Basic Overview of Various Strategic Planning Models
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Choose the Best Model — and Customize It as You Go Along
There is no one perfect strategic planning process, or model, to use the same way all the time with every organization. Each organization should customize the best approach to suit the culture of its members, the current situation in and around the organization, and the purpose of its planning.
This Web page briefly describes several different models of strategic planning, along with basic guidelines for choosing each. There is no strong agreement among experts in strategic planning as to which approaches are indeed “models” or how each is best implemented. The purpose of this Web page is to present different perspectives and options regarding strategic planning to help planners ensure their plans are the most relevant, realistic and flexible.
Planners can select the most appropriate model and then modify it to suit the nature and needs of their organization. For example, different organizations might have different names for the different phases and emphasize certain phases more than others in the model.
This document does not include detailed descriptions and directions for implementing each model. Those are available in the articles and books referenced in the topic “All About Strategic Planning” in the Free Management Library at managementhelp.org .
NOTE: The following models can be done with different styles. For example, some may prefer a rather top-down and even autocratic way of planning and making decisions. Others might prefer more inclusive and consensus-based planning. Some might prefer a very problem-centered approach, while others might prefer a more strength-based approach, for example, to use Appreciative Inquiry.
Model One – Conventional Strategic Planning
This is the most common model of strategic planning, although it is not suited for every organization. It is ideal for organizations that have sufficient resources to pursue very ambitious visions and goals, have external environments that are relatively stable, and do not have a large number of current issues to address. The model usually includes the following overall phases:
1. Develop or update the mission and optionally, vision and/or values statements.
2. Take a wide look around the outside and a good look inside the organization, and perhaps update the statements as a result.
3. As a result of this examination, select the multi-year strategies and/or goals to achieve the vision.
4. Then develop action plans that specify who is going to do what and by when to achieve each goal.
5. Identify associated plans, for example, staffing, facilities, marketing and financial plans.
6. Organize items 1-3 into a Strategic Plan and items 4-6 into a separate one-year Operational Plan.
Model Two – Issues-Based Strategic Planning
This model works best for organizations that have very limited resources, several current and major issues to address, little success with achieving ambitious goals, and/or very little buy-in to strategic planning. Using the conventional model of strategic planning for these organizations is a bit like focusing on the vision of running a marathon and on deciding the detailed route and milestones — while concurrently having heart problems, bad feet and no running clothes.
This model might include the following phases:
1. Identify 5-7 of the most important current issues facing the organization now.
2. Suggest action plans to address each issue over the next 6-12 months.
3. Include that information in a Strategic Plan.
After an issues-based plan has been implemented and the current, major issues are resolved, then the organization might undertake the more ambitious conventional model. Many people might assert that issues-based planning is really internal development planning, rather than strategic planning. Others would argue that the model is very strategic because it positions the organization for much more successful outward-looking and longer term planning later on.
Model Three – Organic Strategic Planning
The conventional model is considered by some people to be too confining and linear in nature. They believe that approach to planning too often produces a long sequence of orderly activities to do, as if organizations will remain static and predictable while all of those activities are underway. Other people believe that organizations are robust and dynamic systems that are always changing, so a plan produced from conventional planning might quickly become obsolete.
That is true, especially if planning is meant to achieve a very long-term vision for many people, for example, for a community or even generations of people. The organic model is based on the premise that the long-term vision is best achieved by everyone working together toward the vision, but with each person regularly doing whatever actions that he or she regularly decides to do toward that vision. The model might include the following phases:
1. With as many people as can be gathered, for example, from the community or generation, articulate the long-term vision and perhaps values to work toward the vision.
2. Each person leaves that visioning, having selected at least one realistic action that he or she will take toward the vision before the group meets again, for example, in a month or two.
3. People meet regularly to report the actions that they took and what they learned from them. The vision might be further clarified during these meetings.
4. Occasionally, the vision and the lists of accomplished and intended actions are included in a Strategic Plan.
Model Four — Real-Time Strategic Planning
Similar to the organic model of planning, this model is suited especially for people who believe that organizations are often changing much too rapidly for long-term, detailed planning to remain relevant. These experts might assert that planning for an organization should be done continuously, or in “real time.” The real-time planning model is best suited, especially to organizations with very rapidly changing environments outside the organization.
1. Articulate the mission, and perhaps the vision and/or values.
2. Assign planners to research the external environment and, as a result, to suggest a list of opportunities and of threats facing the organization.
