Your Strategic Plan – Your Business Coach Can Help
A strategic plan is not a business plan. A business plan outlines short-term and mid-range goals. A strategic plan focuses on the long-term goals of a business and spells out what needs to happen to get a business to that place. After all, you did not get into business to fail. You got into business to be successful. Because a strategic plan is forward-thinking and future-based, it requires several steps to create. Here is a breakdown of what those steps are:
Step 1 – Mission and Vision Definition
The first step of this process is to define and document what you see as the future of your business. This vision will become your mission statement.
Step 2 – Assessment
Now you have to identify the strategic position of your business. This will involve some research with data coming from various sources within your business. Part of this assessment will require a thorough SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. Five forces influence the competitive strategy of your company. They are:
- Competitive rivalry
- Supplier power
- Buyer power
- Threat of substitution
- Threat of new entry
Including these forces can help in creating an accurate strategic plan.
Step 3 – Projections
Using the information gathered from the previous steps, and the findings and conclusions you have arrived at, you now have to determine the value of your company through financial forecasting. Your forecast can either be one with initial anticipated measurable results or one that is based upon ROI (return on investment).
Step 4 – Direction Setting
This is where you set the business goals and objectives. The idea here is to be specific rather than general and over-ambitious. You want to have objectives that are attainable but also ones that have the most impact.
Step 5 – Objective Creation
Here is the place you will be creating strategic objectives and initiatives. There are tools to help with the identification of conditions that breed success. They include the following factors:
- Financial
- Customer satisfaction
- Internal processes
- Learning and growth
Step 6 – Stakeholder Alignment
The success of a strategic plan rests with how committed the business is to include all staff and employees in the execution. When an employee feels connected to a plan, they are more likely to work together to pull the company in line with the overall vision and business plan.
Step 7 – Mapping The Strategy
Because we are typically visual learners, a map illustrates the path to follow. It should outline the cause and effect of around a dozen different strategic objectives. The map provides an easy way to follow what needs to happen to reach the goals.
Step 8 – Determine Initiatives
After strategic objectives are created, strategic initiatives are formed. The initiatives are the actions that are required to push your business towards the company goals. Factors ranging from budget, scope, employee training, product development, and increasing brand awareness can influence those initiatives.
Step 9 – Formulate Measurement Tools
The establishment of benchmarks provides a measurement to track progress on each goal. Each benchmark is a timeframe. Based on the company goals, key performance indicators (KPIs) are then assigned. The purpose of KPIs is that they align the performance and productivity of workers with the long-term strategic goals.
Step 10 – Evaluate Performance
The final step in the process is where the plan is assessed to determine if it was successful. The assessment will look at activity measurements and progress made towards goals and permits the opportunity to fine-tune or alter plans and objectives to improve the final results.
A Business Coach Can Help You Reach Your Business Goals
Action Coach Business Coaching is your small business coach in Brisbane. Contact ACBC today for assistance with creating your strategic plan. If your goal is business growth, business coaching services in Brisbane can get you there. For details, call ACBC today.
Conclusion
To find success in business, in today’s highly competitive marketplace, you need a plan. However, your business plan will work better if you have a strategic plan that outlines how your business goals are going to be met. The best way to determine how successful you are with hitting your business targets, your strategic plan has to contain tools for measurement. Plus, everyone within the business must be on board for the plan to work properly. There are many things to consider when you are looking at building your business. A business coach can help you focus on just that.