Strategic Business Planning: An Entrepreneur Has The Edge In Creating Their Strategic Plan

Strategic Business Planning: An Entrepreneur Has The Edge In Creating Their Strategic Plan

If you have never worked in a corporate role you may not recognize how true the statement was the other day by my good friend Lorrie Morgan Ferrero on her free teleseminar for her new course on copyrighting. On her call Lorrie was referencing a recent engagement where she was speaking to corporate folks and she was amazed at the “hoops they needed to jump through to get anything done”.

Evgeni Dinev / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The majority of entrepreneurs are running either a solo business operation or they have a small group of employees working with them. This permits the entrepreneur to create their strategic business plan in an easier environment and to implement their plan with less challenges. If there are issues there are specifically three:

1. Taking the first step and creating a strategic business plan
   (over 75% of small businesses do not have a strategic plan)
2. Working with an adviser or mentor who is pulling you to aim higher
   (over 80% of executive teams spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy)
3. Having the accountability to stay on course and constantly measure where you are and where you are heading
   (over 85% of organizations do not execute their strategies in a successful manner)

In order to be of service to you and provide you with the type of information you must have to be successful in your business, here are some descriptions of the types of planning which are often utilized in running a business and why they are necessary. This is not a complete list. It is a sampling in order to show the difference in a Strategic Business Plan versus some of the other types of plans which are critical to success as well.

You are welcome and in fact encouraged to add the types of planning you feel are not represented and describe why they are necessary by commenting in the area provided.

A Business Plan – defines the purpose of a business, often includes financial information specifically if being written to obtain funding, describes the legal structure of the business entity, provides a foundation in writing for ideas.

A Financial Plan – describes the money story, includes budgets for past year(s), current year and forecast, especially important if seeking funding.

A Marketing Plan – creates the methods for the business message to get to the outside world specifically to your market, details the chosen areas such as social media (which may have its own plan), direct mail (which may have its own plan), advertising (which may have its own plan) and more.

A Staffing Plan – details the needs of the business to permit growth by hiring or outsourcing personnel for specific purposes and by when, includes the requirements for the roles and more.

An Exit Plan – over 90% of small businesses are privately held and do not have any formal succession plan or exit strategy (http://ventureexitpartners.com)

A Strategic Plan – statements of mission, vision and business focus, a plan of action may be derived from this plan, drives the competitive advantage of your business, the basis of every other plan for your business and more.

These brief descriptions should assist you in your understanding of the value and ease of creating a strategic plan for your business. If you are ready to create your strategic plan for your business or rework your current strategic plan and have an adviser guide you, contact Mitch Tublin at www.thementorguy.com – an expert Business Strategy Consultant.