Seeing the “big picture” and keeping your business on track throughout the year.

A strategic plan is essential for your long term business success and can help you stay on target year after year.  A strategic plan should include a mission statement, or vision, for your company, which expresses in general terms why your company exists and what it should achieve.  Mission statements are usually one to two sentences long and may include any guiding factors for conduct.

After the mission statement, the strategic plan describes the long terms goals.  Since a mission can be achieved in many different ways, these goals explain what will be done in order to achieve the mission.  The goals could include types of products and services, production methods, customer service standards, quality controls, or any other aspect that explains what path the company will take to achieve the mission.  For example, if your company’s mission is to provide quality entertainment venues for tourists in a given area, then there are a number of ways you could go about achieving that.  The goals might state which types of entertainment venues will be addressed, and whether your company will be providing all of those services or partnering with other companies to promote their services for a fee.

A business plan is a good tool you can use to strategically manage your business over the years.  The mission and goals can be included in the business plan, and the business plan contains much more information that will help you run your business.  Your marketing plans, value proposition, cash flow analysis, sales forecasts, and other information can all be kept in one place.  Each month, you can check your sales and expenditures against your forecasts and decide whether you need to make any adjustments.  Every month or quarter, you will want to check that you are on target with the marketing and operational plans that you put into place, and see if you are making progress in achieving your long term goals, and thus, the ultimate mission of your business.  As your business grows, if you ever have to seek out investors or lenders, you will already have comprehensive documentation in place to support those efforts.

The SCWBC has worked with thousands of new business owners to help them write business plans for all kinds of businesses, including service businesses, retail stores, manufacturers, health care operations, construction businesses, and many more.  We have developed a simple business plan template that is designed to capture the most critical information you will need.  If you have never written a business plan, you may want to take advantage of the How to Start Your Business, Step by Step course that the SCWBC offers that teaches you how to write each section of the business plan.  However, our business coaches are happy to work with you one-on-one; and since you are already in business, there may be other issues that we can assist you with as you work on the strategic planning.  Request a consultation with a business coach to get started.

Business Plan Templates

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