EFFECTIVE POINTS TO DEVELOPING LONG-TERM

BUSINESS PLANS

1. DEFINE YOUR COMPANY VISION

You should be able to define your company vision in 100 words.
Develop this statement and make it publically available to both
employees and customers.This statement should answer the key
questions that drive your business: Where is your company headed?
What do you want your company to be? If you don’t know the
answer to these questions off the top of your head, then you have
some thinking to do! If you have the answers in your head, but not
on paper—get writing.If you have them written down, congrats!
You’ve completed the first and most critical step in creating a long-
term strategic plan.

2. DEFINE YOUR PERSONAL VISION

While your personal vision is just as important to your strategic plan,
it does not need to be shared with your team and customers. Your
personal vision should incorporate what you want your business to
bring to your life—whether that’s enormous growth, early
retirement, or simply more time to spend with family and friends.
Aligning your personal vision with your company vision is key to
achieving your personal and professional goals. Just as with your
company vision, have your personal vision written down in a 100-
word statement. Know that statement inside and out and keep it at
the forefront of your decision making.
3. KNOW YOUR BUSINESS
Conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats)
analysis. By knowing where your business is now, you can make
more informed predictions for how it can grow. Questions such as
“Why is this business important?” and “What does this business do
best?” are a great place to start. A SWOT analysis can also help you
plan for making improvements. Questions such as “What needs
improvement?” and “What more could the business be doing?” can
help guide your strategic plan in a way that closes gaps and opens up
opportunities.

4. ESTABLISH SHORT-TERM GOALS

Short-term goals should include everything you (realistically) want to
achieve over the next 36 months. Goals should be “S.M.A.R.T.”
(specific, measurable, actionable, reasonable, and timely). An
example of S.M.A.R.T. goals include “building out a new product or
service within the next year” or “increasing net profit by 2 percent in
ten months.” If you’ve already conducted a SWOT analysis, you
should have an idea of what your business can reasonably achieve
over a specified period of time.

5. OUTLINE STRATEGIES
Strategies are the steps you’ll take to meet your short-term goals. If
the short term goal is “build out a new product or service,” the
strategies might be:
 Researching competitor offerings
 Getting in touch with vendors and suppliers
 Formulating a development plan
 Outlining a marketing and sales plan for the new offering

6. CREATE AN ACTION PLAN

An action plan is an essential part of the business planning and
strategy development process. The best analysis, in-depth market
research, and creative strategizing are pointless unless they lead to
action. An action plan needs to be a working document; it must be
easy to change and update. But, must also be specific about what
you’re doing, when you will do it, who will be accountable, what
resources will be needed, and how that action will be measured.
Action plans put a process to your strategies.

7. FOSTER STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION

To align your team, you must communicate strategically. Results-
driven communication focuses conversations and cuts out excessive
meetings. Every communication should be rooted in a specific goal.
Include the how, where, when, and most importantly why every time
you deliver instructions, feedback, updates, and so on.

8. REVIEW AND MODIFY REGULARLY

Check in regularly to make sure you’re progressing toward your
goals. A weekly review of your goals, strategies, and action plans can
help you see if you need to make any modifications. Schedule time in
your calendar for this. Weekly check-ins allow you to reassess your
plan in light of any progress, setbacks, or changes.

9. HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE

Having a business coach or mentor is great for this. If you have a
hard time sticking to your plans, you’ll have an equally hard time
meeting your goals. According to The Alternative Board’s September
2015 Business Pulse Survey, the number one reason business owners
choose to work with mentors is accountability.

10. BE ADAPTABLE
Remember: You can’t plan for everything. Just as challenges will
arrive, so too will opportunities, and you must be ready at a
moment’s notice to amend your plan. Weekly reviews will help
enormously with this. “A strategic plan will likely need to be changed
very soon after approval because nobody can accurately predict
anything but the very near term future,” says Jim Morris, owner and
President of The Alternative Board, Tennessee Valley. “You stay
adaptable by monitoring the plan every day. The wise leader will be
constantly looking for opportunities to exceed the strategic plan by
being opportunistic, creative, and by exploiting weaknesses in the
competitive market.” It’s important to be adaptable because nothing
stays the same. “It’s more important to be agile and take advantage
of opportunities that weren’t foreseen and make adjustments,” says
Morris. “This and a continuous improvement mindset is the best way
to exceed plan goals.”

11. CREATE A STRATEGIC PLANNING TEAM

As a business owner, you should never feel like you have to do
everything alone. A strategic planning team can help with every
phase of the process, from creating a company vision to adapting
your strategy week-to-week. Compose your team of key
management staff and employees—some visionaries and some
executors. If you think you’re “too busy” for start strategic planning,
then you need strategic planning more than you know. Having a
focused plan allows you to focus your energies, so you’re working on
your business, rather than in it. As a business owner, it is your
responsibility to steer the ship, not put out day-to-day fires.