Entrepreneurs are a special breed. More than most other professionals, they have a tremendous bias toward action: They like to be doing things, not thinking about doing things.

Yet in the blur of constant activity, many neglect or overlook an essential ingredient to a successful and sustainable business: strategy. Some entrepreneurs simply say they lack the time to think before they act. After all, speed to market can mean the difference between winning that next big gig and watching it get awarded to a competitor. In the end, most confess that they find strategy a little bit daunting, even mysterious--and are unsure how to implement a business strategy once they've figured out their strategic goals.

Like virtually all business activities, strategy development is a process. You don't build a house without a blueprint or drive cross-country without a road map. Similarly, you can't expect to achieve your business goals without a plan on how to get there.

Like any process, strategy can be broken down into basic steps:

1. See clearly. Vision is arguably one of the most overused and misunderstood words in the business lexicon, but it provides the context from which all good strategy can emerge. A company's vision is nothing more--and nothing less--than how it sees itself in the market over a long-term horizon, typically 10 years, but no less than five.
   
   A strong vision is simple, clear and easily comprehended by everyone in the organization; it creates a compelling picture of where the company intends to be in the future. Equally important, a company's vision helps to mitigate the potentially destructive lure of short-term thinking. Granted, every business needs to focus on the here and now, but the vision keeps it from becoming permanently near-sighted.
   
   What does your company "look like" in the future? What kinds of customers does it serve? What impacts or influences does it have? Why is it doing what it's doing? If you were to read a headline about your company 10 years from now, what would you want it to say?
    
2. Think, act, deliver. Consider the companies with which you choose to do business. Chances are you choose them not just because they have the product or service that you need at a good value, but because you're attracted to the way they do business, how they treat you as a customer and how they handle problems that inevitably occur over the course of the relationship. You choose them, in part, for their values or ethos, which tells you how they'll handle any range of situations that might crop up and helps you predict their behavior over time.
   
   Values tell everyone--employees, customers, partners, investors and the like--how your business thinks, acts and delivers in everything it does. And they're an essential component to strategy because they help you distinguish those activities that are aligned with the fundamental purpose of your business.
   
   What is the overriding impression you want to leave in the minds of customers, prospects and partners? If they could say one word that describes how you treat them, what would you want that to be? Knowing you can't make every single business decision for your employees, what singular principle do you want to guide their actions more than any other?
    
3. The right goals. Many businesses don't suffer from having too few goals; they usually have too many. Often this is the result of an inability to distinguish the right ones from the wrong. It can equally be a sign of competing internal agendas and having no one to act as a credible referee. Whatever the cause, in the end the business is faced with a laundry list of objectives that serves only to dilute the organization's resources, which consist of money, people, technology and time. Sometimes political will is a necessary resource as well--though difficult to quantify and assign--and requires sustained commitment from management to support goals that are right for the business, even if unpopular or difficult.
   
   Choosing the right goals is critical, and--to be honest--it's tough. What's "right" isn't always obvious or politically popular. What's right might actually take longer than goals that are convenient but ineffective. What's right might require assets your organization currently lacks but needs to invest in. So how do you know what a "right" goal looks like?
   
   This is where vision and values come in. The right goals are those that contribute to realizing the company's vision and that are consistent with the company's values.
   
   For instance, imagine a business whose vision is to be the premier high-end real estate company in its region and whose values are personal service, accessibility and authenticity. Extra investment in customer care might be a right goal, whereas automating all phone communications would not.
    
4. The 35-128 rule. Even after proper goal-setting, you might find yourself with more goals than your organization can reasonably accomplish.
   
   As a rule of thumb, three to five goals in a 12- to 18-month period are optimal. If you have fewer, your organization probably won't move the needle much toward achieving its vision; a lot more is equally ineffective because the company will spread its finite resources too thin.
   
   Look at your list of "right" goals. Write down how much of the following each will require: money, people, technology and time. These four resources are pretty much the assets you have to work with, regardless of the business you're in. If the business is low on cash but has extra manpower, you might table a goal that requires a big cash investment and commit to one that calls for additional staffing. If you identify a goal that's critical to achieving your vision or even to another key goal, but it requires technology that you lack, it might be appropriate to make that investment.
    
5. Name and time frame. Accountability is where the rubber meets the road. It's also where many businesses struggle to transition from goal-setting to goal-scoring. Strategic business objectives will not get done without assigning a responsible party and making clear what milestones are expected and when.
   
   For particularly complex goals, it might not be reasonable to walk out of a strategy session knowing specifically how the goals will be achieved. That's OK. Establish broad but clear parameters--a new CRM system before the holiday rush--and set a deadline for the responsible party to come back with a detailed plan, including major tasks and milestones to achieve that objective.
   
   Consider a combination of carrots and sticks to drive accountability. The former might include spot bonuses, an extra day of vacation or special recognition, whereas the latter might be the denial of a bonus, special pay or reassignment.

The beauty of strategy is that it's repeatable and flexible. You don't do it just once; it becomes part of how to think about and plan for your business's ongoing success.

Review your strategy on a monthly basis and recalibrate as needed. Do you need more or different resources to achieve business goals? Are the goals too ambitious or too easily achievable? It's OK to adjust your business strategy; just remember that your vision and values are enduring and constant.

When you break down strategy into its component parts, it's no longer mysterious or overwhelming. More important, for the hyperactive entrepreneur, creating a strong business strategy is the best thing you can do.