What is the Point of Doing Strategic Planning?

Strategic Planning

"A big business starts small." -- Richard Branson

So, what is the point of doing strategic planning when you are a micro business or small business?

Just in case you are wondering, a micro business is the smallest of the small businesses. So, if it’s you alone or you and less than 10 employees, you are a micro business. You can find more information about micro businesses here.

Just wanted to share a little bit of what are micro businesses before launching in to the main topic of what is the point of strategic planning.

Strategic planning is not only for Fortune 500 companies. Richard Branson said that a “big business starts small.” The key word to focus on is ‘starts’ because as a micro/small business owner. We have a plan to grow and expand the size of your business or we might want to stay small.

Regardless of which one of those we want to do, we need to have a strategy on how we are going to accomplish that. This is where having a strategic plan becomes important.

Lessons that I have learned

I wanted to share a little bit about some lessons that I’ve learned in the past 15 years.

In my experiences working in non-profit and for-profit organizations, I remember getting more things done when we had a shared plan. Especially, when that plan included clear direction on what is that we needed to focus on and where we wanted to go as an organization. That plan also helped us with allocating resources and managing time and personnel.

But I also have experienced when there was a written plan and no one was looking at that plan. This meant that different departments and committees were working towards whatever they thought made sense for their department or committee.

That thing was not always the same across departments and committees. And by ‘thing,’ I am referring to the goal that the departments or committees had. When that misalignment happened, it made it very difficult to figure out where to start and there were so many disagreements that resulted in no progress happening.

Then of course, there was also frustration because when we spend time working on things and never get a chance to implement them, we believe that we wasted or time and became very motivated not to waste our time again.

So having a plan is great, but if all team members are not aware of the plan, then there is no point to having the plan because the plan will not be executed. Which brings me to today’s topic of what is the point of doing strategic planning.

What Is the Point of Strategic Planning?

Let’s start with what strategic planning is not.

The point of strategic planning is not to have a fancy well-designed document to have on a shelf or in a saved file folder on your computer or in the cloud.

The point is also in not just to say that you have done it and check a box to make your Board or investors happy.

It is also not something to only do when you believe that your organization is in big trouble and you want to save it.

The point of strategic planning is to outline the future for our businesses. We get to outline the direction that we want our business to go as well as reduce possible risks/threats to our businesses.

In that outline, we are identifying the goals that we want to accomplish, how we are going to get there, and how will we know when we have achieved those goals.

To engage in effective strategic planning, we need to focus on more than just what we do every day in our businesses. We have to view our micro or small businesses at the organizational or systems level that has several parts.

Then we are looking at how those parts go together efficiently to help us reach those goals and targets that we want. But let me take a step back to the goals part.

The goals that we develop for our organization should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. Think of the SMART acronym when you are developing and reviewing your goals.

Remember at the beginning, I mentioned that you might be a micro or a small business owner who wants to stay your current size or you want to grow to a specific size.

When you take the time to engage in strategic planning, you will be better able at navigating that growth effectively.

5 Reasons to Do Strategic Planning

So, the point of doing strategic planning in our businesses is to help us get the direction that we want for our business to grow. With knowing that direction, we:

1. Build our competitive advantage

2. Prioritize our financial resources

3. Identify the actions that will actually help our business to grow

4. Allow staff and team members to communicate and collaborate to get things done for the common goals

5. Give ourselves structure and reduce uncertainty

These are some of the main points to why we need to be doing strategic planning. As you engage in strategic planning, you get to also learn the things that are important for your organization, what to avoid, and what to ignore.

We aim to answer three questions that are related to the point of doing strategic planning. Our strategic plans typically cover the next 3 to 5 years for our businesses, so don’t become impatient when things are not improving in just one day.

If you are the sole person in your business, then you can choose to do your strategic planning by yourself or with a business coach.

If you have less than 10 team members, you should be including your team members in the strategic planning because there will be parts of the planning that relates to their functions in the organization. Plus, they can help keep the plan realistic. You and your team can also choose to work with a business coach who can help facilitate the strategic planning with your team.

Summary

Don’t rush your strategic planning process.

When you are done with your strategic planning, don’t forget to implement the plan and monitor that implementation!

If you are ready to start creating the strategic plan for your business, submit your coaching application and see if you qualify for a customized coaching program to meet your specific needs.

Thank you for taking the time to read my article.

Regards,

Dr. Priscilla "Dr. P" Kucer

Solutions+Actions=Results! (SoAR!)