Strategic Business Plan; What it is and How to Write One

A strategic business plan steers your business amidst the bustle of its daily operations which could distract you from the bigger picture. It ensures that your business growth is not slowed down guiding towards attainment of strategic objectives and the overall business vision.

The process of writing a strategic business plan starts with writing the company description by describing your mission, values and ends with writing the executive summary which provides a preview of your strategic business plan.

Developing an effective strategic business plan involves steps such as assessing your business and performing a SWOT analysis. By assessing your business, you are able to identify its potential growth opportunities while a SWOT analysis identifies business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. 

One of the  advantages of creating a strategic business plan is that it ensures that all departments in your business align with the overall business strategy on a daily basis.

A strategic business plan promotes market research hence ensuring that your business focuses on a particular market niche. This benefit makes your business sales strategy effective. You can hire a professional business plan writer to write your strategic business plan

. Professional business plan writers have the expertise and experience to ensure that your plan meets industry standards. A strategic business plan costs between $2,000 to $25,000. 

What is a strategic business plan?

A strategic business plan is a document which outlines the vision,mission and goals of your business together with a roadmap to achieve the goals. It guides the decision making process of your business by bridging the gap between the present and the future desired. The main purpose of a strategic plan is to build alignment and the decision making capacity of your business in readiness for the future.

Strategic business plan takes into consideration the current business environment, provides insights to the competitive advantages of your business as well as identifying key performance indicators. A strategic business plan focuses on the long term goals of your business and what its priorities should be. You should take on board the opinions of your staff and external stakeholders such as clients so as to create a successful strategic plan.

Key components of a strategic business plan include a mission statement why your business exists. You should connect your mission to the plan because your mission statement is a foundation for your plan and strategy. Your strategic plan should have a vision statement which contains the big objective that the business aspires to attain. It is important to align your mission and vision statements and they should all be connected to your strategic plan.

Another component is strategy which is the specific course of action that the business will take to achieve its goals. Additionally, a strategic plan will have action plans, resource allocation as well as evaluation and controls. Evaluation and controls are based on systems to monitor progress towards achieving the business goals and objectives.

How to write a strategic business plan?

For a strategic plan to be effective, it must be properly written. Before embarking on writing one, it’s crucial to know the basics that you should cover. This is known as preplanning where you gather necessary data and insights to create an effective strategic plan. First, you should run a strategic planning workshop with your team of staff. Gather your team and get their insights and ideas. This fosters collaboration and brings to the table fresh perspectives.

According to research, initiatives in which employees contribute are three times likely to be successful. Your team will take ownership of your strategic plan and hence are more likely to execute it. Additionally, you need to decide on your strategic planning model.

There are various models that you can use to structure your analysis such as SWOT and PESTLE. SWOT analysis describes the internal and external factors favorable  to  achieving business goals. PESTLE on the other hand, breaks down the business environment into political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental. The following are key steps in writing a strategic business plan.

1. Write the Company Description

The company description states information that defines your  company. It includes your company’s mission statement, vision statement, principles, values and standards that guide its  decision making. Your mission statement should explain what the business is trying to achieve. It communicates the purpose of your business. The vision statement paints a picture of your entity’s future. It helps to inspire stakeholders to contribute towards your business’ plans for growth.

Values communicate the principles that shape the identity of your business and what influences its operations. Values form the basis of your business strategy. In addition, your principles and values help your team of  staff  to make decisions that will propel towards achievement of set goals. Strategic objectives also form the company description and they are the specific and measurable outcomes that you want to achieve. They should align with your areas of focus and have a clear deadline.

2. Perform a SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis is the part of the strategic planning process that analyzes your business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is the most integral part of strategic planning as it helps uncover the current position of your business.

The strengths of your business are identified by the assets which contribute towards its competitive advantage. These assets include innovative technology, strong brand image, product differentiation and pricing power. An assessment of a business’ strength should be objective and not inflated. 

An accurate assessment of weaknesses involves looking outward to external forces that can reveal threats you need to be aware of during strategic planning. Your business will then know how to overcome obstacles. However, not all weaknesses can be eliminated.Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the organization while threats are external.

Opportunities and threats help a business understand the market so that they prepare adequately for anticipated challenges. An example of an opportunity is training for new technology while an example of a threat is an emerging business offering the same products and services as those that you offer.

3. Define business goals

The business goals segment provides targets that your business will use to achieve its objectives. Defining business goals encourages accountability in your organization. At this step you integrate your SWOT analysis findings to set strategic goals. 