3. Present the lists to the Board and other members of the organization for strategic thinking and discussions.
4. Soon after (perhaps during the next month) assign planners to evaluate the internal workings of the organization and, as a result, to suggest a list of strengths and of weaknesses in the organization.
5. Present these lists to the Board and other members of the organization for strategic thinking and discussions, perhaps using a SWOT analysis to analyze all four lists.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 regularly, for example, every six months or year and document the results in a Strategic Plan.
Model Five — Alignment Model of Strategic Planning
The primary purpose of this model is to ensure strong alignment of the organization’s internal operations with achieving an overall goal, for example, to increase productivity or profitability, or to successfully integrate a new cross-functional system, such as a new computer system. Overall phases in this model might include:
1. Establish the overall goal for the alignment.
2. Analyze which internal operations are most directly aligned with achieving that goal, and which are not.
3. Establish goals to more effectively align operations to achieving the overall goal. Methods to achieving the goals might include organizational performance management models, for example, Business Process Re-engineering or models of quality management, such as the TQM or ISO models.
4. Include that information in the Strategic Plan.
Similar to issues-based planning, many people might assert that the alignment model is really internal development planning, rather than strategic planning. Similarly, others would argue that the model is very strategic because it positions the organization for much more successful outward-looking and longer term planning later on.
Inspirational Model of Strategic Planning
This model is sometimes used when planners see themselves as having very little time available for planning and/or there is high priority on rather quickly producing a Strategic Plan document. Overall phases in this model might include:
1. Attempt to gather Board members and key employees together for planning.
2. Begin by fantasizing a highly inspirational vision for the organization — or by giving extended attention to wording in the mission statement, especially to include powerful and poignant wording.
3. Then brainstorm exciting, far-reaching goals to even more effectively serve customers and clients.
4. Then include the vision and goals the Strategic Plan.
While this model can be highly energizing, it might produce a Plan that is far too unrealistic (especially for an organization that already struggles to find time for planning) and, as a result, can be less likely to make a strategic impact on the organization and those it serves. Many experts might assert that these planners are confusing the map (the Strategic Plan document) with the journey (the necessary strategic thinking). However, it might be the only approach that would generate some outword focused discussion and also a Plan that, otherwise, would not have been written.
To Begin Customizing Your Approach to Strategic Planning …
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Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
Identifying or updating the mission, vision and values statements is usually done during strategic planning. Therefore, the reader might best be served to first read the information in the topic Strategic Planning.
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Statements
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1. Basically, the mission statement describes the overall purpose of the organization.
2. If the organization elects to develop a vision statement before developing the mission statement, ask “Why does the image, the vision exist — what is its purpose?” This purpose is often the same as the mission.
3. Developing a mission statement can be quick culture-specific, i.e., participants may use methods ranging from highly analytical and rational to highly creative and divergent, e.g., focused discussions, divergent experiences around daydreams, sharing stories, etc. Therefore, visit with the participants how they might like to arrive at description of their organizational mission.
4. When wording the mission statement, consider the organization’s products, services, markets, values, and concern for public image, and maybe priorities of activities for survival.
5. Consider any changes that may be needed in wording of the mission statement because of any new suggested strategies during a recent strategic planning process.
6. Ensure that wording of the mission is to the extent that management and employees can infer some order of priorities in how products and services are delivered.
7. When refining the mission, a useful exercise is to add or delete a word from the mission to realize the change in scope of the mission statement and assess how concise is its wording.
8. Does the mission statement include sufficient description that the statement clearly separates the mission of the organization from other organizations?
Developing a Vision Statement
1. The vision statement includes vivid description of the organization as it effectively carries out its operations.
2. Developing a vision statement can be quick culture-specific, i.e., participants may use methods ranging from highly analytical and rational to highly creative and divergent, e.g., focused discussions, divergent experiences around daydreams, sharing stories, etc. Therefore, visit with the participants how they might like to arrive at description of their organizational vision.
3. Developing the vision can be the most enjoyable part of planning, but the part where time easily gets away from you.
4. Note that originally, the vision was a compelling description of the state and function of the organization once it had implemented the strategic plan, i.e., a very attractive image toward which the organization was attracted and guided by the strategic plan. Recently, the vision has become more of a motivational tool, too often including highly idealistic phrasing and activities which the organization cannot realistically aspire.
