Running a business means making decisions every day – about your product/services, marketing, hiring, pricing etc. Most founders believe strategy is one big plan nailed down once. The reality is very different.
Strategy leaks show up slowly: profit margins shrink, opportunities disappear, and team energy dips. You do the work, but the returns feel like they’re not matching. I’ve helped several small business owners plug these kinds of leaks; nearly always the cause lies in places they didn’t expect.
Here are 7 signs your business strategy may be costing you money, with examples and steps you can apply straight away.
1. Goals are vague or unmeasurable
When goals don’t have numbers, deadlines, or specific outcomes, they become wishful thinking. They sound good but do not guide action or decisions.
As HBR’s A List of Goals Is Not a Strategy warns, when goals are vague and not tied to outcomes or context, they become mere checklists – not a real plan
What to check now: Look at your current goals. If any of them lack a number, a timeframe, or a way to measure success, rewrite them to include all three.
Actionable step: Pick one vague goal, redefine it with metric + deadline + channel. Track progress weekly.
2. Strategy based on assumptions, not evidence
Assumptions are dangerous unless tested. What if a feature or marketing channel you think will work doesn’t? If you deploy budget or effort without validating, you risk wasted cost.
McKinsey argues that many strategies falter not because the logic was flawed – but because the plans are built on assumptions rather than proven insights
Teachable moment: Identify strategic assumptions you are making – about what your audience wants, what they pay, or what channels perform. Then test one by talking to your customers or running a small pilot.
3. Your team does not understand or own the strategy
If only you or senior leadership are clear on the strategy, then everyone else might be working loosely in parallel rather than in concert. That leads to duplicated effort, contradictory messages, or features that no one uses because they are out of sync.
<iframe data-testid=”embed-iframe” style=”border-radius:12px” src=”https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/4oYHwDNbE35VuknDyHtjhp?utm_source=generator” width=”100%” height=”352″ frameBorder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”” allow=”autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture” loading=”lazy”></iframe>
In this episode of Sniffing Out the Bullsh*t, I tell how miscommunication about goals nearly tanked a client’s product launch because different teams assumed different priorities.
Fix: Hold a workshop or meeting where you walk through the strategy with your team. Ask them to explain how their work links to stated goals. Adjust where things are ambiguous.
4. Resources spread too thin
Spreading budget, time, tools, or team across too many initiatives reduces the impact of each one. Being everywhere looks busy, but often that reduces focus and decreases returns.
There’s a common strategic mistake flagged in HBR and other business literature: chasing trends or investing in many channels without measurement leads to turning good ideas into money pits.
What to do: Audit everything you’re currently investing in – time, tools, channels. Identify the two or three highest‑performing ones and drop or pause the rest.
5. Strategy isn’t reviewed often
You may launch a plan, but what if conditions change and you keep going anyway? Costs rise. Market shifts. Consumer behaviour shifts. If you don’t look back, what looked like a success becomes outdated or ineffective.
The HBS Working Knowledge piece “The Most Common Strategy Mistakes” emphasises that strategy must adapt and be reviewed.
Actionable step: Create a review schedule (quarterly ideally). In each review, check if your goals are still realistic, if your assumptions still hold, if channels still work. Adjust where necessary.
6. Fixating on vanity metrics
Social media reach, follower count, visibility, traffic – they can feel satisfying and motivating. But if those numbers are not feeding into your leads, conversions, or bottom line, they are distractions.
What matters is quality: how many leads, how much recurring income, customer retention, cost to acquire a new customer.
Fix: Define 2–3 value metrics (for example: cost per acquisition, lifetime value of customers, retention rate). Prioritise actions based on what moves those numbers, not what makes you look good.
7. Overconfidence and untested beliefs
Belief is essential. But belief without evidence clouds judgement. You may presume something works because you’ve seen other businesses do it. But what works for them might not work for you.
There’s research that confirms this: many strategies fail because what the business thinks is true is never tested.
What to do: Identify at least one strong assumption you are making now. Test it. If it fails, adjust. Watch for signs that your belief is stronger than your data.
What to Do Next
- Choose the one sign above that hurts you most. Work it NOW, not later.
- Write down 3 assumptions your strategy depends on. Test one this week using customer feedback or data.
- Decide on 2 value metrics you will track for the next month. Use them to make decisions about where to invest your time and money.