘how’ is high-level.
It includes:
- Where you’ll focus.
- What you’ll prioritise.
In your strategy, you’ll cover these key areas:
Direction
This is your vision and mission. It’s what success looks like.
Goals
A small number of SMART goals.
Market focus
Who are your target customers? Draw on your personas.
Value proposition
This is your USP.
It says:
- Why customers should choose you.
- What makes you different from others in your sector.
SWOT insights
- Strengths to build on
- Weaknesses to fix
- Opportunities to pursue
- Threats to manage
Strategic priorities
These are the most important things you’ll do to reach your goals.
For example:
- Launch a new product.
- Expand into a new market.
- Improve customer retention.
Who's your audience?
How you write your strategy will depend on who you want to see it.
This could be one or more of:
Your team
That could be just you, people you’re working with and/or those who work for you.
Your finance backers
For instance, investors or your bank manager if you’re applying for a business loan.
Your mentors
Like a business coach or advisor – someone who can help you build and grow your business.
What next?
Writing your business strategy is an important first step in shaping your direction. By setting clear goals and thinking about how to achieve them, you are building a plan to guide your decisions.
As you continue, remember to keep your strategy flexible so you can adjust and grow as your business and its environment change.
Want to learn more?
Strategy and planning
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Lloyds Bank Academy is committed to providing information in a way that is accessible and useful for our users. This information, however, is not in any way intended to amount to authority or advice on which reliance should be placed. You should seek professional advice as appropriate and required. Any sites, products or services named in this module are just examples of what's available. Lloyds Bank does not endorse the services they provide. The information in this module was last updated on 19th May 2026.