How to Formulate and Live By a Business Plan
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A Business Plan is a living, breathing document that is assembled by a skillful business owner or manager with input from all sectors of his or her business. Correctly assembled, the Plan serves as a yardstick of progress in the short, medium, and long term.
The most effective strategic business plans drill down from Vision to Mission to Goals to Tasks to Deadlines. For internal planning purposes, the Plan should project out no more than 18 months, should be examined every six months, and should be rewritten annually.
The best plans are often developed during a specifically scheduled and planned Strategic Planning Session. Depending upon the nature of the company’s management team, an independent and experienced facilitator can be invaluable in developing an effective strategic business plan that pays for itself many times over.
Despite many thoughts to the contrary, it is the small business (i.e. those with fewer than 500 employees) that can reap the most rewards from effective strategic planning. Unfortunately, too many business owners feel that strategic planning is either too expensive or a necessity only for larger enterprises. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Bottom Line: Whether hand written at the kitchen table or developed using word processing and rich media, a Strategic Business Plan can be a business owner’s most valuable tool. What’s more, it works in the real world, not just in business school theory.
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