Each goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. A strategic plan can identify short term goals your business hopes to achieve annually. These annual goals can then be further simplified to monthly, quarterly and half yearly. Breaking down the targets into short term timelines helps a business along the journey to achieve its overall mission. 

The first step towards creating a SMART goal is to make it specific. Consider the goal in quantifiable terms such as what do you want to accomplish and what action needs to be taken to achieve the goal.

The second step is that you must put methods to measure the progress towards attaining the goal. Consider the actions that you can implement to further your progress towards your goal.

The third step is to take into account whether you have resources to make your goal achievable. This may include learning a new skill or asking for help from your employees.

The final step is to determine if your goal is short term or long term and then set a timeline to meet deadlines.

4. Explain key performance indicators (KPIs)

Key performance indicators are the metrics that are a yardstick to the performance of your business. They determine whether you are reaching your goals or failing at attaining them. Performance indicators provide insights that are measurable to track progress and  ensure that your plans are on course. Measuring progress towards set objectives is crucial towards business success.

Key performance indicators keep you on track, helping  you stay focused on the goals you have set for your business. Each goal must have both primary and secondary  key performance indicators to help you make changes at different phases of the business cycle.

When setting key performance indicators, your business can focus on metrics that provide evidence of progress that is objective and those that offer comparisons to gauge performance over time. Additionally, focus on metrics that can track efficiency, profitability, timeliness, quality as well as compliance. Select a different set of key performance indicators for customer satisfaction and financial performance aspects of the business.

The advantages of key performance indicators are that they help your team work towards common goals and hold everyone accountable for  their performance. They also foster the entity’s mission if they align with its goals and objectives.

5. Conduct Market Research and Analysis 

Market research is an extensive study of customer profile, market trends and competitors. It helps entrepreneurs get an overview  of latest industry trends, market dynamics and target customers. The market research section of a business plan exhibits your understanding of the business environment.

It makes a large portion of your strategic plan as it identifies your position in the market and the competitive advantages that your business has. The process of market research explores your target customers’ problems and desires to help build your business strategy to serve them better. You get accurate reflection of your customers’ needs by developing primary and secondary data through market research.

The process of conducting market research starts with identifying your target market. Collect the demographics such as age, income level, gender and location. Secondly, find out if your market is big enough to sustain both you and your competitors. If the market share is not big enough, consider making changes to  your products or services. The third thing to do is to talk to your potential customers to get first hand insights making your business miles ahead of its competitors. In strategic planning, market  research and analysis is crucial when you have goals to expand your business to new markets.

6. Outline the Business Marketing Plan

The business marketing plan outlines how you plan to attract and retain customers. A marketing plan comes after completing a thorough market analysis to give you information needed to create a marketing plan. It should give marketing strategies that you will use.

A marketing plan contains the business’ value proposition and brand messaging. It should actually revolve around the value proposition of your business to tell consumers why they should consider your products and services.

When formulating the business marketing plan, it is important to define your  budget. The budget helps you identify the channels that you will be using for marketing. 

Advertising, press releases, creating blog posts on the business websites and paid social media ads are some of the marketing channels that a business can consider.

The four Ps of marketing namely price, promotion, place and product are key factors involved when it comes to marketing for goods and services. They are used to enhance sales in  a new target market.

A marketing plan puts your business into the pathway of success as it lets consumers know about your products and services hence convincing them to make a purchase.

7. Make a financial plan 

A financial plan is an integral part of a strategic business plan as it ensures that the financial objectives of a business align with business goals. A financial plan outlines the financial projections of your business which include revenue, expenses and profitability.

A financial plan identifies the sources of revenue of your business and includes a monthly cash flow budget. Financial projections should create targets that are measurable to help determine if your business is on the right track to achieve its goals. You should include comprehensive financial statements such as income statements and statements of financial position.

Your  financial plan should detail how much funding your business needs and how the funds will be used. It provides a framework for making financial decisions and can be used to keep tabs on financial progress.

A financial plan helps you make informed decisions when determining if your business can afford making a huge purchase or not. Through sales projections, you can identify if you will need to adjust your budget in case of a dip in sales. Additionally, you can seek and obtain funding by making a financial plan as it will contain information that will be needed by potential lenders.

8. Write the executive summary

Writing the executive summary is the final step of writing a strategic plan. This section is a brief summary of what is outlined in the rest of the sections of the strategic business plan.

The executive summary opens the strategic business plan by providing an overview of what is included in the plan. It should include a mission statement, vision statement, company values and objectives. An executive summary gives quick access to important information about your business hence essential in informing external stakeholders.

