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How to prepare a simple and powerful strategic business plan in one day (Part 1)
By Andrew Smith | September 29, 2008
Many business owners/managers know in their heart that their business or organisation would be more successful if they had a clear business plan to work to.
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But for many there is a problem.
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The problem is the perceived time and effort that would be required to produce an effective business plan.
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Problem solved!
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The purpose of this three-part article is to present
you with a simple, common-sense method to prepare a business plan that will do two things:
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(1) Show you how to get clear on what your business or organisation would look like if it was performing effectively
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(2) Show you how to translate this information into the needed action steps to translate the vision into reality.
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The Big Picture
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So let’s get started with an overview on how the preparation of a
business plan can be made both simple and effective.
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The “Functional” approach
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Explanation: For any business or organisation to be successful, it must be “functional” in its core business capabilities.
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Let me clarify what is meant by “functional” core business capability as it relates to your business or organisation.
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For a typical commercial business, these functions could be Marketing (or Sales & Marketing), Customer Service, Team (or Human Resource),
Financial Management, Administration and Asset Management.
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Some refer to these functions as “Key Business Activities”.
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For a non-profit organisation, most or all of the above functions will
be required, but the terminology may vary.
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For example, the term “marketing” may be inappropriate for some
operations, but there may be a definite requirement for “Members
Communications”. So the term “Marketing” would be replaced by “Member Communications” or “Client Communications”.
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The fundamental logic of this functional approach is as follows:
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If you are highly “functional” in all of your key business activities,
then the complete business or organisation will be a success.
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A qualification. In some situations the above may be an over
simplification, but mostly it is a truism.
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A Simple 3 Step way to prepare you business plan in one day (or less)
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Part 1 is about vision or goal setting
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Part 2 is about strategy
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Part 3 is about taking action
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(to be continued)
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
February 26th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Great Article; also it’s important to note to write down your financial assumptions as you work through each section of the business plan. Make sure to always keep in focus the material facets of the topics you are contending with. In this way, when you have finished writing the business plan, you will almost have completed the strategic section(s) in unison.
- Derrick
Funded101