The Ultimate Strategic Plan Template Directions

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Directions are typed in red font throughout this document.

These directions will guide you through creating a great strategic plan.

Should you want to print out your final plan to show others, and would like to remove all the directions, simply do a Replace as follows:

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[Company Logo]

(if applicable)

[Company Name] STRATEGIC PLAN

[Current Month], [Year]

[Name]

[Title]

[Company Name]

[Address 1]

[Address 2]

[City, State Zip]

Tel: [ ]

Fax: [ ]

Email: [ ]

CONFIDENTIAL

Table of Contents

(To update, right click anywhere on this table and select Update Field)

I. Executive Summary

II. Elevator Pitch

III. Company Mission Statement

IV. SWOT

V. GOALS

VI. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

VII. Target Customers

VIII. Industry Analysis

IX. Competitive Analysis & Advantage

X. Marketing Plan

XI. Team

XII. Operations Plan

XIII. Financial Projections

1

[Company Name] Strategic Plan

I. Executive Summary

Complete this section last. You will answer ALL of these questions in the document (and can thus simply copy and paste your answers here at the end).

Our Company Elevator Pitchis as follows:

Our Company Mission Statement is as follows:

Our Company’s key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are as follows:

  • Strengths:
  • Weaknesses:
  • Opportunities:
  • Threats:

The Top Opportunities that we will execute upon this year include:

Our Company’s goals are as follows:

  • 5 year goal:
  • 1 year goal:
  • This quarter’s goal:
  • This month’s goal:

The following are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that we will measure and include in our dashboard:

Our target customers are:

The key customer needs we solve include:

Our market size is:

Key market trends include:

Our key competitors include:

Areas in which we have competitive advantage include:

Our key products/servicesand their unique selling propositionsare:

Our key promotional tactics include:

We do/will do the following to maximize the lifetime value of our customers:

We have or will forge partnerships with the following organizations:

The following are the key members of our team and their key skillsets:

To execute on our opportunities, we will train and/or hire the following employees to gain the required skill sets:

As part of our Operations Plan, we will work on the followingkey projects within the next 12 months:

Our 5-Year top line financial projections are as follows:

[insert Summary Chart from P&L Projections Spreadsheet]

II. Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is a brief description of your business.

It is included in your strategic plan since your elevator pitch is both important to your business’ success, and should often be updated annually.

An elevator pitch got it’s name because you need to be able to describe your business succinctly and within the time it takes to travel from the ground to the top floor in an elevator.

A quality elevator pitch:

  • Gets everyone in your company on the precise same page regarding what your business is and what the key objectives are.
  • Allows everyone in your company to give a concise and consistent explanation of your business which leads to more customers.

The following questions will help you develop your elevator pitch.

  1. What does your company do (start with phrases such as: we help, we provide, we manufacture, we offer, etc.)?

______

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  1. Who does your company serve (who are your customers? teenagers? entrepreneurs, new parents, etc.)?

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  1. What key benefits do you offer your customers? (e.g., higher quality/more success, lower cost, more reliable, etc.)?

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  1. Why is your company better than competitors? (e.g., even faster, less expensive, etc.)? What information gives your firm more credibility (e.g., track record)?

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  1. Is there a clear and clean business sector that your company fits into (e.g., restaurant, CPA firm, etc.)?

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  1. Combine the key information from Questions 1-5 into a 35 word or less statement that describes your business. Say it aloud to make sure it sounds good and makes sense. Tell it to friends to make sure they “get” it. Tell it to employees to confirm that they can repeat it back to you. Write it below.

Our Company’s Elevator Pitch:

______

______

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Examples of Elevator Pitches:

  • Growthink is a consulting and publishing firm that helps entrepreneurs and business owners more successfully start, build and sell their companies. Since 1999, we have helped thousands of entrepreneurs achieve their goals.
  • Rick’s Bridal sells high-end wedding gowns and accessories to brides in New York City. For twenty years, Rick’s has served over 25,000 satisfied brides through our six locations.

III. Company Mission Statement

A mission statement explains what your business is trying to achieve.

For internal decision-making, it helps as key decisions should be made with regards to how well they help the company progress in achieving its mission.

For internal (e.g., employees) and external (investors, partners, customers) audiences, the mission can inspire and get them excited to be part of what the company is doing.

Examples:

  • Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
  • Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.

A great mission statement can change over time, although the best ones may not:

  • Since 1901, Nordstrom’s mission has been to “offer the customer the best possible service, selection, quality and value.”

To create your mission statement, the critical thing is to figure out the one thing you are trying to do better than anyone else.

For example, a good mission statement could simply be to “be the best Italian restaurant in this town“ or “to provide the most environmentally-friendly cleaning products” or “to provide the highest-quality automotive service.”

