Creating a Strategic Plan

While many people that go into business create a business plan or a marketing plan, of some form to keep in mind the details of the business. There is another form of plan that you should also be considering creating. That plan is a strategic plan for your business.

A business plan may deal with the specific’s of the business such as finances, products, the people involved and the overall view of the business. The marketing plan will deal with the overall view of  you guessed it the marketing of the business. What the strategic plan will deal with is your overall vision for the business, and how this is going to be achieved.

Creating a strategic plan is something that is always going to be an on going thing. This is the type of plan that should be reviewed and updated as often as you believe it is needed. This may be once a month, or maybe once a year. Relly whatever you believe is needed to keep yourself focused. This plan should deal with two main topics in relation to your business

• The first part of this plan should look to outline your goals. Not just the make X dollars per month or have a certain size customer base. These should be your driving goals, the ultimate where you want your business to go goals. A good example of the difference in these goals may be. In your business plan you might have a goal to provide 100 customers a month with your product at the end of the first year. Where as the same goal may be expressed in your strategic plan as to be the number 1 provider of your product to consumers within 10 years.

Often the goals that you are likely to set in the strategic plan are long term, driving and even visionary goals. They are things that you want to achieve however, are possibly bigger then what should really be part of your business plan.

• The second part of this plan will primarily deal with the how. How are you going to work towards these goals. While knowing the how or every step that you need to take is not essential by any means. Knowing to some extent what may be required to get from where you are now to where your goal places you, are important things. On the example of becoming the number one provider for your product, you may need to do the following. Expand the number of customer service representatives to allow for the growth. Add additional warehouse space to cope with additional stock requirements.

These may essentially be mini plans in themselves, however what they do is give you insight into your long term goals. These are also parts that you can line up as they may be required to include within your business plan.

So  what you are really doing is, creating a plan that outlines your long term goals, and how you plan to achieve them in milestones, rather then details. This plan does not have to be something that is big with every little detail. But it needs to clearly spell out what the goal is and at the beginning at least what some of the steps that may need to be taken to achieve the goal will be.

Being that many of the goals that you may look to include in this plan are long term, with steps that may take considerable time, is the primary reason why continual re-evaluation is needed. This re-evaluation is something that can easily be connected to doing the same with your business plan. The two plans should always be connected or related in some way. Preferably where the steps in your strategic plan, make up some of the focus of your business plan. If not then you are taking the risk of creating a goal that cannot be achieved.

All you need to do is just get started on creating a plan, be it a single page, with just a few details. Or maybe something a little longer, but just remember all you are really looking to do is to hone in on the goals and the overall path to reach them. The details of reaching them are not so much part of what this plan should be but more your business plan, when those milestones come into the scope of your business plan.