Strategic Plan Template

Summary

In this video, Don Crowther emphasizes the importance of strategic planning for small businesses, highlighting how it can lead to higher sales growth, better profitability, and innovation. He addresses the common challenge of complexity in traditional planning and offers a simplified two-page template to help businesses identify their current status, desired future, and specific action plans to bridge the gap. The video also includes a sample filled-out template and encourages regular review and revision of the plan for ongoing success.

Takeaways

• 🚀 Strategic planning is crucial for small businesses looking to grow in sales, profitability, and employee numbers.
• 💡 Small businesses that plan strategically are more innovative and have a higher chance of international growth.
• 📉 Companies without strategic plans are more likely to fail compared to those with clear strategies.
• 🤔 Most small businesses struggle with strategic planning due to a lack of knowledge and the complexity of traditional planning processes.
• 📋 Don Crowther offers a simplified two-page template to make strategic planning more accessible and less time-consuming.
• ⏱ The process of strategic planning with the provided template should take an average person 2 to 3 hours to complete.
• 🔗 The template includes a section for the current situation, desired situation, key indicators, and specific objectives with measurable targets.
• 📝 It's important to fill in the gap between current and desired situations with specific actions and due dates to track progress.
• 📈 The plan should be reviewed and revised regularly, ideally every few months, to adapt to changing circumstances and ensure alignment with objectives.
• 💼 The strategic plan should be a living document that is revisited and updated as the business evolves and as new information becomes available.
• 🌐 Don Crowther encourages viewers to download the template and sample from his website to get started on their strategic planning.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the video by Don Crowther?

The main purpose of the video is to emphasize the importance of strategic planning for small businesses and to introduce a simplified two-page template for creating a strategic plan.

According to the video, what are the benefits of strategic planning for small businesses?

The benefits include higher sales growth, better return on assets, improved profit margins, increased employee growth, innovation, international growth, and a reduced likelihood of business failure.

Why do most companies struggle with strategic planning according to Don Crowther?

Most companies struggle because they find strategic planning templates and formats to be complex, time-consuming, and often not action-oriented, which discourages them from investing the time to create a plan.

What is the simplified process of strategic planning as outlined by Don Crowther?

The simplified process involves identifying the current situation, determining the desired situation, and creating specific action plans to bridge the gap between the two.

How long does it typically take to go through the strategic planning process using Don Crowther's template?

It takes an average person who understands what they are doing about two to three hours to complete the strategic planning process using the provided template.

What does the two-page strategic plan template consist of?

The template consists of a current situation section, a desired situation section with specific objectives, action plans with due dates, additional goals, and a calendar for key strategic initiatives.

What is the significance of having specific objectives with numbers in the strategic plan?

Having specific objectives with numbers allows for measurable progress tracking, ensuring that the business can prove whether the goals have been achieved or not.

Why is it important to focus on the gap between the current and desired situations in the strategic plan?

Focusing on the gap helps identify the specific actions needed to achieve the desired situation and ensures that the strategic plan is action-oriented and goal-driven.

What are the three types of customers that should be considered in the strategic plan according to the video?

The three types of customers are existing customers, new customers, and lapsed customers, each requiring different strategies to maximize their value to the business.

How often should a strategic plan be reviewed and revised according to Don Crowther's recommendation?

A strategic plan should be reviewed weekly and revised two to three times per year to ensure it remains a living, breathing document that adapts to the evolving business landscape.

Where can viewers download the two-page strategic plan template and find additional resources?

Viewers can download the template and find additional resources at DonCrowther.com/a/stratplan, as well as sign up for a free newsletter at www.doncrowther.com for more marketing tips.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Introduction to Strategic Planning

Don Crowther introduces the concept of strategic planning for small businesses, emphasizing its importance for growth and success. He presents statistical evidence showing that businesses with strategic plans have higher sales growth, better return on assets, profit margins, and employee growth. Crowther also points out that these businesses are more innovative and less likely to fail. However, he acknowledges the common challenge of creating strategic plans due to their complexity and time-consuming nature. He offers a simplified two-page template as a solution to make the planning process more accessible and action-oriented.