1. Write down your proposed mission statement:

Our proposed mission statement:

______

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______

Now judge your mission statement against these questions and modify it as appropriate:

  • Will it inspire you, your employees, potential investors, partners and/or customers?
  • Does it clearly state what your company does (broad mission statements like “we will be the best” have little value)?
  • Is it realistic/believable? (while you should think big, your mission must be achievable)
  • Is it in line with your company's values?

2. Based on these questions, improve your proposed mission statement as required, and write it here:

Our MissionStatement:

______

______

______

IV. SWOT

Great entrepreneurs use several techniques when assessing ideas. They start by separating strategic ideas from opportunistic ideas. While opportunistic ideas may bring in short-term revenues, strategic ideas drive the company closer to achieving its stated mission. As such, successful entrepreneurs weed out opportunistic ideas.

Successful entrepreneurs also judge new ideas by determining their feasibility and market potential. They conduct either formal or informal SWOT analyses, looking at the idea in the context of the company’s strengths and weaknesses, and in the context of market opportunities and threats.

Answer the following questions to conduct your SWOT analysis:

Our Company’s Key Strengths: ______

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Our Company’s Biggest Weaknesses: ______

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Examples of strengths and weaknesses include:

  • Competitive (dis)advantages
  • Reputation, market awareness
  • Assets (such as equipment, cash on hand, etc.)
  • People
  • Experience
  • Location
  • Product quality
  • Licenses/accreditations
  • Processes/systems
  • Culture/morale

Key Opportunitiesto Consider: ______

______

______

Key ThreatsWe Face/Might Face: ______

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Examples of opportunities and threats include:

Opportunities
  • Penetrating new markets and/or niches
  • Creating new products/services
  • Exploiting competitors' vulnerabilities
  • Changing your unique selling propositions
  • Investing in employee training
  • Hiring new employees
  • Modifying your tactics
  • Going after new joint venture partnerships
  • Finding new distributors
/ Threats
  • New political climates or legislation
  • New products or services offered by competitors
  • Competitors lowering their prices
  • Decreases in market demand
  • New technologies developed by others
  • Key customers and/or distributors leaving you
  • Loss of key employees
  • General economic downturns

Write in your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats above. Then go through the SWOTBuilder™ exercise below to improve what you’ve done:

SWOTBuilder™ Exercise: Figuring out how can you and your business become “uniquely qualified to succeed.”

Think about and write down how you have unique qualifications in each of the following areas. Or, how you can gain unique qualifications in these areas. You do not need to be uniquely qualified in EVERY area, but the more, the better.

  1. Products and/or Services: Do your product(s) and/or service(s) have key advantages over competing products and services (e.g., solves needs faster or better; is less expensive to deliver, etc.)?

Explain unique qualifications(then add to Strengths above): ______

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How could you gain more unique qualifications(then add to Opportunities above):

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  1. Human Resources: Do your management team, employees, advisors or board members have special skills or relationships?

Explain unique qualifications(then add to Strengths above): ______

______

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How could you gain more unique qualifications(then add to Opportunities above):

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  1. Location: Does your physical location or website address give you a unique ability to succeed?

Explain unique qualifications(then add to Strengths above): ______

______

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How could you gain more unique qualifications(then add to Opportunities above):

______

______

  1. Operational Systems: Do you have operational systems that allow you to outperform competitors (e.g., custom software to streamline operations)?

Explain unique qualifications(then add to Strengths above): ______

______

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How could you gain more unique qualifications(then add to Opportunities above):

______

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  1. Intellectual Property (IP): Do you have intellectual property that is unique (IP can relate to several of the other areas listed here such as your products, operational system, etc.)?

Explain unique qualifications(then add to Strengths above): ______

______

______

How could you gain more unique qualifications(then add to Opportunities above):

______

  1. Timing: Are you the first to market in your space? Will the fact that you are first give you a long-term competitive advantage?

Explain unique qualifications(then add to Strengths above): ______

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How could you gain more unique qualifications(then add to Opportunities above):

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  1. Customers: Do you have significant (or some) customer traction in certain markets (e.g., gained revenues or customers who are using your products or services)? Do you have unique customer retention strategies including barriers that influence customers not to leave you for competitors?

Explain unique qualifications(then add to Strengths above): ______

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How could you gain more unique qualifications(then add to Opportunities above):

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  1. Marketing: Do you have unique qualifications in marketing? Do you have marketing skill sets (e.g., salesmanship, online marketing) that give you a competitive advantage in your market? Do you have exclusive relationships (e.g., exclusive partnerships, distributors, spokesperson) that give you competitive advantage?

Explain unique qualifications (then add to Strengths above): ______

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How could you gain more unique qualifications (then add to Opportunities above):

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  1. Competition: Do your competitors have disadvantages (e.g., unionized workforce)? Is it difficult for competitors to enter your market (e.g., cost of entry; legal requirements to entry)? Are there things that you can do that your competitors simply cannot?

