How To Create A Strategic Plan For A Business

It may seem like a big undertaking – and it is – but you shouldn't dread writing your strategic business plan. This is an opportunity to spend time thinking through all the exciting growth ideas you've pondered and put on paper. But you'll want to do your due diligence, so you set yourself up for success.

Be sure your strategic business plan includes the following:

Consider Your Vision And Mission Statement

Whether you are managing a business unit or the entire company, it's worthwhile to revisit your vision and mission statement for purposes of keeping it in mind while crafting your strategic business plan. Your mission statement will be a reminder of your core competency and your vision statement will guide your goal creation. Include this in your business plan as a reminder for your audience as well.

Conduct A SWOT Analysis

You need to know where you're at to determine where you want to go and how you'll get there. Look internally and to the market to put together a list of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Then decide which elements are worth your focus and will return the best outcomes. Consider bringing others into your SWOT analysis compilation as they might have perspectives different from yours.

Outline Your Objectives

Your goals should be specific. It's not enough to say, "I want to maximize sales." You need to analyze last year's sales, consider the market and review your action plans to determine what kind of sales increase is attainable. Stating your goal is to increase sales 10 percent year over year or by $170,000 by December 31 is acceptable – and something that will help your team gain perspective and keep motivated. It's a good idea to consider objectives attainable in one year, two or three, five and 10.

Determine Staffing Needs

Strategic workforce planning should be part of your business planning. Beyond how many additional staff members you need, think about which departments will need the support and how that will shift over time. With technology's impact on the future of work, there may be increasing opportunities for virtual workers or independent contractors and shifting demand due to task automation. Take attrition into account and start building a pipeline to help you ramp up quickly when the need arises.

Determine Your Resources

Growing your business requires an investment of some kind – whether it's staffing, money, training, time, information and a whole host of other things. Take this time to determine which resources would be affected by chasing your goals and outline your needs here. It's important to be painfully clear about what you'll need to accomplish your goals so it's no surprise when you start asking in the implementation stages.

Brainstorm Strategies

Here's the fun part! Brainstorm multiple strategies that will help you reach your objectives. Allow yourself to think outside the box here and pull in people who will come up with alternative ideas. It's ideal to go beyond jotting down the ideas and really analyze the potential of the strategy. Think about more than just the financial cost of the option and consider the real cost and opportunity cost. Brainstorm the advantages and disadvantages of each option and how they all compare to each other.

Write Your Action Plans

Once you've settled on one or two strategies you're ready to implement – decide who is going to be accountable for bringing them to fruition. You should create a guide to follow; it would be wise to include the project leader in this business planning session. Action plans complete with steps will give you the best chances of success. Don't be afraid to revisit these action plans, as necessary, as you progress in the project. Being agile is of the utmost importance in the current business environment.

Measure Success

If you've put in all this work to create a business plan, you certainly want to know how it turns out. Before you dive right into to writing a new business plan next year, take your time to measure your success. Analyze the data, determine the return on your investment and find out your position in the marketplace. This will lend insight for building your new strategic business plan.

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