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How to Create a Strategic Plan [ 18+ Templates to Download]
No matter what kind of business or organization you’re running, it is important for you to know its current state in the industry. Whether you think it’s failing or succeeding, you’ll need to know what actions need to be taken in order to keep moving forward. You may also see Plan Samples.
And that is why it is important for you to be able to come up with a strategic business plan. This article will teach you all that you need to know in order for you to be able to come up with one that’s beneficial for you, your employees, and the entire business or organization itself.
3 Steps for Making a Strategic Plan
Step 1: Know Your Vision and Mission
The best way to see whether or not your business is doing what it’s supposed to be doing is by going over its mission and vision statement. This is the first step to making a strategic plan document and it’s one that you shouldn’t skip out.
The mission is meant to describe the purpose of your organization. Basically, it points out why your business exists and what it’s willing to offer. There are some cases where it even points out who it intends to serve. Is your business actually following its own mission statement? That’s a question that you’ll need to answer to see if things are going in the right direction.
As for the vision statement, it’s there for clarifying the future that you want your business to have. It’s also there to clarify the values of your business and its core beliefs. Take a good look around and see if your business is heading towards the future that you’ve envisioned for it.
Step 2: Do a SWOT Analysis
Next is for you to gain even more information on the business you’re running and managing. In order for you to know where it currently stands in the industry, you’ll need to conduct a proper SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that surround your business.
When looking into your business’s strengths, you’ll want to make of the list of the things that it’s doing right or exceptionally well. This can be anything from customer service to even the products it offers.
For its weaknesses, it’s the complete opposite. What do you think your business is doing wrong that’s holding it back from success? Do a thorough assessment of the different aspects of your business to figure it out.
Opportunities are things that you’ll definitely need to be aware of. See which ones your business should take and if you have the necessary strengths and resources to tackle them.
And lastly, you’ll need to have a good understanding of the threats that could potentially shut down your business. This usually comes in the form of rivaling businesses that you’ll need to be wary of. All you have to do is to gather information on them in order for you to know how to deal with them.
Step 3: Create Your Strategic Plan
When you’ve fully understood the situation that your business is in, then the next thing to do is to develop the strategic plan. Here are the things that you will need to do:
- Develop both short term and long term goals: Both convert your strategic objectives into specific performance targets. You’ll want to make them as clear as possible so that you’ll know what it is that your business should accomplish and how it should be accomplished. Take note that each goal should be specific, measurable, and it should show who’s responsible for reaching it.
- Create action items: These are steps that need to be done in order to achieve the goals you have set. You will need to properly define these as well to ensure that they’re done right and on time.
- Come up with a scorecard: The purpose of a scorecard is to help measure and manage your strategic plan. Point out the key indicators that will help you keep track of your business’s capability of achieving its mission and vision.
Once you’re done, all that’s left is to execute the strategic plan you’ve made. Be sure to identify who manages the plan and how it’s supposed to be communicated and supported.
Even a church needs to know the direction in which it needs to head. If you want to make sure that the church you’re operating is one that knows its mission and vision well, then you should make use of this template to help you create a proper church strategic plan.
There are instances wherein you don’t want your strategic plan to be too long or consist of too much detail. If you want to make a summary of your entire plan, then you will definitely want to make use of this one-page strategic action plan template to help you create one.
Even school plans need some form of direction to ensure that they’re done right. Otherwise, just allowing it to operate without knowing how well it’s doing could eventually lead to its downfall. To know exactly where your school stands and what you can do in order to further improve it, then you this school strategic plan template should be helpful.
18+ Strategic Plan Templates
Strategic Plan Template
Design Strategic Plan Template
Organizational Strategic Plan Template
High-Level Strategic Plan Template
Church Strategic Plan Template
One Page Strategic Action Plan
Startup Strategic Plan Template
Recruitment Strategic Plan Template
Security Strategic Plan Template
Small Business Strategic Plan Template
School Strategic Plan Example
Real Estate / Property Strategic Plan Template
Strategic Marketing Plan Template
University Strategic Plan Template
A marketing plan cannot be easily made unless you know exactly how you should go about in its creation. With this strategic marketing plan template, you’ll take note of things such as who your intended target audience should be, if your current strategies are successfully reaching out to them, the different strategies being implemented and so on.
Social Media Strategy Plan Sample
Tourism Strategic Plan Template
If you intend to market your products, services, or even your business via social media, then you’ll need to develop a plan that will allow you to effectively do so. This social media strategic plan template can help you come up with a document that will give you an idea as to how you should go about using social media wisely.
30 60 90 Days Strategic Action Plan
If your business has a goal that it needs to reach within the next 30, 60, or 90 days, then you’ll definitely need this template. It will allow you to come up with a strategic plan which guarantees that you are able to do what needs to be done within the required period of time that they need to be.
Strategic Communication Plan Template
Communication is key no matter what kind of business you are running. Sometimes it’s difficult figuring out what can be done in order for everyone to know who they need to talk and how they can do so properly. So if you are in need of coming up with a plan which improves your business’s communication, then you should use this template to help you create one.
Strategic Planning Guide for Managers
Being a business manager means the responsibility of having to come up with a strategic plan. So if you’re a manager who is having trouble coming up with a strategic plan or if you just want to improve the current one, then this template should help guide you into making one that’s both effective and efficient.
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