> To me that is where you want to start
> strategizing for your business. What is the
> purpose of the business?

Hi Mike,

Well, in the last 24 hours or so, you, Bob, Mary, and others have really made me think more about how to best use "strategy" in business....

After I typed in that possible definition of business strategy (adapted from the strategist B. H. Liddell Hart's definition of military strategy) - "the art of distributing and applying business assets and means to fulfill a pre-defined goal" - I started thinking further about it....

A business is not really an end in itself. (Well, not usually.) Just like an army is not an end in itself either. It's there as a means to fulfil something else....

To me, this really puts a whole new spin on things.

There are many goals which people turn to business as the means to fulfil them... These could be lifestyle goals, they could be goals of wealth or power, or the goal could be to help others, with business being the means to facilitate that....

My own personal goals are related to lifestyle, as well as some certain achievements I'd like to achieve in my life....

Business is the means by which I hope to achieve that....

Anyhow, what I've done is to make a list of my significant business assets.

There, I've written down things such as my knowledge and skills, my own labor, products I have the right to sell, my web sites, my shares, etc.

This is like the "third leg" of the stool you were mentioning, Mike - it's good to know about the market and your competition, but perhaps most important of all is knowledge of the "self" - that is, what can YOU bring to the strategic effort, in terms of your assets like knowledge, skills, money, physical property, contacts, etc.

So NOW what I am still contemplating is what is the best way to "distribute and apply" my business assets to reach my goals.... This exercise has already revealed a weakness in my business activities so far which I will be fixing ASAP.... But the bottom line is, I'm not finished yet (I've only really just started), but I think it's already been quite useful.... :)

I highly recommend doing this...

First, write down your goal or goals. (Remember, business is just a "means" for attaining that goal.) It could be lifestyle-related or anything else....

Then, write down all of your significant business assets, as I described above. That is, your significant knowledge, skills, physical assets, product rights (or your own products), and so on....

When that's done, think, what is the best way to use these assets to achieve your goals? Do you need to add more or different assets to achieve what you want to? Doing this exercise will probably help make everything become clearer....

Well, that's what I've been up to! :)

- Dien Rice