Developing a Values Statement
1. Values represent the core priorities in the organization’s culture, including what drives members’ priorities and how they truly act in the organization, etc. Values are increasingly important in strategic planning. They often drive the intent and direction for “organic” planners.
2. Developing a values statement can be quick culture-specific, i.e., participants may use methods ranging from highly analytical and rational to highly creative and divergent, e.g., focused discussions, divergent experiences around daydreams, sharing stories, etc. Therefore, visit with the participants how they might like to arrive at description of their organizational values.
3. Establish four to six core values from which the organization would like to operate. Consider values of customers, shareholders, employees and the community.
4. Notice any differences between the organization’s preferred values and its true values (the values actually reflected by members’ behaviors in the organization). Record each preferred value on a flash card, then have each member “rank” the values with 1, 2, or 3 in terms of the priority needed by the organization with 3 indicating the value is very important to the organization and 1 is least important. Then go through the cards again to rank how people think the values are actually being enacted in the
organization with 3 indicating the values are fully enacted and 1 indicating the value is hardly reflected at all. Then address discrepancies where a value is highly preferred (ranked with a 3), but hardly enacted (ranked with a 1).
5. Incorporate into the strategic plan, actions to align actual behavior with preferred behaviors.
For the Category of Strategic Planning:
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
This activity is usually conducted as part of the overall strategic planning. Therefore, the reader might best be served to first read the information in the topic Strategic Planning. Strategic issues and goals are usually identified near the end of the strategic analysis activity (which sometimes includes doing an environmental scan and/or SWOT analysis.)
Address Questions Such As:
What external changes could effect the organization?” Consider, e.g.,
– changing demographics of stakeholders, including number, values, resources, power, etc.;
– changing rules and regulations; expectations and resources from customers, vendors, etc.;
– expected shifts in needs for products and services; availability of leadership and staffing; and
– what other current or new organizations provide similar services?
What are the opportunities we might have from this external situation?
What are the threats that we might be facing from this external situation?
What is the quality of our internal activities, e.g., Board operations, planning, marketing, products and services, staffing and finances?
What are our weaknesses of the organization, based on the quality of our internal activities?
What are our strengths, based on the quality of our internal activities?
Should we do a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats? — see SWOT analysis) to strategize?
Or, should we collect input from everyone now about what they see as strategic issues? (Assume you’ll use this approach, rather than a SWOT for now.)
Use a round-robin technique to collect and organize members’ input. (Issues and goals usually come from strengths to be build on, weaknesses to be strengthened opportunities to be taken, and threats to be avoided.)
Visit with each issue, whether it’s “important” or “urgent.” Often, issues seem very important when they’re only urgent, for example, changing a flat tire is an urgent issue — but you’d never put “changing a tire” in your strategic plan. Attend only to the important issues and not the urgent issues. Attend to the important issues and not the urgent issues.
Facilitate to gain consensus on the top three to five issues. (Many issues are based on gut feeling or intuition, rather than on extensive external and internal assessments. Issues that are too narrow do not warrant planning and issues that are too broad will bog you down. Deal with issues that you can do something about. Be careful not to ignore current major issues in the interest of pursuing more creative and forward-looking goals. Many organizations have faltered because their planning focused too far down the road and they ended up falling over their feet.
Write down the issues. Issues should be clearly articulated so that another outside of the organization can understand the description of the issue.
For each issue, one at a time, identify goals that, when achieved, will address the issue. It might require several goals for each issue. If planners get stuck on identifying goals, then have them brainstorm what can be done (strategies) to address the issues, and don’t think about specific goals for now. Once strategies have been suggested, then suggest some specific milestones that will be recognized along the way of implementing the strategies — can call them goals. Don’t worry about getting the perfect goals. You can refine them as you actually work to implement them.
Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Strategizing During Strategic Planning
In addition to the information on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Strategizing During Strategic Planning. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
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There Are Various Different Views and Models — and the Process You Use Depends
Simply put, strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more, how it’s going to get there and how it’ll know if it got there or not. The focus of a strategic plan is usually on the entire organization, while the focus of a business plan is usually on a particular product, service or program.
There are a variety of perspectives, models and approaches used in strategic planning. The way that a strategic plan is developed depends on the nature of the organization’s leadership, culture of the organization, complexity of the organization’s environment, size of the organization, expertise of planners, etc. For example, there are a variety of strategic planning models, including goals-based, issues based, organic, scenario (some would assert that scenario planning is more of a technique than model), etc.
