Making the Most of Your Strategic Plan

One of the cornerstones of the E-Myth philosophy is the need for strategic planning. The fact is that most small businesses fail to grow because they lack a strategic plan to realize their vision. And if that were not distressing enough, another fact that plays a part in this failure is the lack of effective implementation once a plan is developed.

When considering your strategic plan, the first question you must answer is what, exactly, do you want to accomplish? Once that has been determined you will then need to develop your strategy for making it happen. As the old adage goes, “Plan your work and work your plan.”

Planning Your Work

For a small business, a strategic plan is essentially a step by step guide to map out how it will reach goals and objectives. It starts with a vision of what the business will be and how it will function in the near future, typically 3 to 5 years out. The plan also serves as a systematic management tool for implementing the strategies. The goal is to integrate every aspect of the business into a systemic approach for achieving the vision of the business.

Although individual strategic plans may differ in some of the details, here are 10 basic elements that should be part of every plan:

• Define your mission, your vision and your values
• Conduct an analysis and resource assessment
• Establish your goals and objectives
• Determine your strategies for accomplishing your objectives
• Conduct your action planning
• Create your organization and staffing plan
• Develop an operating budget
• Create strategic tools to measure and quantify progress
• Identify the support needed to accomplish your mission
• Communicate your strategic plan to the entire organization

One of the keys to successful strategic planning is to involve everyone in the business, to some degree, in the planning process. Employees are vital to the strength and success of any business enterprise, and the business owner alone cannot effectively run the business – nor carry out the strategic plan.

Working Your Plan

Now that you have your strategic plan, how do you implement it effectively? This is the fate of far too many small businesses – creating a beautiful document that eventually ends up in a file collecting dust while the business stumbles along much as it always had. What’s often missing is effective communication of the vision and strategies to the employees, and the ability to translate strategy into tactics.

Often referred to as action planning or tactical planning, this phase of the strategic planning process is crucial to implementing the overall strategy of the business — for bringing the vision to reality. A tactical plan drives the execution of the strategic plan across the entire organization. As each department completes their action plans to work “on” the business, they accelerate the success of the strategic plan.

A tactical plan essentially lays out the plans and procedures for getting to the defined strategy. It will involve the scheduling of immediate or short-term activities that  are required to achieve the objectives of strategic planning. For example, let’s say your strategic plan is to become a market leader in gourmet organic foods. The tactical plan might include hiring a well-known chef as the brand ambassador for the company, setting up a retail store in an upscale area of the city, and obtaining an organic food certification.

Aside from the specific plans for each function of the business, documented procedures and systems will be required to ensure their effective implementation. The tactical plan might specify the following:

• The goal, or result, to be accomplished
• How the goals will be achieved
• How these goals contribute to the overall strategic goals
• Timelines for achieving the goals

Leadership and Communication

It is true for professional sports and it is true for a successful business: if an objective is to be reached and the strategic plan carried out for reaching that objective, then someone has to “be in charge” and everyone needs to know the “game plan”.

The bulk of the leadership role in many small businesses falls upon the owner or owners. The bottom line, whether it is the owner, a manager, or a key employee, is this: someone must take the reins for seeing the strategic plan through to completion. And a large part of the accountability for that leader is implementing and orchestrating effective communications with everyone involved. Having a communications strategy is essential for the successful implementation of a strategic plan and the subsequent tactical plans.

According to an article in the Graziado Business Report published by Pepperdine University, the following keys are critical for a communications strategy:

• Developing a big-picture communications strategic goal. You mission or vision statement will be helpful here.
• Clearly defining your communications objectives. These may change over time or in some areas, so appropriate adjustments will need to be made.
• Identifying critical communications tactics. Ask the question, “What do you want to get where?” This can provide data for feedback and evaluation.
• Creating a feedback system. Real-time information of progress compared to objectives will allow for needed adjustments or improvements.

A strategic plan is essential to the success of any business, but how it gets implemented will determine how successful the business becomes. Having a clear vision isn’t enough – you must also have clear objectives, a strategy for attaining them, and the tactics and communications to see it through.

Share Your Story

Do you have a strategic plan? How do you communicate that plan and keep on track. Post a comment and tell us about it.

We Can Help You Get There

One of the most common frustrations we hear from our clients is that they can’t seem to get their head out of the business long enough to work on the strategic planning that’s so important to the ultimate success of their businesses. If you’re one of those business owners, we invite you to contact us today for a free Business Consultation and to learn more about working with an E-Myth Business Coach.