05:01

📝 Understanding the Two-Page Strategic Plan

This paragraph delves into the specifics of the two-page strategic plan template. It explains the process of strategic planning as identifying current status, desired future status, and creating action plans to bridge the gap. The first page of the template includes sections for the organization's name, period, and version, followed by an assessment of the current situation with examples provided. Key indicators such as sales, profit, and traffic are to be listed to quantify the current state of the business. The desired situation is then articulated with specific objectives that are measurable and trackable, ensuring clarity on where the business aims to be.

10:03

🎯 Filling the Gap with Actionable Objectives

The focus of this paragraph is on defining the gap between the current and desired situations and creating actionable objectives to fill that gap. It details the process of listing specific actions with due dates to ensure accountability and progress tracking. Examples of such actions are provided, including product releases, video postings, and autoresponder series. The paragraph also touches on additional goals that may not directly contribute to the main objectives but are important for the overall business strategy. The importance of reviewing and revising the plan regularly is highlighted to adapt to changing circumstances and ensure the plan remains effective.

🗓️ Strategic Initiatives and Calendar Planning

The final paragraph discusses the importance of planning for different customer types: existing, new, and lapsed customers, and developing specific action plans for each group. It also introduces the concept of key strategic initiatives placed on a calendar to visualize the year's progress and ensure key objectives are met within set timeframes. The paragraph emphasizes the significance of the mid-year review to reassess and adjust the plan if necessary. Additional suggestions are made for expanding the plan with pages for strengths and weaknesses analysis, financial analysis, and other strategic considerations. The paragraph concludes with a call to action to download the strategic plan template and a reminder to regularly review and revise the plan for ongoing success.

Keywords

💡Strategic Plans

Strategic plans are comprehensive frameworks that organizations use to set goals, outline strategies for achieving those goals, and decide on the allocation of resources to fulfill the plan. In the video, the importance of strategic planning for small businesses is emphasized, with data suggesting that businesses with strategic plans tend to have higher sales growth, return on assets, profit margins, and employee growth.

💡Sales Growth

Sales growth refers to the increase in the volume of sales over a specific period of time. It is a key performance indicator for businesses. In the context of the video, it is mentioned as one of the benefits of strategic planning, indicating that businesses with strategic plans have a higher rate of sales growth.

💡Return on Assets (ROA)

Return on assets (ROA) is a financial metric that shows how efficiently a company is using its assets to generate profit. In the video, ROA is cited as a metric where businesses that strategically plan tend to perform better, suggesting that strategic planning can improve financial efficiency.

💡Profit Margins

Profit margins indicate how much profit a company makes for every dollar of sales, and they are a critical measure of a company's financial health. The video script mentions that strategic planning can lead to higher profit margins, highlighting the financial benefits of strategic planning.

💡Employee Growth

Employee growth refers to the increase in the number of employees within an organization, which can be an indicator of business expansion. In the video, it is noted that small businesses with strategic plans tend to experience employee growth, suggesting that strategic planning can contribute to the scaling of a business.

💡Innovation

Innovation is the process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay. The video script states that small businesses that strategically plan are more likely to be innovative, indicating that strategic planning fosters creativity and new ideas within a business.

💡International Growth

International growth pertains to the expansion of a business beyond its domestic market to other countries. The video mentions that strategic planning can lead to international growth, suggesting that a well-thought-out plan can help businesses reach a global audience.

💡Action-Oriented

Action-oriented refers to plans or strategies that are designed to be implemented through specific, concrete actions. In the video, the speaker criticizes traditional strategic plans for not being action-oriented, and instead, offers a simplified two-page template that encourages actionable steps.

💡Template

A template is a pre-formatted document or file that serves as a model for creating other documents with similar structure and content. In the video, the speaker provides a two-page strategic planning template as a tool to simplify the planning process, making it more accessible and less time-consuming.

💡Key Indicators

Key indicators are measurable values that demonstrate how well a company is achieving its objectives. In the video, the script instructs viewers to list key indicators in their strategic plan to provide factual data about the current state of their business.

💡Specific Objectives

Specific objectives are clear, measurable goals that an organization aims to achieve. The video emphasizes the importance of setting specific objectives with numerical targets in a strategic plan, such as sales figures or profit margins, to track progress effectively.

💡Gap Analysis

Gap analysis is the process of identifying the difference between a current state and a desired state. In the video, the concept is used to describe how to identify the difference between the current situation and the desired situation, which then informs the creation of action plans to bridge that gap.