The executive summary should be short and should capture the attention of the reader. Write a compelling introduction without being too lengthy. Organize the executive summary in a way that important information will appear first for emphasis.At the very least, the executive summary should briefly  cover areas of your business such as financial and marketing plans. This helps investors and employees easily understand your business and support it as well. 

How to develop a strategic plan

The process of developing a strategic plan constitutes a series of logical and innovative steps that identify and prioritize long term objectives of an entity. This process entails collecting data, analysis of data as well as conducting internal and external assessment of the resources of your business.

A strategic plan helps you plan your long term goals and decide the strategy to accomplish them. A strategic plan determines the  direction of your business by evaluating it in terms of where you are currently and where you want to be. A well developed strategic plan is the foundation for the growth and success of your business. It guides your team of employees on how to respond effectively to obstacles and opportunities.

The steps towards developing a strategic plan include assessing your business, performing a SWOT analysis and defining strategic objectives and set goals. You then develop your marketing and financial strategies and lastly create an execution plan for implementing your strategic business plan.

1. Assess  your business

Assessing your business is the process of examining all aspects of your business from financial aspect to customer satisfaction. You get an overview of your business in terms of past achievements, milestones, financial analysis, sales performance and key performance indicators. Consider the strengths of your business as well as any potential opportunities for growth.

Understanding where your business stands is essential to formulating an effective business strategy. Business environment consists of both internal and external environments. The external environment includes competitive landscape as well as market trends. It is important to assess your business environment as it is a crucial step in formulating a strategic plan. 

Understanding your business environment involves gathering relevant industry data and getting customer insights to understand what customers want from your business.

Feedback from employees also needs to be obtained and addressed. Tools such as a balance scorecard and a SWOT analysis are used to gather information. A balanced scorecard aims to evaluate business processes,  financial performance and customer satisfaction.

2. Perform a SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis entails identifying a business objective and picking out the internal and external factors favorable and unfavorable to achieving it. Internal and external factors are considered using four elements which are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Strengths are elements in the business that can help it achieve its objective. Weaknesses are business attributes that could be obstacles to achieving the objective, opportunities are external factors helpful to the business to achieve its goals while threats are external factors that could be obstacles to attaining the objective. 

A SWOT analysis gives insights to inform your strategic plan and magnifies your strengths while acknowledging your weaknesses. It helps you challenge risky assumptions about your business hence enabling you set the right strategy for your business.

Conducting a SWOT analysis involves gathering your team of staff from all departments so as to get insightful observations. List your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, see what fits where and then look at what you have gathered in detail. You could ask questions while at it so that you build an impartial understanding about your business.

3. Define strategic objectives and set goals

The hallmark of a successful business is setting and achieving goals. Strategic objectives provide clear aims for your business and support the entity’s mission and vision.

Defining your goals and objectives helps translate them to achievable targets. Goals promote accountability in your business and provide targets that the business will use to achieve its objective. Every goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. 

Not identifying objectives leads to misalignment between strategy and execution. First, identify long term goals then go to short term goals to ensure that your business is on the right trajectory towards achieving its long term objective. Short term goals guide you towards achieving long term goals.

Strategic objectives identify what is crucial in your business strategy. They connect the vision statement to actionable plans. Categories of strategic objectives include financial objectives which focus on financial growth, customer objectives which aim at improving customer service and growth strategic objectives which help a business to increase its public influence.

4. Develop your marketing and financial strategies 

Marketing strategy describes how you will attract customers to your business. It contains a marketing plan, sales process and engagement strategies. Your marketing strategy should outline why you are in business and what you plan to achieve. The benefits of a marketing strategy are that it helps keep your marketing efforts focused, enables you to connect with the right customers and ultimately helps you make the most of your investment.

How you run your business is determined by your marketing approach. Your business may develop a strategic marketing plan to increase profits as well as to achieve more visibility. The process of developing a marketing strategy involves setting your marketing objectives which should align with the overall business goals.

A financial strategy sets how your business will finance the implementation of its long term objectives. It outlines financial projections of revenue, expenses and profits. Your financial strategy  describes the viability of your business plan and is an important part in obtaining funding for your business.

Financial projections map out the goals after you have determined the opportunities that your business will pursue. Your projections should create measurable targets to help your business know whether you are on the track to achieving goals. The main aim of a financial strategy is to enable  delivery of the business’ overall strategy.

5. Create an execution plan 

An execution plan is a guideline for implementing a strategic plan. It uses processes and systems to clarify goals for staff and define steps that a business needs to take to realize its goals. An execution plan contains specific projects to be carried out as well as key performance indicators to measure progress.

