Turn Your Theory of Change into a Robust Business Strategy
As a purpose-driven business you already know that you’re more than just a profit-making entity. You’re a thought leader and change-maker actively trying to redefine the status quo and shape the future in a powerfully positive way.
Last week, I talked about using a Theory of Change (ToC) as the blueprint for your business strategy. When we think about impact, understanding how you’re actually going to create impact allows us to articulate our value proposition - that thing that makes us unique and sets us apart - to our prospective clients.
While the ToC is the foundation, you still have to convert that theory into a practical, results-oriented business strategy.
To help break this down, I want to take you through my own theory of change. As you know, I run a business consulting firm that is focused on championing women in business and fostering female entrepreneurship.
My ultimate objective: Eradicate the gender gap in business leadership and empower female founders, thought leaders, and change-makers to build, grow, and scale businesses that create powerful and needed social change.
So, how do I practically transform this vision into a working business strategy?
Document Your Theory of Change
As I mentioned last week, this process takes some real thought. Your theory of change must be defined, and it should outline how and why your business activity can lead to desired social impact. If you haven’t taken the time to really think through the impact you’re trying to make, start by answering these questions:
[Impact] What is my desired social change or long-term goal?
[Outcomes] What has to happen in order to make my desired outcome a reality?
[Assumptions] What assumptions am I making?
[Activities] What are the things I need to do for the outcomes to come to life?
[Success] What are my measures of success?
When you lay this out, all of a sudden it becomes increasingly clear what needs to happen on a very practical level in your business.
Aligning Vision with Services
The next step is to intertwine your vision with the services you offer. I’ve carved out a niche by providing consulting services tailored to female entrepreneurs and women-led businesses with a social mission. My female- and social impact-focused approach allows me to address gender-specific barriers in the business sector as well as contribute to the larger social change space through my clients, setting me apart from my competitors.
Practically, this means I offer guidance and support in four areas:
Business Growth Strategy - I know that in order to grow a successful, profitable business that creates impact, women have to take specific action focused on both impact and revenue, position themselves in the market with strong pricing and clear messaging, and develop a sales system that feels authentic and is alignment with the needs and values of their prospective clients.
Team Development - Businesses that are in growth mode are rarely run by a single person. In order to amplify your impact and increase your time, you need an aligned team to support you. This means being clear on what only you can do, delegating what’s not in your zone of genius, and being (or becoming) the leader your team needs you to be. This is very much where stepping into your role as CEO becomes essential and priceless.
Operations - Team Development is about people. Operations are really focused on increasing your time and revenue and streamlining how you do business. Practically, this involves looking at (or creating it, if you don’t have one) your business operating system, the tech you’re using, how you manage your financials, and documenting standard operating procedures. The more efficient you can be, the easier it is to focus on the important things in your business: clients, your thought leadership as the founder, the impact you’re seeking, and revenue generation.
Advocacy and Awareness
In addition to consulting work, I also engage in advocacy for gender-specific issues. This involves supporting other businesses who share your vision, collaborating with partners - both for-profit and nonprofit (check out this episode of The Nonprofit Show where I addressed this specifically), who are actively seeking to close the gender-gap, and where appropriate, advocating for policy change at the local and federal level on female founders’ access to funding, the power of women in business, and other issues that uniquely impact us as women.
By raising awareness about the benefits of female leadership and entrepreneurship, we, as a collective, extend our influence beyond our immediate client base. This advocacy serves as a real-world demonstration of my (our) commitment to the end goal of our ToC.
Performance Monitoring and Adaptability
A strategy is only as good as its results, and let me tell you, I love a good spreadsheet. I track a lot of things in my business, specifically my impact (a difficult and imperfect task) by logging the number of women-led businesses I’ve supported (over 200 and counting), charting the growth and success rate of my clients, and keeping track of their feedback.
In addition to impact data, I also track business growth data, including revenue, cash flow, sales conversation information, and email list and social media growth. This data-driven approach gives me a lot of insight and allows me to adjust the way I serve clients, stay responsive to trends in the entrepreneurial and women’s entrepreneurship space, and adjust my business activities to continue to grow in a healthy and sustainable way.
Responsiveness to the inputs and your willingness to adapt underscores your commitment to the impact you’re trying to make and helps you stay relevant.
Your Journey Towards Meaningful Transformation
Crafting a business strategy based on a Theory of Change isn’t always easy, but gives you a deep understanding of the cause you champion, showcases your willingness and ability to adapt and evolve, and allows you to deliver tangible results to your clients that you can actually articulate. That’s the power of your ToC as the foundation of your business.
Next week, we’ll dig into how to use this process to set your business goals and objectives, including a 90 day plan. This is where the rubber meets the road, and a solid plan will allow your impact to come to life and your business to grow.
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If you have any questions about how you can create a Theory of Change for your business, let’s chat! Simply book a call, and we can walk through this process together.