Explain unique qualifications (then add to Strengths above): ______

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How could you gain more unique qualifications (then add to Opportunities above):

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  1. Other: What else about your company makes you uniquely qualified to succeed?

Explain unique qualifications (then add to Strengths above): ______

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How could you gain more unique qualifications (then add to Opportunities above):

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AssetOppBuilder™

To ensure that you have a complete list of Opportunities to consider going after, there is one more exercise for you to complete. This is the AssetOppBuilder™ Exercise.

The key to the exercise is this: most people think about opportunities mostly as they pertain to growing revenues and profits. The SWOTBuilder™ Exercise helped you figure out how your business can become “uniquely qualified to succeed.” The AssetOppBuilder™ Exercise builds on that and forces you to think about what additional assets that, when built, will add significant long-term value to your company. Note that some assets, like developing a new product, could LOWER your annual profits, but are worth doing since longer term they will enable you to achieve your goals.

Define assets within the following categories that would add significant long-term value to your organization:

  • Customers (e.g., marquee customers, more customers):______

______

  • Products (e.g., new product development): ______

______

  • Distribution network (e.g., gaining more distributors): ______

______

  • Intellectual property (e.g., more patents, other IP): ______

______

  • Location(s) (e.g., launching new locations): ______

______

  • Reputation/brand (e.g., gaining more brand awareness): ______

______

  • Employee talent (e.g., hiring, training and retaining more employees): ______

______

  • Financial savings (e.g., figuring out ways to lower costs): ______

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  • Systems/processes (e.g., building systems and processes that lower costs and/or improve efficiency and/or consistency):

______

  • Strategic Partnerships (e.g., gaining new partners): ______

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  • Other: ______

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  • Other: ______

______

Add all of these opportunities to the “Key Opportunities to Consider” section above.

Choosing Your TOP Opportunities

In the next section, you will decide upon your company’s 5-year, 1-year, quarterly and monthly goals. Importantly, in determining your 5-year and 1-year goals, you will need to prioritize the Opportunities you listed above and determine which ones to go after.

So, look at your big list of “Key Opportunities to Consider” above. Then, choose those opportunities that you think will give you the greatest unique ability to succeed long-term, will drive revenues and profits, and that are most attainable based on your strengths. List those opportunities below.

The top Opportunities that we will execute upon include: ______

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V. GOALS

Setting and achieving goals is the hallmark of successful companies. The following GoalSetterPro™ questions and answers will allow you to quickly and easily set both long-term and short-term goals, and create and attain new goals as time goes on.

The key is to set SMART goals. SMART goals are goals that are:

  • Specific: your goals need to be very specific vs. being vague (e.g., we will complete development of one new product [specific] vs. we will work on one new product [vague])
  • Measurable: You should be able to measure whether you are meeting the goals or not (e.g., if you have a goal of improving customer service, you must have a way (for example customer surveys) to measure whether you achieved your goal or not).
  • Achievable and Realistic – making sure the objectives are achievable and realistic within the allotted time period (e.g., if your 5-year goal calls for you to generate $20 million in revenues in Year 5, it is unrealistic that you could generate $15 million in the next year).
  • Time-Bound – making sure you set a date by which the objectives will be achieved.
  1. Our 5-Year Company Goals:

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Examples of 5-Year Company Goals:

  • Reach $X million in sales
  • Control at least X% of market share in key markets
  • Increase net income to X% of sales
  • Sell our company for $X million
  • Improve customer satisfaction level to X% satisfaction or more

Now that you have this big 5-year goal, you need to break it down into pieces, or shorter-term goals, that you and your team can accomplish. Each of these goals must further progress your company towards achieving your big vision.

  1. Our 1-Year Company Goals:

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Examples of 1-Year, Quarterly & Monthly Company Goals:

  • Reach $X million in sales; grow sales by X%
  • Retain X% of our current customers
  • Gain X new customers
  • Control at least X% of market share in key markets; grow to become the number X player in the market (based on sales)
  • Increase net income to X% of sales
  • Improve customer satisfaction level to X% satisfaction or more
  • Hire X new employees
  • Train X employees
  • Increase efficiency by X%
  • Earn $X in net profit per share
  • Contribute to the community by…
  • Improve employee morale by X% by…
  • Start development on X new product(s)
  • Complete development on X new product(s)
  • Forge X new strategic partnership(s)
  • Get X new distributors(s)
  • Etc.

  1. Our Quarterly Company Goals:

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  1. Our Monthly Company Goals:

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You now have a clear long-term Goal and Vision, and you know exactly what goals you need to accomplish in the next month, quarter and year to achieve this vision.

Importantly, at the end of each month, quarter and year, you and your team need to sit down and:

1)Assess the results of that period vs. your goals

2)If applicable, assess why certain goals were unmet, and how you can overcome that in future periods

3)Reset the next period’s goals as needed to reflect current realities

Set the dates of your next planning sessions below.

The date and time of our next monthly planning meeting is ______.