Creating an execution plan should involve key stakeholders and your leadership team to ensure that your strategic plan is effectively implemented across your business. The execution process starts with determining where you will allocate resources in terms of your core competences.

Secondly, you must communicate the plan to everyone involved in executing the plan. The people involved need to clearly understand and visualize your strategic plan. You then need to create systems, processes and procedures to ensure that your plan is effectively executed. This may include using key performance indicators to communicate responsibilities of each and every team member.

Provide resources, training and support necessary to ensure that the processes and procedures are followed. This way, everything needed to implement the plan will have been available. Finally, set up review meetings with team members to ensure that the plan execution is on track.

What are the benefits of a strategic business plan?

The main importance of a strategic business plan is to guide a business in achieving long term business goals and objectives. A strategic business plan is the cornerstone of a successful business because it provides direction and outlines business goals. It is hence an integral factor in the long term success of your business.

A strategic plan allows a business to expect and respond to changes in the business environment. It also helps in forecasting potential threats and opportunities which is essential for survival of businesses in a world that is highly dynamic.

A strategic business plan promotes operational efficiency as it provides a basis for all decisions of management. It provides a myriad of benefits that significantly contribute to business success including better decision making and alignment of business objectives with the overarching goal.

A strategic plan also enhances professional risk management helping a business anticipate potential risks in the environment. It also promotes excellent communication among stakeholders ensuring everyone understands your business goals and includes funding options for your business.

Uniform Company Objectives

The process of strategic planning should involve the entire entity from top level management to operations staff. This ensures that all departments align with the overall business strategy on a daily basis. Collaboration among team members unifies the team of leadership, employees and other stakeholders around strategic objectives. Alignment is essential for effective execution of strategic plans. A strategic plan clearly defines goals ensuring that everyone works towards common objectives. 

Better Decision Making 

Strategic planning allows you to make informed decisions about your business. Decisions that align with the business objectives have a clear purpose. Such decisions could be investing in new business opportunities, responding to threats or operations adjustments. Creating a strategic business plan involves extensive analysis of both internal and external factors that influence the business. As a decision maker, you gain great insights on market trends, competitive landscapes and consumer behavior by leveraging data gathered during analysis.

Making informed decisions enhances success likelihood and minimizes the risk of making assumption based choices. Improved decision making helps a business make decisions that align with the mission and vision of the business. Additionally, better decision making ensures that all initiatives drive the business towards its defined goals.

Professional Risk Management 

A strategic business plan helps businesses be prepared for potential challenges in the business environment. Get an understanding of your business’ exposure to risk to make decisions to mitigate the risks. This helps your business to adapt to market shifts. A strategic business plan is a beacon for a business when navigating turbulent business uncertainties. Through strategic planning, businesses develop contingency plans that ensure sustainability and the resilience to operate.

Developing a strategic business plan leads to early identification of business risk factors which then prompts a business to allocate resources and adjust strategies. Such measures significantly reduce the impact of risks on business operations.

Risk management safeguards business assets as well as its reputation and supports its growth and stability. Through strategic planning, effective risk management fosters a risk awareness culture at all levels of your entity. This awareness encourages monitoring and assessment of business risk factors continuously. Continuous evaluation  of risks enables the business to be better equipped to face uncertainties with agility and confidence.

Excellent Communication among Stakeholders

A well developed strategic plan communicates your vision, mission and objectives to all stakeholders. This ensures that everyone  understands your business goals and knows their responsibility in achieving them.  Strategic planning fosters across all levels of your business entity.

All employees should understand the strategic objectives of your business as well as how their roles contribute to the goals. Excellent communication creates a sense of purpose and alignment. Have open communication channels to ensure that your team works collectively towards your objectives. Excellent communication strategies involve transparent communication of goals progress and expectations, regular updates and platforms for facilitating open communication. 

More Funding Options

Financial projections and a marketing plan demonstrate the viability of your business to potential investors. The process of creating a strategic business plan entails defining the additional funding needs of your business. A strategic approach to funding is then developed by first considering the different types of funding available. Timing is another consideration whereby you identify the best time to seek funding.

A compelling funding request is then crafted containing your potential for return on investment as well as financial projections that show how much you expect to make in the future. In addition, outline your marketing strategy to show how you plan to scale your operations in the midst of a ballooning client base. Your chances of securing funding will be high and then you can use the additional funding obtained to showcase your business opportunity to potential investors.

