Features

• Strategic planning begins with a detailed and factual SWOT analysis in which you identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats inherent in your business. Apply SWOT analysis to your individual departments and projects, too. This will give you information you need for your strategic planning. Scenario analysis, in which you postulate different situations and create plans for operating within those situations, is an important feature of strategic planning. A good strategic plan prepares you for handling best case, worst case and neutral situations. Competition analysis helps you to create strategies that deal with the strengths and weaknesses of your competition. Operations analysis is aimed at creating efficiencies and cutting costs. All of this information and the resulting solutions and action items is what makes up your strategic plan.
  
  

Significance

• Your strategic plan is a roadmap to fulfilling your business plan. It is a description of how you will achieve successful, profitable business operations and grow your business in the most rewarding direction. Even if you have a small home-based business, you can benefit from doing a strategic plan because it will help you to plan your budget and optimize your time. It may even give you some ideas for different revenue streams and synergistic partnerships with other business owners.
  
  

Time Frame

• Appropriate times for strategic planning are at the end of the year when you are thinking about how you are going to grow your business the following year. Quarterly updates to your strategic plan are also appropriate because, no matter how careful you are in your planning process, you can never accurately predict all the surprises that will arise during the year.
  
  

Function

• Do not obsess over your strategic planning project. It is intended to assist you in running your business, not take up so much of your time that you have nothing left to devote to your daily work needs. If you have partners and employees, involve them in the project because the strategic planning process is a great way to encourage communication and cooperation among your employees and thereby improve company spirit while improving business performance.
  
  

Considerations

• Going through the process of creating a strategic plan is a waste of time unless you actually write down the plan, create benchmarks and refer to the plan on a regular basis. It is intended to guide you in your business development activities, and appropriate components of the plan should be known by all employees. Keep secret only those strategies that deal with production efficiencies, product development and competitive tactics.