It’s often the last step a company and management will complete before starting out in business or beginning a project, however it’s the strategic planning that forms the backbone of what you will achieve.
People get caught in the now without looking forward and working out what steps are needed to achieve success. It’s easy not to put time aside in developing a plan when there is so much to do.
We all get caught up in the day to day without spending time looking at the big picture. From my experience, without a map, there is no destination, no road to get there, no coherent driver at the wheel and passengers looking out the window with no sense of direction.
Once you develop a plan that works, then the complication is reduced, and the company or project wheel begins to spin quicker.
There are 6 steps that I use to structure a coherent strategic plan and I have always feel that these points make it easy to get ahead:
- Start at the end, paint a picture of where you want to get too. It’s like the big picture, that you want to achieve and by what date. It might be a dollar figure it might be a vision of the future or it might be to create a legacy for others to follow.
- Then go back to the beginning. Where are you are right now and what results have you achieved so far. This becomes your base to grow from that point onwards.
- Next, work out what do you want to achieve in the next 3 months, who is going to work on what, how are you going to measure the results. It’s very important to recognise if things are not going well, so that you can redirect at an early stage with minimal impact.
- From at that point work on what you want to achieve and how it will be implemented in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years and 10 year increments and at each stage who will help, how will you measure, what resources are needed.
- Don’t keep the plan to yourself, share with staff and all stake holders including your bank and other third parties. It also validates to all parties that you have a plan and you know what you’re doing.
- Keep it up to date as things do change, who would have thought Covid was coming and the impact that it has had on business around the world. Your strategic plan is a living document and one that forms the backbone of the company and it continually evolves.
Take the time to create a strategic plan right from the outset of your business idea or the project you are working on. I find companies and people that have created a plan achieve their goals quicker. Take the time to talk to a professional that has gone through this process before as they know what to do.
