Yaneek Page| Here’s what to include in your strategic plan for 2021

Question: Hi Yaneek, I am a small-business owner, and I try not to miss any of your columns. Let me first thank you for your consistent good advice since the pandemic. It has been a great source of help for me, especially the piece you wrote on business continuity planning. I have a small business. Twenty-twenty was a very challenging year for me, and I really need to turn things around in 2021. Can you give me some tips about the best approach to planning my business for next year? I did a business continuity plan as you recommended. However, you didn’t elaborate on how to use that plan to pivot and even grow as I see some companies doing even now. My question to you is: How can I modify that plan for growth and recovery in 2021? Also, is there a single digital source where I can get a copy of all your articles?

– Chris

Businesswise: Thanks so much for the kind words. I am thrilled you have found this column useful and that you have successfully guided your business to the end of a most challenging year.

Depending on the industry you are in and the related market conditions, 2021 may be equally or more challenging than prior years. Therefore, the short answer to your question is that I would not recommend that you try to modify the business continuity plan to serve the dual purpose of being a strategic plan for growth.

Clear strategic goals

A business continuity plan is meant to minimise shock, dislocation, and the risk of permanent closure of your business in the event of a business disaster, whether that be natural or man-made. Its purpose is quite different from a strategic or operational plan, which should define clear strategic goals, key strategic actions to advance those goals, a supporting budget, and key performance indicators with related timelines for completion and measurements for success.

Ideally, you need to create a strategic plan that covers the next two financial years or longer, if you can, based on your industry, etc. This is so given the uncertainties of this time as the world continues to struggle with the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are my top tips for your planning process:

1. Use business and accounting experts:

Engage an expert if you have never done a strategic plan before. Now is the not the time to slowly ascend the learning curve. You need the sound decision-making and strategies that will guide your operations over the short and medium terms for long-term business survival and growth.

2. Do a proper SWOT analysis with credible and recent data:

SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Ideally, you want to identify all those that are related to the business at this time as part of your external and internal environmental scan and business landscape. The mistake I have seen many business owners make is to do a superficial SWOT, where they will randomly list strengths like “customer service”. That means nothing in a competitive and volatile environment unless you can identify a unique customer-service approach that is measurable and verifiable and that gives a quantifiable advantage over the competition. It is the same for opportunities. I have seen businesses randomly document “new markets” as an opportunity. That is superficial and inadequate. You would need to clarify which country or state or territory, what is the prospective value of that market relative to the barriers to entry, risk, and return on investment (ROI) time. It needs this level of critical thinking and detailed analysis, which requires experience and skill not readily found within a small business, thus underscoring the need for external expertise.

3. Ensure budget alignment:

Your strategic goals must be aligned with the proposed budget. For example, you can’t have a strategic goal to pivot to a new income stream or launch a new business unit and then have no supportive budget for capital expenditure, administration, wages, etc. Or, you can’t have a goal of “50 per cent increase in new customers” for example, without an increase in marketing and sales spend. It is not realistic, and it likely won’t be accomplished because you didn’t plan properly. Budget must also be supported by cash flow projections, especially planning for possible credit risks.

4. Measure everything:

There are two sayings in business that may apply here. One is, “what doesn’t get measured will never get done”, and the other is, “what can’t be measured isn’t worth doing”. Measurement is key for accomplishment and accountability. For many businesses, resources are scarcer than ever before, and measurement is a key way of ensuring the highest and best use and return for every valuable resource.

5. Assemble an advisory board:

Creating an advisory board can strengthen leadership effectiveness, enhance performance, improve decision-making, expand access to networks, among many other benefits.

6. Manage risk:

Do a risk assessment and include key mitigation actions for high-risk items in key performance indicators or areas to proactively manage risk.

Regarding your question about where you can locate my articles, the Gleaner archives would be the best place to find this. I wish you all the best for 2021.

One love.

- Yaneek Page is the programme lead for Market Entry USA and a certified trainer in entrepreneurship. She is also the creator & executive producer of The Innovators and Let’s Make Peace TV series.Email Yaneek.page@gmail.com.