Strategic Planning In Small Business

Lu M. Córdova is Named to Euronet Board of Directors

Corlund Industries is an investment holding company which specializes in operations management, strategic planning, business development and capital finance. Corlund also manages the Almacen Storage Group, which provides self-storage and small business warehousing in resort areas in Mexico.

“Ms. Córdova brings a wealth of financial knowledge and business experience, which will benefit us as our business continues to grow and change,” said Michael J. Brown, Euronet Chairman and CEO. “Her experience taking companies from start-up phases through maturity provides a unique complement to the membership profile of our Board of Directors.”

For nearly 30 years, Ms. Córdova has been involved in business and financial markets, and has worked to develop several companies including Acteva (TixToGo), @Home Network, MMS International, CEMA and Accent Design. Ms. Córdova is also the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the 10 District Federal Reserve Bank, based in Kansas City, after serving a full term as Chairman on the Bank’s Economic Advisory Council. She also has been affiliated with several other boards, including Kansas City Southern Railroad, the National Association of Business Economists, and the board of Silicon Valley Roundtable. Ms. Córdova received Bachelor of Science degrees in Political Science and Economics from the University of California at Berkeley, and was advanced to doctoral candidacy in the University’s Ph.D. program in economics.

About Euronet Worldwide

Euronet Worldwide is an industry leader in processing secure electronic financial transactions. The Company offers payment and transaction processing solutions to financial institutions, retailers, service providers and individual consumers. These services include comprehensive ATM, POS, and card outsourcing services, card issuing and merchant acquiring services, software solutions, consumer money transfer and bill payment services, and electronic distribution for prepaid mobile phone time and other prepaid products. Euronet’s global payment network is extensive – including 11,055 ATMs, approximately 53,000 EFT POS terminals and a growing portfolio of outsourced debit and credit card services which are under management in 33 countries; card software solutions, a prepaid processing network of approximately 562,000 terminals at approximately 278,000 retailer locations in 29 countries; and a consumer-to-consumer money transfer network of approximately 107,000 locations serving 132 countries. With corporate headquarters in Leawood, Kansas, USA, and 43 worldwide offices, Euronet serves clients in approximately 150 countries. For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.euronetworldwide.com .

"strategic planning" - Strategic Planning for Small Businesses: A ...

As a small business owner you may often feel overwhelmed by day to day operations, or maybe like you are just trying to keep up with everything that is demanded of you,  but if you take some time to do some strategic planning about how you intend for your business to grow, you will find that the effort will be well worth it.

A strategic plan is not a business plan

A strategic plan defines how your business will grow. It lays out the path that your business will follow to achieve the goals and objectives you have set.

If you think of your business plan as a blueprint, then your strategic plan is more like mapping out driving directions at the start of a trip. It will guide you from where you are to where you’d like to be.

Some of the components of an effective strategic plan include:

Constructing  your road map to success

Because they are so close to their business, many entrepreneurs choose to work with a business coach to facilitate the development of a strategic plan. It’s useful to have an objective set of eyes and ears observing your processes and lending their expert opinion about your plans.

You can come up with your own strategic plan if you cannot afford to hire a coach, or if you simply choose not to, but you should at least get a colleague or mentor whose opinion you trust to take a thoughtful look at your plan and be willing to give you some constructive feedback.

While you are putting your plan together you’ll also want to talk to your customers, clients, vendors, suppliers, investors and partners and your competition to get as much feedback as you can so that your plan has the best chance at succeeding.

Implementation

Once your strategic plan is completed and you are beginning to work towards accomplishing the action plans, make sure that you are making note of the important milestones along the way. Change can be a challenging process, and it is always so easy to fall back into the previous ways of doing things. Implementation is really where the ‘rubber meets the road,’ so to speak.  It’s where failure lurks at every turn if you don’t keep your eye on the end goal.

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