💡Key Strategic Initiatives

Key strategic initiatives are major actions or projects that an organization undertakes to achieve its strategic goals. The video script discusses placing these initiatives on a calendar to provide a visual representation of the year's plan and to ensure that key objectives are met throughout the year.

💡Financial Analysis

Financial analysis involves evaluating a company's financial performance and condition through ratios and other metrics. The video script suggests including a financial analysis in the strategic plan, which can be crucial for understanding the current financial state and planning for future expenditures and income.

💡Living Document

A living document is a continually updated record that evolves over time. In the context of the video, the speaker refers to strategic plans as living documents that should be reviewed and revised regularly to reflect changes in the business environment or company goals.

💡Revise

To revise means to review and make changes or improvements. The video script recommends revising the strategic plan two to three times per year to ensure it remains relevant and effective in guiding the business towards its objectives.

Highlights

Key question posed about wanting a bigger, better, more profitable company in a year.

Facts presented showing higher sales growth, return on assets, profit margins, and employee growth for small businesses with strategic plans.

Innovative and international growth linked to strategic planning in small businesses.

Strategic planning reduces the likelihood of business failure.

The importance of strategy as the differentiating factor between successful and unsuccessful businesses.

Challenges in strategic planning due to complexity and lack of knowledge.

Strategic planning simplified into a three-step process: identify current position, desired position, and action plans.

Introduction of a two-page template for easy strategic planning.

Template's efficiency, taking only 2-3 hours for an average person to complete.

Offer of a free download link for the strategic planning template.

Inclusion of a sample filled-out template for better understanding.

Detailed explanation of the first page of the two-page strategic plan, focusing on current and desired situations.

Emphasis on setting specific, measurable objectives with numerical targets.

Identification of actions to bridge the gap between current and desired situations with due dates.

Discussion on additional goals that may not directly contribute to the main objectives but are important.

Introduction to the second page focusing on customer types and strategic initiatives.

Importance of planning for current, new, and lapsed customers to maximize business growth.

Strategic initiatives should be placed on a calendar for a visual representation of the year's plan.

Advice on pushing initiatives to the first half of the year and reevaluating mid-year.

Recommendation to add more pages for strengths, weaknesses, financial analysis, and other details.

Emphasis on the living nature of strategic plans, requiring regular review and revision.

Final call to action with a special offer for more marketing tips via a free newsletter.

Transcripts

Hi, this is Don Crowther with a video about strategic plans.

And I want to start by asking you a really key question.

Do you want to have a bigger, better, more profitable company a year from today?

If you do, let me show you a few facts.

The facts state that small businesses that strategically plan tend to have a

higher sales growth, return on assets, profit margins, and employee growth.

And there's a source down there in the bottom corner.

The facts say that small businesses that strategically plan tend to be innovative

and achieve international growth.

The facts say that small businesses that strategically

plan are less likely to fail.

Do any of those things sound interesting to you?

All of these can be summarized by a key statement that says "Of all

the contrast between the successful and unsuccessful and unsuccessful

businesses, or between the leader and the follower, the single most important

differentiating factor is strategy."

But here's the challenges.

Most companies don't strategically plan.

And the reason is that there is a serious problem with strategic

plans and that is most of the time people don't know how to do it.

And so when they go, when they look for templates and formats and those

kinds of things to do it, what they find is they're incredibly complex.

They're very time-consuming and many cases they're not action-oriented.

And they look at it and they say, there's no way that I'm spending three months

putting together a strategic plan.

May I solve that for you?

I want to point out something about strategic planning.

Strategic planning is a very simple process.

It's process of number one, identifying where you are.

Number two, identifying where you want to be.

And number three, creating some specific action plans to fill that gap.

And so therefore what I've done is I've put together a very

simple two page template that you can use to strategically plan.

Go through, going through this process, will take an average

person who understands what they're doing two to three hours, and it's

worth spending that amount of time because this is planning what your

future business is going to be like.

I'm going to give you a download link at the end of this.

This is totally free so that you can be able to go and download

this two page, page template.

Plus in addition to that I am going to give you a sample of one filled

out, so you'll be able to get some ideas, see what should go should

go into those various squares.

So you'll be able to understand it better.

Basically this plan has two pages.

That's why it's called a two- page strategic plan.

Here's your first page.

Here's your second page.

Let me go through each line in depth in these and by the way,

download this and watch this again.