1) Goals-based planning is probably the most common and starts with focus on the organization’s mission (and vision and/or values), goals to work toward the mission, strategies to achieve the goals, and action planning (who will do what and by when).
2) Issues-based strategic planning often starts by examining issues facing the organization, strategies to address those issues and action plans.
3) Organic strategic planning might start by articulating the organization’s vision and values, and then action plans to achieve the vision while adhering to those values. Some planners prefer a particular approach to planning, eg, appreciative inquiry.
Some plans are scoped to one year, many to three years, and some to five to ten years into the future. Some plans include only top-level information and no action plans. Some plans are five to eight pages long, while others can be considerably longer.
Quite often, an organization’s strategic planners already know much of what will go into a strategic plan (this is true for business planning, too). However, development of the strategic plan greatly helps to clarify the organization’s plans and ensure that key leaders are all “on the same script”. Far more important than the strategic plan document, is the strategic planning process itself.
Also, in addition to the size of the organization, differences in how organizations carry out the planning activities are more of a matter of the nature of the participants in the organization — than its for- profit/nonprofit status. For example, detail-oriented people may prefer a linear, top-down, general-to-specific approach to planning. On the other hand, rather artistic and highly reflective people may favor of a highly divergent and “organic” approach to planning.
Some Basic Descriptions of Strategic Planning — and a Comparison to Business Planning
NOTE: Much of the following information is in regard to goals-based strategic planning, probably the most common form of strategic planning. However, issues-based planning is also a very popular approach to strategic planning — an approach still too-often forgotten.
For-Profit Versus Nonprofit Strategic Planning
Major differences in how organizations carry out the various steps and associated activities in the strategic planning process are more of a matter of the size of the organization — than its for-profit/nonprofit status. Small nonprofits and small for-profits tend to conduct somewhat similar planning activities that are different from those conducted in large organizations. On the other hand, large nonprofits and large for-profits tend to conduct somewhat similar planning activities that are different from those conducted in small organizations. (The focus of the planning activities is often different between for-profits and nonprofits. Nonprofits tend to focus more on matters of board development, fundraising and volunteer management. For-profits tend to focus more on activities to maximize profit.)
Therefore, the reader is encouraged to review a variety of the materials linked from this page, whether he or she is from a nonprofit or for-profit organization. Items below are marked as “nonprofit” in case the reader still prefers to focus on information presented in the context of nonprofit planning.
(An upcoming section includes numerous overviews of the overall strategic planning process Various Overviews )
Strategic planning serves a variety of purposes in organizations, including to:
1. Clearly define the purpose of the organization and to establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with that mission in a defined time frame within the organization’s capacity for implementation.
2. Communicate those goals and objectives to the organization’s constituents.
3. Develop a sense of ownership of the plan.
4. Ensure the most effective use is made of the organization’s resources by focusing the resources on the key priorities.
5. Provide a base from which progress can be measured and establish a mechanism for informed change when needed.
6. Listen to everyone’s opinions in order to build consensus about where the organization is going.
Other reasons include that strategic planning:
7. Provides clearer focus for the organization, thereby producing more efficiency and effectiveness.
8. Bridges staff/employees and the board of directors (in the case of corporations).
9. Builds strong teams in the board and in the staff/employees (in the case of corporations).
10. Provides the glue that keeps the board members together (in the case of corporations).
11.Produces great satisfaction and meaning among planners, especially around a common vision.
12. Increases productivity from increased efficiency and effectiveness.
13. Solves major problems in the organization.
The scheduling for the strategic planning process depends on the nature and needs of the organization and the its immediate external environment. For example, planning should be carried out frequently in an organization whose products and services are in an industry that is changing rapidly . In this situation, planning might be carried out once or even twice a year and done in a very comprehensive and detailed fashion (that is, with attention to mission, vision, values, environmental scan, issues, goals, strategies, objectives, responsibilities, time lines, budgets, etc). On the other hand, if the organization has been around for many years and is in a fairly stable marketplace, then planning might be carried out once a year and only certain parts of the planning process, for example, action planning (objectives, responsibilities, time lines, budgets, etc) are updated each year. Consider the following guidelines:
1. Strategic planning should be done when an organization is just getting started. (The strategic plan is usually part of an overall business plan, along with a marketing plan, financial plan and operational/management plan.)
