The key to having a successful business is to keep your company growing. This is true of both big corporations and small businesses.
As the owner of a small business, it is important that you have a concrete plan for achieving your business goals and this is where a strategic plan can help.
In this article, we will introduce what a strategic plan is and how it can benefit your small business. We also have a five-step guide to creating your own strategic plan.
What Is A Strategic Plan?
Before we explain how to craft a strategic plan for your small business, we should explain what one is and why it can benefit your small business.
A strategic plan is the process that the owners of a business use to decide and plan the goals of the business. It should also set out action plans so that these goals can be achieved.
The strategic plan should include a sequence of actions that will lead to realizing the goals of the business.
The goals are usually mid to long-term goals that can be achieved in around three to five years. Some goals can be set over a longer term than this, but they are not usually shorter goals.
This is how strategic plans differ from business plans as the latter of these focus on short-term goals.
Strategic plans are important for small businesses as they can help keep you on track as you grow your business and keep it running.
It will help you keep your focus on your goals as you continue to run the business on a day-to-day basis.
How To Create A Strategic Plan For Your Small Business
If you’ve never created a strategic plan before this can be confusing. Follow these simple steps and you’ll be able to create a strategic plan for your small business.
1. Identify Your Objective And Mission
Your first step is to decide what you want for your business. There are a few steps that you can take to achieve this step depending on how established your business is.
The most important part is to decide what your overarching goal is. This can be any goal that you feel is important for your small business. It can be the launch of a new product, an increase in sales to a specific level, or a company rebranding.
You can also use this step as an opportunity to create the mission statement for your business if you don’t already have one. This is where you set out the purpose and direction of your small business.
You need to define what your business is, what it does, and what you aim to achieve. This is different from a goal as it covers your overarching purpose instead of an achievable goal.
2. Conduct A Self-Assessment
Before you can set an action plan in place to achieve your goal, you need to assess where your business is starting from. If your goal is to launch a new product, for example, you need to have a firm idea of where you are currently standing.
For example, have you already completed the research to see if the product is needed? Has the product been designed and tested yet? Do you have the cash flow to launch a new product? Do you have enough staff or do you need to employ more?
You may hear this stage of a strategic plan referred to as a SWOT analysis.
This stands for “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats,” and it's important that you are honest about your company’s assets and weaknesses. Only by being honest about these can you develop a strategy to achieve your goals.
3. Assign A Team
It’s easier to achieve goals and complete projects if there is a single person that is in control of it. This should be somebody that is trusted and has the authority to make decisions in a timely manner.
Many small businesses may be a one-person operation so this step is often one that can be overlooked. After all, you don’t need to assign a project leader or team if there is only one person completing everything!
If this is the case with your small business, however, consider this as the opportunity to decide how much time you will dedicate to completing your goal.
No matter what your goal is, you will be working on it alongside the day-to-day running of your business and will need to balance the two.
You shouldn’t allow yourself to be carried away with your new goal to the extent that it becomes a detriment to your regular business. Setting yourself a schedule and dividing your time will help you manage both.
4. Research
When you completed your self-assessment earlier, it should have given you an idea of what the weaknesses of your business are. You will have a better idea of how far from your goals your business is.
This is the stage where you can begin to research exactly what you need to do to move your business from its current position to its goal.
For example, if your goal is to increase your sales revenue by 20 percent, you will need to assess how you will do this, whether it means more advertising, higher prices, or something else.
You should also put some figures on this so you know exactly how much more money you will need to earn.
5. Create Your Action Plan
At this stage, you should have an objective, a business self-assessment, a team (or schedule if you’re flying solo), and have completed all of your research.
With all of this information at hand, you should be able to begin laying out how you will achieve your goal. Don’t jump immediately from where you are today to your goal. Instead, put in several small steps that will help you achieve your goal.
You should set out strategic goals that are spaced out over realistic periods of time. Don’t set yourself up to fail by pushing your business toward its goal too quickly. Your action plan should push your business forward without being too punishing.
For example, many action plans break the goal down into smaller goals that are then focused on each quarter or longer.
If your goal is to increase your sales by 20 percent, aim for an increase of 5 percent within six months and set aside a budget for marketing. You can then look to increase by another five percent in the following six months.
Final Thoughts
In this article, we introduced what a strategic plan is and explained how it can be beneficial to a small business. We then introduced a simple five-step plan to help you create your own strategic plan.
When creating a strategic plan, it’s important that you have an achievable goal and conduct a self-assessment of your company.
You should then assign a team or time to achieve this goal and complete all of the research you need to make your goal come to fruition. With all of this information, you can then create an action plan to achieve your goal.