How to Develop a Simple Strategic Plan
Jen Drago 
Many solopreneurs avoid strategic planning but it is a necessary ingredient to ensure success. We provide a simple process to get started.
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If you're a solopreneur, are you so busy working in your business every day that you're not really working on your business? Are you immersed in daily chaos so that you really can't see the forest for the trees?
I'm going to share some strategies to keep you laser-focused on growing your business and moving it forward.
In my corporate career, I've worked with big and small companies for almost 30 years helping them to create a strategic vision and then execute on that vision. And I can tell you as a solopreneur, this is a step that many solo entrepreneurs don't do because frankly, they think they don't have the time. They're wearing all the hats, and they don't always see the benefit.
I can tell you that having a road map that guides your strategy will move you light years ahead of where you would otherwise.
For example, I worked with a small nonprofit that was really struggling. They were struggling for enough volunteers, to find board members who would stay with them, to raise enough money so that they could hire paid staff, to have the equipment and the productivity and efficiency that they needed to move forward as a nonprofit and be successful in serving the community.
Once we laid out their vision narrative and set goals for them, their strategy became crystal clear and they were able to leverage their resources that they had (both staff and volunteer) to move that organization forward. I think the same is very true of your own business.
I want to tell you how to get started in creating a strategic plan. Believe me, I've heard all the horror stories about strategic planning and goal setting. It can be overwhelming. What does it look like? We're going to simplify it right here. It does not need to be difficult.
Three Myths about Strategic Plans for Solopreneurs
First, let's bust some of the excuses and the myths. As solopreneurs, we say that we don't have enough time and that's true. There are so many things to do when you're wearing all the hats and you're the leader of the organization – You are doing everything from working with clients to doing your own marketing, social media, etcetera. It can be overwhelming.
The key to growing your business and moving it forward and possibly even being able to hire a team, if that's what you wish to do, really is putting your actions in the right place. You’ve probably heard of the Pareto Principle which says that 80% of the outcomes are dictated by 20% of the inputs.
It follows then that your actions have to be focused on the right activities so that you can gain that momentum and get that 80% of the outcomes that you want to achieve. If you do that, a lack of time isn’t that much of a barrier, right Because you can actually work less and achieve more if you're working on the right things. That myth is BUSTED.
Second, you may not know where to start in creating a strategic plan. I understand that, if you've never been through this process, it can be overwhelming to think about, especially if you don't know the steps to create a strategic plan. I'm going to walk you through the steps, but we have lots of resources on the Peak to Profit website, where you can learn more on your own time or in a guided module with us (coming soon). Myth number two is BUSTED.
The third myth is a feeling that maybe your business is different. You may have thought, “how do I know this will work for me? I've never tried this before, I can't be certain that I should invest the time and learning necessary to create a strategic plan.”
I can simplify it for you and make it so easy. As someone who has done this work for three decades now. I know that you can't run a business effectively without a strategic plan, especially if you have growth goals. If you want to scale, if you want to move forward, you need to have the vision and the roadmap to get there. Myth three is BUSTED.
What Will Happen if I Don’t Have a Strategic Plan?
Well, I bet if I look back a year from now, you're going to be in the exact same place that you are today. Probably still feeling chaotic, a little burned out, working on ALL the things, not knowing where to focus each and every day. Your days will continue to feel scattered and you will continue to feel overwhelmed because there is so much to do.
Simple Steps to Create a Strategic Plan
So now that we've talked about what would happen if you didn't have a strategic plan, let's talk about how simple it can be to create one.
The first thing that you want to craft for your organization is a vision narrative. You've probably heard of a vision statement. A vision narrative is different, in that it’s a little bit longer and more descriptive, but it's much more helpful to you in the long run.
A vision narrative is a set of 6-10 sentences that are very descriptive and articulate what your organization will look like in the future, usually three years or five years from now. If you want more information on how to create a vision narrative, watch this video. There is also a free download available on our website.
When you've created that vision narrative, your portrait of your business in the future, it becomes your destination. Now, you have to start to craft the roadmap to get there.
We're going to work in annual periods, looking first at the next four quarters. Our goals will always look forward to the coming four quarters because we don’t want to only look at our strategic plan once a year. It needs to be a quarterly planning process so that you can adjust to changing market conditions and your environment.
Looking at the next four quarters, ask yourself, what goals should we have in the next four quarters that will move us toward that vision of the organization in the future? Generally, you want to think of goals that focus in four specific areas:
- Sales/Revenue: The first one would be your monetary goals -- sales, revenues, contributions, depending on your business.
- Products: Many solopreneurs are product-based businesses, whether it's digital products or physical products. Will you be adding new products or changing your product mix in the coming year?
- Human Resources: As you grow or perhaps in order to grow, you may need to start contracting or hiring members on your team to assist you.
- Operations: How do your operations need to change to support your growth? Do you need to look for productivity improvements or expense reductions? Can you streamline through standardization, systems, and batching?
For each of those four categories, you want to ask yourself, what is something that I could achieve in the next year, over the next four quarters, that would move me toward my destination?
Then in each of those categories, you want to get a little more granular and add 3 or so objectives that will help you achieve the goal. For example, say on the revenue goal that you want to triple your revenues or quadruple your revenues over the next three years, you can break that revenue growth down into an annual goal for the first year, thinking about what do I need to generate in revenue in the coming year? What does that look like in terms of sales clients, my conversion rate, etc.?
So each of the four goals should have three or so objectives that you can accomplish in the upcoming four quarters that are going to move you forward. When you're done, you're going to have in the neighborhood of 9-12 key objectives that fall under each of those goal areas.
There you have it. That is the basis of a true simplified strategic plan.
Now a few caveats:
- Putting your goals in the correct format is important. A well-crafted goal will help you be successful in directing your actions. We won’t go into detail here, but make sure that your goals are SMART – specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic, and time-limited. A simple Google search will tell you how to do this.
- Having a strategic plan is a great place to start but please understand that execution is more than half of the battle. Once you have the plan, you have to revisit the plan weekly and work the plan. Subscribe to our newsletter to be kept informed of all the research and tips that we bring you to help you execute your plan.
- 3. There are additional tools that can help you know if you are on track including dashboards, both strategic dashboards and operational dashboards, to track your execution on a weekly basis and to analyze your performance. That's all part of our PEAK formula. PEAK stands for planning, execution, analysis, and knowledge. Stay tuned to our content and you will always have the best and brightest tools in your entrepreneurial toolbox.
I hope that you enjoyed this primer on how to build your simplified strategic plan because it is the first step in ensuring your future success. Zig Ziglar, a famous business author and motivational speaker, once said that a well-crafted goal is already half achieved. Congratulations to you on taking this important first step today!