You'll be able to see how it all gets filled in and read the samples.

The samples I'm putting here on the screen are the samples that are there.

All right.

So at first, just start off with the heading.

Hey.

This is easy.

You put in your organization name, you put in what period you're doing it for,

the date version, because, and I encourage you to put it in that version because

oftentimes these things will change two or three times, right at the beginning.

This next section is where we look at over here on the left.

We look at your current situation.

That's these columns right here.

Then we look at the desired situation so that we can then identify what's the

gap between them and develop a time, uh, a specific plan to fill that gap.

Let's start.

In the upper right hand corner, left upper left-hand corner

with the current situation.

Here, you're going to write a few phrases that will describe

where you are right now.

So sample, um, sales insufficient to quit my day job and go full-time.

I've got weak traffic and a lack of name recognition in the marketplace.

I need to capitalize on this while dancing with the stars is still hot because.

By the way this, this is for a site that creates exercise videos

based upon ballroom dance moves.

Okay?

People love our current dancing for fitness product, but they tell us they

want more new content in that series.

So, not a lot of facts here.

This is here's how I feel.

Here's my current situation.

Here's how I feel about it.

Okay.

Then below that is the key indicator section.

Here's where you put some of the facts that are out there.

And so here's some samples last year, our sales were 24,000, a profit of

12,000 after expenses, our traffic, we average 1500 unique visitors per month.

I'm not going to go down and read all these, every one of these, because these

are on the sample that's there, but it's these kinds of things you're putting.

Where you are, what's happening so far.

So if you haven't even started your business yet your key indicators

may be empty, or it may be, um, planning this or thinking about this

or whatever, those kinds of things.

But you're putting down the facts about where you are.

Over in the left-hand right-hand side, you, we get the desired situation.

So your desired situation might be something like this earn $60,000, $5,000 a

month after expenses so that I can quit my current job and focus on this full-time.

By the end of the year, I want to have a membership site where people

are paying monthly for additional content and feedback, and at least

four new products in the lineup.

And so we're making some statements about where we want to be.

And then down below that is where we put our specific objectives that have numbers

in it so that you can actually track those objectives to see how you're doing so

Sales $150,000, profits at least $60,000.

Build an email list to 25,000 with a 30 part autoresponder series.

Introduce at least four products.

So you can see each one of these things has a number so that you can be

able to go back and numerically track how am I doing against these goals?

Just saying, "build a bigger business.

Or increase my conversion rate."

Those aren't sufficient.

You want to have numbers here.

So you actually are able to prove whether you have achieved it or not.

Now.

So now you filled in this left side and the right side, and now for the

rest of this time, we focus on the gap, that piece in the middle, the

difference between where you are right now and where you want to be.

So, the first thing we do is we look at some specific actions that we

are planning to do to fill that gap.

We have a place where we put the action and we have another

place where we put a due date so that you know what you're doing.

And you can actually put that on your calendar and say, I'm going to

achieve this by such and such a date.

Here's some examples.

So four new products, one each in April, June, August, and September.

So, in this case, I put varies for the due date because you've

got four different products.

We're going to create 50 videos and post them on video sites.

20 each in January and February and 10 in March.

And so I put my due date as this, but you can also see I've

got my due dates over here.

Create my auto email auto responder, incorporating the videos produced.

I'm going to do that in January and March.

So you can see I'm doing very specific things.

Uh, run split tests on webpages to increase increase conversion.

Uh, develop a free course, offers an opt-in incentive and to affiliates.

So I've got specific things that will help me to achieve those objectives of

making that amount of money or whatever it was that you put down for objectives.

And by the way, you can do more than this.

In fact, I encourage you to do that.

I'm trying to put these things onto, onto two pages, but you can always have an

appendices appendix with a bunch of other specific actions and even assign them to

specific people and what date they'll be done by and all those kinds of things.

This is a simplified version, so you can put it all in one

place very quickly and easy.

Then on the bottom of the page you have Additional Goals.

Here's where you can put in some things that may not fit into this specific

actions that help you to get there.

So, uh, reduce paper usage by 50% to decrease my impact on the environment.

Designed a design a business that will take six weeks of vacation per year

and work no more than 40 hours a week.

Uh, bring my children into the business to teach them business skills.