Strategic Plan vs Business Plan

Business plans are often confused with strategic plans but they are not the same thing. However, it is essential for businesses to have both plans and they have some similarities. Both a business plan and strategic plan have an executive summary, company description as well as mission and vision statements. A strategic plan is a type of business plan but there are elements that distinguish it from a business plan. A business plan is used by new entities to get off the ground while a strategic plan is used by businesses already established looking to manage their future growth. A strategic plan focuses on the long term growth of a business while a business plan focuses on its short term operational functions.

The following table shows the difference between a strategic plan and a business plan.

How is a business plan written?

Writing a business plan is a step by step process resulting in a structured document. The process includes writing an executive summary which is a brief summary of the entire business plan.

An executive summary comes first in your business plan and should include the problem that your business is going to solve, a description of your products and services, an overview of your target market, a brief description of your team and a summary of your financials. Next step is writing your company description which entails including basic information about your business such as business name, location, key people in your team as well as their qualifications. You then describe the products and services that you are selling in terms of how they work, their prices and what target audience you serve. Include also any intellectual property such as trademarks and patents that protect your products.

The other step is to do your market research then formulate a marketing and financial plan. When writing a business plan, one should be clear and concise by avoiding the use of technical jargons.  In addition, research and be objective in your research.

Can you hire someone to write a strategic business plan?

Yes, a professional business plan writer and business plan consultant can be hired to write a strategic business plan. Business plan writers have different qualifications hence it is essential that you consider factors such as experience and education when hiring one. Consider a strategic business plan consultant with a strong background in market research, financial projections as business planning in general. Check their reviews from previous clients to ascertain the quality of their work. You could even directly contact other businesses that have worked with a business consultant to get how their experience was like. Business plan consultants can be found online or got through referrals.  

What is the importance of hiring a business plan writer?

A professional business plan writer has experience in writing business plans hence knows what works and what doesn’t. They understand the importance of market research, financial modeling and strategy hence will offer guidance on how these aspects will be incorporated into your strategic business plan. A good business plan writer will tailor your business plan to the needs of investors ensuring that your business plan is well received by potential investors. As an entrepreneur, if you lack time and dont have the necessary expertise, hiring a business plan writer is a good investment to make.

A business plan writer will offer strategic guidance in market research and analysis thus helping you identify opportunities as well as risk assessment. Effective communication is another contribution that a business plan writer brings to the table as they are able to convey your vision with clarity and coherence to stakeholders. 

They have excellent  writing skills eliminating technical jargons and hence make your strategic plan understandable to stakeholders. Expert business plan writers possess a wealth of experience and expertise creating comprehensive strategic plans. They therefore understand the nitty gritty’s of  your industry and can offer valuable insights as well as showcasing opportunities for your business growth.

Business plan writers excel in formulating accurate financial projections and strategies hence will come up with strategies that are viable to enable your business achieve its long term goals. Good research skills of your business plan writer enable them to analyze market dynamics and emerging trends so that you can make informed strategic decisions. 

What is the cost of a strategic business plan? 

The cost of a strategic business plan is affordable and  lies between $ 2,000 to $ 25,000. However, this cost of a business plan is influenced by factors such as  the quality of the plan, length, complexity  and level of expertise of the business plan writer.A strategic business plan for a small company will cost less than that of a large company. Long and complex  strategic plans will cost more than short ones.

A strategic business plan crafted by a highly experienced and expert business plan writer will be more expensive as compared to one that is created by less experienced business plan writers. Additionally, a shorter turnaround time means that you have to pay more and additional services such as pitch deck editing will cost extra. 

Are all types of business plans strategic?

Yes, all business plans are strategic in nature. To be strategic is to have the ability to lead businesses in a manner that advances the entity’s mission, vision as well as long term objectives. There must be an alignment between the goals and action. Different types of business plans outline your business goals and explain how you will achieve them. It lays out the running of your business on a day to day including the budget and other resources. A business plan helps in clarifying your vision and organizing operations.

How long should a strategic business plan be?

The length of a strategic business plan will vary from business to business depending on the type of business and scope of the plan. The optimal length of a business plan should be between 40 to 70 pages. It takes an average of 3 to 6 months to develop a strategic business plan. If it’s shorter you risk skipping vital information and if it gets longer, it might be hard to implement because of too much detail. Strategic plans of a broad scope will be longer and take more time to complete than narrowly defined ones as they encompass a wide range of goals and activities. Strategic plans for large organizations tend to be longer and take more time to develop because of their complexity as compared to those of small organizations.