Strategic Planning for SME’s and Non-Profits

If you’re not doing this for your business, you need to for your future.

You’ve probably heard that Strategic Planning is usually a long process – 2-3 months. What we’re suggesting for small business is to try our approach, as it can be a case of reserving just a few days to complete the tasks.

We suggest starting with your current versions of Mission statement and Business Objectives. Your Mission statement should be concise, 1 or 2 sentences: what your business does, what makes it unique or its customer value and how you will operate in the future. Your Objectives are what you intend to accomplish – usually a high-level series of statements.

The first task is to complete PESTLE, essentially an analysis of the environment in which you operate. PESTLE templates can be found on the internet and cover the key areas of:

Political: policies, restrictions

Economic: taxation, inflation, interest rates

Social: demographics, consumer opinions

Technology: disruptions, trends

Legal: laws, regulations

Environmental: staff attitudes, customer values, market value

From this, you will decide on what are the KEY PESTLE assumptions that will affect your business. These will be derived from both factors affecting industry and affecting your business – what are the definitive impacts on your business.

The next task is to complete SWOT analysis, which is much harder as it requires brutal objectivity on your part. SWOT templates can be found on the internet. Complete your Strengths and Weaknesses. These are items that are related to the market in which you operate and they are all INTERNAL impactors.

Strengths: focus on what you are doing well, what product is successful, your advantages, your capabilities and your unique selling points, the strength of your people, of your know-how, assets – whatever makes you stand out.

Weaknesses: what you know you are not so good at, what your product lacks in feature, capability, design, etc….what you know a competitor is doing better than you.

Now complete your Opportunities and Threats. These are items that are related to the market in which you operate and they are all EXTERNAL impactors.

Opportunities: in this SWOT item you see what your company or product could gain by entering new or other markets, partnerships, technologies, influence, territories.

Threats: this last item from the SWOT matrix is important because it lists the factors that are dangerous for you. Focus on those that could put your company or product in danger

From this, you will decide on what are the KEY SWOT assumptions that will affect your business. Focus particularly on your Opportunities and Threats, as these affect the market in which you operate.

Next, decide on whether any analysis from the PESTLE and SWOT analyses change your mission statement.

As a last step and most importantly, create your KEY Objectives, based on your key PESTLE and SWOT assumptions. These should number 3-5 objectives and are high level statements that will be expanded in detail when you create your Goals, your tactical plan.

Strategic planning should not be an onerous task. We believe our approach helps to simplify an important process for small business owners. If you need additional advice, or an experienced perspective to review your plan, please contact the Business Advisory Group.