How to Get Started with Strategic Planning

In April 1992, while working as the business manager for a struggling manufacturing company, our part-time graphic designer asked me to help her with a freelance project -- a print newsletter for a retail florist. I jumped at the chance, restless to get back into creative work.

We developed two consecutive issues and the florists’ customers loved it. But then the shop owner announced he was out of money and canned the project. I thought it had merit on a bigger scale, so I contacted the floral industry associations to ask if anyone was producing a newsletter for retailers. As soon as I heard the word no I started brainstorming a four-page, semi-custom newsletter. Within a few weeks we had the sample issue and pricing sheets ready to go and submitted small classified ads to the association publications. Then I waited for the phone to ring.

Nice plan, huh?

In spite of my inexperience as a business owner and a complete and total lack of planning, I left my job a few months later, determined to make the company work. Six years later we had a solid base of clients – florists and other small companies -- and I sold the business. I then spent four years (in marketing) with a promotional products supplier before going back into business on my own.

This go-round, strategic planning has been a big part of how I/we operate. It’s helped ensure that we identify and take advantage of appropriate opportunities in the marketplace as they arise. What follows are some of the guidelines we found most useful.

Set up a planning team. Whether you work by yourself or you’ve got a small staff, your business will benefit from partnering with a diverse group of outsiders. Strive to have every aspect of the company represented (e.g., marketing, financial, sales). Invite suppliers and colleagues who bring expertise to the table in ways you don’t. One of our clients provides therapeutic services to infants and children up to age 12. I know little about their field, but as a member of their advisory board I’m still able to contribute useful communications/marketing ideas.

Explain to the group that the objective is to look at the company now, discuss where you want it to be down the road, and plan how to get there from where you are today.

Meet at regular intervals. There will always be sales to worry about, production fires to put out, customer service issues to address (not many, hopefully), marketing communications to develop, financial reports to generate… and so on. But strategic planning is still critical. The biggest benefit lies in redirecting your attention from tasks and projects to opportunities. To take this activity seriously, your planning team needs to feel their participation and ideas are valued. Whether you meet quarterly or monthly, stick to a schedule. And be certain to prepare and distribute agendas in advance of each meeting to allow participants sufficient thinking time.

Give participants leeway. It’s your business and you probably think you know best – possibly about everything! But you don’t want participants to feel you are trying to lead them in a certain direction. If your budget doesn’t allow you to hire a facilitator, appoint someone in the group who doesn’t have a stake in your success. He or she will be comfortable asking difficult questions. It will be good for you to be in the hot seat now and then, forced to consider ideas or matters you may have cast aside previously. Be certain the leader understands that you want active participation by all; no one person should dominate the meetings (including you).

All plans must be actionable. I admit I’ve walked away from a few meetings over the years unsure of where to begin with some of the items I was asked to implement. Make sure your strategic planning meetings result in specific goals, the steps required to achieve them, deadlines, and the assignment of responsibility and accountability. All participants must understand their role in the process.

Be prepared to change the plan. Decisions your team makes at one meeting may need to be changed at the next depending on what’s happening in the marketplace. Accept that you may put effort into an initiative that is later set aside.

Once you get started with strategic planning, you’re certain to see all kinds of benefits. For starters, there will be relief in knowing you have a plan and direction. It’s also rewarding to track the implementation of initiatives – some of which may have floated around in your head for a long time that you weren’t able to execute on your own.

You’ll find that you operate more effectively as a company, too. And if you have employees, you’ll discover that they feel they are part of a more professional organization – one that has gone to the effort to identity where it wants to go and made the commitment to get there.

Cathy Cain-Blank of CC Marketing is a periodic contributor to the Maple Ridge Farms blog. Her company creates email communications and online resources for promotional products distributors and other small/midsize businesses.