Strategic Planning: The How behind Your Why
Why you do what you do is really important to your business. Its why your business exists, why you got involved and why you struggle every day to make it work. Once you know your why, the next step is determining in the how – how your business will operate and how you will deliver your why, your promise of your product or service to the customer and make hem your own.
The process of defining your how is strategic planning. If you don’t define the strategic steps towards your ultimate goal, you will find yourself stuck working really hard in the business only to discover when you lift your head up out of the dirt, that your business is exactly where it was a time ago.
Strategic planning allows for the business to evolve, develop and expand or contract with trends and new ideas. Instead of just throwing something up on the wall or buying inventory to fill shelves, a strategic plan will focus your ideas and point your work in directions that matter because the work and actions you company takes are tied to outcomes.
To get working on the business, I recommend to my clients that they spend time thinking strategically and writing a strategic plan. The plan should only be as long as is necessary for you to outline a few key strategies.
Strategic planning is for you and your management team if you have one. If you don’t have a management team, consider forming an advisory board that can give you outside perspectives. It is a disciplined effort that results in decisions and actions that will shape and guide the company brand, who it serves, what it does, and why - all with a focus on the future. It is an activity that is sets priorities, ensures that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals, and establishes agreement on intended outcomes/results. With frequent review, it will help assess and adjust the organization’s direction in response to a changing environment.
Effective strategic planning articulates not only where an organization is going and the actions needed to make progress, but also how it will know if it is successful.
Content of Strategic Plan
Mission and Vision
The key to a good strategic plan is having a concisely written mission statement and expressive vision for your company. In a few short sentences, your mission statement should state the purpose of your business, why it exists and what you expect to accomplish. Your vision statement is how you see things when you have achieved your purpose.
Even though the mission and vision you have for your company is the starting point, it is also the end all. It defines where you want to go. Developing it further with the strategic plan will help get you there.
Core Values
Core values are the principles that guide you and your employees each day. Core values most often refer back to your mission and vision. Think about what is inherent in your company, your service to customer and your employees. Look to what motivated you to start your business – fair price, friendly service etc.
SWOT analysis
Include a SWOT analysis for your business. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunity and threats. Look internally to create a list of your company’s strengths and weaknesses; look externally to your competition or the market environment to compile opportunities and threats. Strengths and opportunities are helpful to achieving the business objectives whereas weaknesses and threats are of concern to the health of your business.
Don’t forget to include your competitive advantage — your unique selling point — that puts you at the front of the field in your market.
Long Term Goals
This is where strategy begins. Engage in strategic thinking to clarify how you will take action and do business that moves your company towards its strategic goals. Think about your company’s key purpose and how you plan to achieve it. Goals could include strengthening presence in your existing market or expanding operations and sales. For example, your long term goal may be to be the premier day spa in town. What does the business look like in three to five years? How has your offerings grown? How does the company define premier?
Yearly Objectives
Long term goals are furthered defined by yearly objectives. These objectives should be as SMART as possible: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-based.
Continue breaking down the yearly goals into short term goals, those to be accomplished in the next 3 months. These become your action plan for the next 90 days.
Action Plan
This section includes the steps that need to take place in order to achieve your goals. It is helpful to break this into departments or projects. This will allow you to see the flow of what needs and assess if it is reasonable an attainable.
Measurements and Results
Summarize all the indicators you will use to measure your SMART goals. As an example, a goal to increase sales could be broken down into customers and ticket price if you own a retail store. But if you are selling on line, perhaps you track your work towards growing various product lines through influencers. Decide the best way to measure progress, select the indicators that can best measure change and set realistic targets.