What is a Practical Strategic Plan?

A Practical Strategic Plan is a working guide you develop and use all year as a tool to make decisions and communicate with stakeholders. Think of your Practical Strategic plan as a trusted colleague who works with you to set realistic goals and then reach them. 

If you have never had a strategic plan, here is a great place and time to get started. A practical strategic plan is a living and working document. It evolves over time and serves as a beacon to guide and inform your actions and direction. 

When in the Business Cycle should you start your plan? 

Now with regular tweaks and updates. Entrepreneurs should start a practical strategic plan before starting their business.  Having a clear emotional commitment to a WHY this work is important will help you stay committed during rough patches.  Vision and Mission help you communicate clearly how you serve your clients. It attracts to you those people, things and events that can help you build your business.  

Seasoned business owners and leaders benefit from reviewing and revising their Why – which could be personal or business focused, the company mission and vision.  This is the first step in developing a relevant plan of action.   

Large businesses generally have annual strategic planning sessions, however often it is not a working document.  In fact 80% of businesses do not look at their strategic plan during the year.  Not surprising, most companies don’t reach their goals.

Small and medium sized businesses who have and use their strategic plans on a regular basis, are more likely to reach their goals because they remain focused on what is important and stay on track.

What areas of the business should your practical strategic plan cover?

Think of your business as having four basic pillars –

• Marketing, – Who, How often, Where, When and benchmarks to measure success
• People – Consumer engagement and growth. Employees development and retention,
• Financial – growth benchmarks, where to increase revenue and decrease costs
• – How you create your goods and services and how you deliver your goods.

The pillars simplify the structure of the business. Notice that they are not by department which is good. They help you delegate responsibility for plans and reduce the risk of having too many goals and not accomplishing any of them.

Here are some of the key components to consider for your practical strategic plan which will be your guide for decision making: Practical Strategic Plan videos explain these areas.

1. Clear and actionable Vision and Mission
2. An Exit Plan 
3. Benchmarks to measure progress
4. Business Cycles Analysis
5. SWOT Analysis
6. 5, 3, 1 Year Goals
7. Eisenhower Matrix to set priorities
8. Each pillar will have its own benchmark, analysis, and goals,

1. 1. Marketing
   2. People
   3. Finance 
   4. Operations
2. A way to track and measure progress

How do I get started building a practical strategic plan?

Commit to an hour, weekly devoted to practical strategic planning. Put it on your calendar and treat it like an important meeting.  Make sure that you are not interrupted during that time.  Watch one or two of my free 19 short videos (3-5 minutes) and do the homework.  These practical strategic planning training videos  are in order and so don’t skip around.  To begin, you may want to set aside time with your team, watch a few together and do the homework.  

If you know that you will not stay committed to doing the homework, consider join our Business Development and Practical Strategic Planning Mastermind and work with a small group to craft your strategic plan. This adds accountability and support.  It is up to you to make the commitment.

Register here for Business Development Mastermind. 

How do I make a decision about strategic planning?

Activation Energy is the minimum amount of energy you need to do something new.  You have about 5 seconds to make a decision of whether to commit to strategic planning or let this opportunity pass.  You don’t want to make snap decisions, but how do you keep the ball rolling?  Copy this link into an email to yourself and put an event in your calendar to review strategic planning decisions. These practical strategic planning training videos  cost you nothing and are an easy way to get started or to update your plan.  It is better to make small progressive changes than try to do it all at once. That is because you are changing a habit, and having to rewire your brain’s priorities and that can be a lot of work. Especially if the change chunk is overwhelming. Slip in the changes and then let it grow as you become more engaged.

Finding the time to reflect and plan, it is a matter of business health and success.