2. Strategic planning should also be done in preparation for a new major venture, for example, developing a new department, division, major new product or line of products, etc.
3. Strategic planning should also be conducted at least once a year in order to be ready for the coming fiscal year (the financial management of an organization is usually based on a year-to-year, or fiscal year, basis). In this case, strategic planning should be conducted in time to identify the organizational goals to be achieved at least over the coming fiscal year, resources needed to achieve those goals, and funded needed to obtain the resources. These funds are included in budget planning for the coming fiscal year. However, not all phases of strategic planning need be fully completed each year. The full strategic planning process should be conducted at least once every three years. As noted above, these activities should be conducted every year if the organization is experiencing tremendous change.
4. Each year, action plans should be updated.
5. Note that, during implementation of the plan, the progress of the implementation should be reviewed at least on a quarterly basis by the board. Again, the frequency of review depends on the extent of the rate of change in and around the organization.
Various Overviews of Strategic Planning Processes and Samples of Strategic Planning Process
NOTE: Although there are separate sections listed below for many of the major activities in strategic planning (for example, the sections “Developing a Mission”, “Developing a Vision”, etc.), this section “Various Overviews of Strategic Planning” also includes information about those activities as well. The reader might scan 8-10 of the articles to get a basic feel for strategic planning processes and the diversity of views on the processes. However, do not conclude that you can learn the most important aspects of strategic planning by reading some of the following articles — many of them are by authors who write about certain aspects of strategic planning, but not all aspects, so be sure to review resources in other subtopics of this overall topic of strategic planning.
Many managers spend most of their time “fighting fires” in the workplace. — their time is spent realizing and reacting to problems. For these managers — and probably for many of us — it can be very difficult to stand back and take a hard look at what we want to accomplish and how we want to accomplish it.
We’re too buy doing what we think is making progress. However, one of the major differences between new and experienced managers is the skill to see the broad perspective, to take the long view on what we want to do and how we’re going to do it. One of the best ways to develop this skill is through ongoing experience in strategic planning. The following guidelines may help you to get the most out of your strategic planning experience.
1. The real benefit of the strategic planning process is the process, not the plan document.
2. There is no “perfect” plan. There’s doing your best at strategic thinking and implementation, and learning from what you’re doing to enhance what you’re doing the next time around.
3. The strategic planning process is usually not an “aha!” experience. It’s like the management process itself — it’s a series of small moves that together keep the organization doing things right as it heads in the right direction.
4. In planning, things usually aren’t as bad as you fear nor as good as you’d like.
Need Consultant or Facilitator to Help You With Planning?
You may want to consider using a facilitator from outside of your organization if:
1. Your organization has not conducted strategic planning before.
2. For a variety of reasons, previous strategic planning was not deemed to be successful.
3. There appears to be a wide range of ideas and/or concerns among organization members about strategic planning and current organizational issues to be addressed in the plan.
4. There is no one in the organization who members feel has sufficient facilitation skills.
5. No one in the organization feels committed to facilitating strategic planning for the organization.
6. Leaders believe that an inside facilitator will either inhibit participation from others or will not have the opportunity to fully participate in planning themselves.
7. Leaders want an objective voice, i.e., someone who is not likely to have strong predispositions about the organization’s strategic issues and ideas.
Strategic planning should be conducted by a planning team. Consider the following guidelines when developing the team. (Note that reference to boards of directors is in regard to organizations that are corporations.)
1. The chief executive and board chair should be included in the planning group, and should drive development and implementation of the plan.
2. Establish clear guidelines for membership, for example, those directly involved in planning, those who will provide key information to the process, those who will review the plan document, those who will authorize the document, etc.
3. A primary responsibility of a board of directors is strategic planning to effectively lead the organization. Therefore, insist that the board be strongly involved in planning, often including assigning a planning committee (often, the same as the executive committee).
4. Ask if the board membership is representative of the organization’s clientele and community, and if they are not, the organization may want to involve more representation in planning. If the board chair or chief executive balks at including more of the board members in planning, then the chief executive and/or board chair needs to seriously consider how serious the organization is about strategic planning!
5. Always include in the group, at least one person who ultimately has authority to make strategic decisions, for example, to select which goals will be achieved and how.
6. Ensure that as many stakeholders as possible are involved in the planning process.
7. Involve at least those who are responsible for composing and implementing the plan.
8. Involve someone to administrate the process, including arranging meetings, helping to record key information, helping with flipcharts, monitoring status of prework, etc.
