Five keys to creating a great business plan

Five keys to creating a great business plan

If you look at any successful organisation that has had continued and prolonged success, one of the key contributors to that success was a great business plan.

Here are five keys to creating an effective business plan that will guide you to business success.

1. Think from your goals

It is really important to plan from your goals, not from where you are.

If you plan from where you currently are, your plan will be based on what you think is possible: you will plan based on your current number of customers, your current team, your current skills. If you plan from now you will likely get similar results that you are getting now.

Instead, plan from the future, from your goals. That way you plan from what you want to achieve and work backwards.

2. Focus on what is important

Planning is about priorities and choosing the critical few. In order to succeed it is best to focus on the 20% of tasks/actions that are going to get you 80% of the results.

Plans don’t need to be perfectly detailed, but it’s important that they contain the details that matter.

If you plan from now you will likely get similar results that you are getting now. Instead, plan from what you want to achieve and work backwards.

3. Plan for execution

A plan is not some conceptual tool; it is a practical, applicable, executable tool. So you want to plan for execution.

Ensure you outline who is going to take on what task, or plan where you may need to grow your team or change your team.

Outline what resources are required.

Plan for what could go wrong or get in the way and create safeguards or alternatives to combat those obstacles.

Your plan needs to be executable. I use a simple one-page-plan format with all my clients, which takes their five-year goals down to the next 12 months, which is broken down further to the next 90 days.

4. Involve the whole team

When planning, it is important to include all the major players in your business.

This gives you more ideas and input, and also allows you to best anticipate obstacles and not overlook certain important details that need to be planned for.

It also allows your team to take ownership of the plan and they will be much more likely to follow it and execute their tasks without question.

5. Review your plan regularly

I’ve seen too many businesses create plans and then never look at them again. It is important that your plan does not just sit on a shelf.

Break it down into quarterly actions and then into weekly actions. This gives you a specific week-by-week plan to follow.

Then make sure to review it as you go to account for any changes that happen, or add any detail that you overlooked initially.

In fact, I get all my clients together every 90 days to review and reset their plan.

If you follow these five tips you will have a clear, executable plan to follow.

Rueben Taylor, business mentor, educator businesswealtheducators.com.au