Once you have decided to start your own business and you've taken the first steps in determining what your business will be, it's time to get busy strategizing. This is not the part where you figure out the step-by-step plan for your business, this is the part where you think in broad strokes about what you want to accomplish and a basic roadmap on how to get there.
Mission. Vision. Goals. Targets. Oh, my.....
The first step is to figure out what you will do as a business. It is also the time to define what you won't do. Brainstorm who your customers will be. Determine how you will define success. Decide how you want to grow and expand.
Setting the strategy is designed to help you focus on the items that are really important to you as a business owner and discard the items that are not. It will help set the priorities on where you will distribute your startup budget and where you don't need to focus quite yet.
The better you can define your roadmap early in the process, the easier your path to success will be.