9. Consider having the above administrator record the major steps in the planning process to help the organization conduct its own planning when the plan is next updated.
Note the following considerations:
10. Different types of members may be needed more at different times in the planning process, for example, strong board involvement in determining the organization’s strategic direction (mission, vision, and values), and then more staff involvement in determining the organization’s strategic analysis to determine its current issues and goals, and then primarily the staff to determine the strategies needed to address the issues and meet the goals.
11. In general, where there’s any doubt about whether a certain someone should be involved in planning, it’s best to involve them. It’s worse to exclude someone useful then it is to have one or two extra people in planning — this is true in particular with organizations where board members often do not have extensive expertise about the organization and its products or services.
12. Therefore, an organization may be better off to involve board and staff planners as much as possible in all phases of planning. Mixing the board and staff during planning helps board members understand the day-to-day issues of the organization, and helps the staff to understand the top-level issues of the organization.
1. New planners usually want to know how many meetings will be needed and what is needed for each meeting, i.e., they want a procedure for strategic planning. The number of meetings depends on whether the organization has done planning before, how many strategic issues and goals the organization faces, whether the culture of the organization prefers short or long meetings, and how much time the organization is willing to commit to strategic planning.
2. Attempt to complete strategic planning in at most two to three months, or momentum will be lost and the planning effort may fall apart.
Scheduling of Meetings
1. Have each meeting at most two to three weeks apart when planning. It’s too easy to lose momentum otherwise.
2. The most important factor in accomplishing complete attendance to planning meetings is evidence of strong support from executives. Therefore, ensure that executives a) issue clear direction that they strongly support and value the strategic planning process, and b) are visibly involved in the planning process.
An Example Planning Process and Design of Meetings
One example of a brief planning process is the following which includes four planning meetings and develops a top-level strategic plan which is later translated into a yearly operating plan by the staff:
1. Planning starts with a half-day or all-day board retreat and includes introductions by the board chair and/or chief executive, their explanations of the organization’s benefits from strategic planning and the organization’s commitment to the planning process, the facilitator’s overview of the planning process, and the board chairs and/or chief executive’s explanation of who will be involved in the planning process. In the retreat, the organization may then begin the next step in planning, whether this be visiting their mission, vision, values, etc. or identifying current issues and goals to which strategies will need to be developed. (Goals are often reworded issues.) Planners are asked to think about strategies before the next meeting.
2. The next meeting focuses on finalizing strategies to deal with each issue. Before the next meeting, a subcommittee is charged to draft the planning document, which includes updated mission, vision, and values, and also finalized strategic issues, goals, strategies. This document is distributed before the next meeting.
3. In the next meeting, planners exchange feedback about the content and format of the planning document. Feedback is incorporated in the document and it is distributed before the next meeting.
4. The next meeting does not require entire attention to the plan, e.g., the document is authorized by the board during a regular board meeting.
5. Note that in the above example, various subcommittees might be charged to gather additional information and distribute it before the next planning meeting.
6. Note, too, that the staff may take this document and establish a yearly operating plan which details what strategies will be implemented over the next year, who will do them, and by when.
7. No matter how serious organizations are about strategic planning, they usually have strong concerns about being able to find time to attend frequent meetings. This concern can be addressed by ensuring meetings are well managed, having short meetings as needed rather than having fewer but longer meetings, and having realistic expectations from the planning project.
Always First Do “Plan for a Plan”
Too often, planners jump into the planning process by reviewing the organization’s mission or then establishing a vision and goals to achieve in the future. Instead, planners should always start by doing a “plan for a plan.” When planner skip this step, they too often produce a plan that is not relevant to the organization, unrealistic to apply, and inflexible to the culture and limitations of the organization.
(Many planners prefer to start strategic planning by clarifying the mission, vision and/or values of the organization. Other planners prefer to start by taking a wide look around the external environment of the organization and also the inside of the organization, and then clarifying/strategizing what the organization should do as result of what the planners find. If you prefer to address the mission, vision and/or values next, then skip to those sections later on below.)
A frequent complaint about strategic plans is that they are merely “to-do” lists of what to accomplish over the next few years. Or, others complain that strategic planning never seems to come in handy when the organization is faced with having to make a difficult, major decision. Or, other complain that strategic planning really doesn’t help the organization face the future.