So those things that might be outside of here's how I'm going to achieve the, uh,

filling of that gap, but these things are, Hey, these are some things that I really

want to make sure happens in this process of working on these things this year.

Now, page two, we get into some further action plans, but here's

where we look at the customer type.

There's basically three kinds of customers.

And I've actually put these in an order for this reason.

The first one is your current customers.

So the most costly thing you can do is to go pay money to acquire a new customer.

And so anytime you've got a customer and you should have a plan to be able to make

more money from that existing customer.

That's why we have this first column make more from existing customers.

Then we've got a second column, which is where people mostly.

F, uh, focus and that is generating new customers.

But we have a third group, which is lapsed customers.

Someone who bought from you a year ago, or two years ago has

never come back and bought again.

You need to have a plan to be able to go get those people and earn

more money from each one of those.

And so you sh you should be developing some specific action plans for each one of

these groups and focus on how you're going to make money from each one of those.

And you can read that in this sample document.

Then the final piece that we're doing in this is your key strategic

initiatives placed on a calendar.

So this way you can look at your year across the year and see here's

the key things that I need to have finished in each one of these

particular months, across the year.

And so here I put, uh, January as our heavy social media push with

Facebook, Twitter, and video, and offer a free course via autoresponder.

In February.

We're going to focus on our video releases in March.

We're going to focus on video releases.

Applying an affiliate recruiting focus and are creating cross

sell on an upsell funnel.

And so you'd go through these.

I want to point out July's was a very important month for this

particular person, quit job in July.

So by that means that by that time they need to have put a process in

place in these first seven months that will enable them to be able

to quit the job and go forward with their objectives in these areas.

Now you'll see that what I tend to do when I do these things is I push

them into the first part of the year.

Why?

Because one of the things I believe is that coming back in June or

so to re-look at this document.

Pull it out again and say, okay, what's our plan for between now

and the end of the year to continue to achieve these objectives.

And so the back half of the year tends to get more filled up at this time.

Most people I've discovered can't really plan beyond three to

six months effectively in terms of what they're going to do.

And so.

As I said, I focus, I push most of the things into the first half of the year

and then reevaluate partway through the year to push it into other areas.

So, you should be aware that you may want to add some more pages to this process.

So you can have a page where you look at strengths and weaknesses,

which can be a very valuable thing.

So you understand, Hey, I'm not a detailed person.

So then you may need to hire a detail person to work on your projects for you.

Uh, you may want to have.

Further details on how you're going to fill the gaps.

More strategies, more tacticals tactics.

You may want to have a financial analysis.

Here's where we are right now.

Here's our estimated expenditures and income throughout the year.

Here's a balance sheet in, in two different levels.

This is especially important.

If you're going to show this to a banker to get a loan, uh, you'll need to do

a financial analysis as part of that.

Uh, and then you may want to have some in there where you're looking at equipment

and staffing and investment requirements.

So you can plan your cashflow throughout the year.

Those are all good things to add.

You don't the core of that though, is the strategy.

These things that happen on these first two pages that I provided to you.

Now, the two key, the, the major keys to success with this are first off, do it.

You need to spend a few hours and develop a strategic plan.

And write it down as you do it, use this format, review it

weekly so that you follow it.

I suggest that once a week you have a meeting with your self, your key

managers, uh your staff, whatever it is.

Pull out this document, look at it and say, okay, how are we doing on this?

What do we need to do?

How do we need to alter this plan?

Realize these plans are living, breathing, documents that, uh, you're trying to

expand your efforts and expand the plan to better achieve those end objectives.

And then revise it as needed.

I recommend two to three times per year.

You do a revision.

Session to get these.

As you do these things, your business is going to be better planned.

You will get all those objectives that we talked about at the

beginning, where I showed you the facts from the scholarly studies

about people who do strategic plans.

All those advantages are going to start flowing your way.

And so the next step that I suggest you do is to go right now to

DonCrowther.com/a/stratplan where you'll be able to download the document

in a word format as well as in a sample of the, of a sample company.

So you can look at it and see some of the ideas and how to fill these things out.

I strongly recommend that you do this soon.

This is Don Crowther.

Just go do this stuff.

Hi, this is Don again with a special offer just for you.

If you would like to get more free social media and internet

marketing tips, just like this.

Visit www.doncrowther.com and sign up for the free newsletter there.

It's DonCrowther.com.

Just go do this stuff.