These complaints arise because organizations fail to conduct a thorough strategic analysis as part of their strategic planning process. Instead, planners decide to plan only from what they know now. This makes the planning process much less strategic and a lot more guesswork. Strategic analysis is the heart of the strategic planning process and should not be ignored.
Taking a Wide Look Around the Outside of the Organization to Identify Opportunities and Threats
An external analysis usually includes looking at various trends, including political, economic, societal, technological and ecological.
Looking Around Inside of Organization to Identify Strengths and Weaknesses
The following assessments might be useful in helping you to take a look around the inside of your organization — to assess the quality of all of its operations.
The preceding topics in the Library can be useful when thinking of creative approaches to address priorities found in planning.
One of the most important reasons that organizations do strategic planning is to ensure that they remain sustainable — that they not only survive, but that they thrive well into the future. So it’s important to understand what makes an organization sustainable — it’s not just getting enough money. See Organizational Sustainability
Do a SWOT Analysis of Results of Looking Outside and Inside the Organization?
Now that you’ve identified opportunities (O) and threats (T) and also strengths (S) and weaknesses (W), you could to do a SWOT analysis in order to identify important priorities to address and how to address them, i.e., identify strategic goals and methods/strategies to achieve them. Note that the next section below, “Other Guidelines …”, also gives ideas about how analyze results of your strategic analyses.
Other Guidelines to Identify Strategic Goals and Methods/Strategies to Achieve Goals
In addition to a SWOT analysis, or you choose not to do one, consider the guidelines in the following articles. Each might give ideas for how to identify the best approaches to selecting the best goals and methods/strategies to achieve those goals.
Consider Your Business Model (For-Profit and Nonprofit)
(As mentioned above, many planners prefer to start strategic planning by clarifying the mission, vision and/or values of the organization. Other planners prefer to start by taking a wide look around the external environment of the organization and also the inside, and then clarifying/strategizing what the organization should do as a result of what the planners find. If you prefer first to do those analyses, then see the Strategic Analysis section above.)
Suggestion: Use your browser to do a search for “mission statements”. This likely will result in numerous links to a wide variety of organization’s mission statements that you can review as samples of mission statements.
Suggestion: Use your browser to do a search for “vision statements”. This likely will result in numerous links to a wide variety of organization’s vision statements that you can review as samples of vision statements.
Suggestion: Use your browser to do a search for “values statements”. This likely will result in numerous links to a wide variety of organization’s values statements that you can review as samples of values statements.
Action Planning and Operational Planning (Objectives, Responsibilities and Deadlines)
Strategic planning can be exhilarating when coming up with new visions and missions and values, talking about long-standing issues in the workplace and coming up with new and exciting opportunities. But without careful action planning — and diligently ensuring actions are carried out — the plan ends up collecting dust on a shelf. Many organizations develop action plans for the first year of a multi-year strategic plan and refer to that action plan as an “operational plan.”
I’ve you’ve followed the guidelines, so far, throughout this Library topic, then writing your plan will be fairly straightforward. A frequent mistake at this point is not communicating the plan to enough people, including external stakeholders. The following link will be useful to you now. Basics of Writing and Communicating Your Plan
Implementing, Monitoring, Evaluating and Deviating from the Plan — and Managing Change
How Do We Ensure Implementation of Our New Plan?
A frequent complaint about the strategic planning process is that it produces a document that ends up collecting dust on a shelf — the organization ignores the precious information depicted in the document.
The following guidelines will help ensure that the plan is implemented. (Note that reference to boards of directors is in regard to organizations that are corporations.
1. When conducting the planning process, involve the people who will be responsible for implementing the plan. Use a cross-functional team (representatives from each of the major organization’s products or service) to ensure the plan is realistic and collaborative.
2. Ensure the plan is realistic. Continue asking planning participants “Is this realistic? Can you really do this?”
3. Organize the overall strategic plan into smaller action plans, often including an action plan (or work plan) for each committee on the board.
4. In the overall planning document, specify who is doing what and by when (action plans are often referenced in the implementation section of the overall strategic plan). Some organizations may elect to include the action plans in a separate document from the strategic plan, which would include only the mission, vision, values, key issues and goals, and strategies. This approach carries some risk that the board will lose focus on the action plans.
5. In an implementation section in the plan, specify and clarify the plan’s implementation roles and responsibilities. Be sure to detail particularly the first 90 days of the implementation of the plan. Build in regular reviews of status of the implementation of the plan.
6. Translate the strategic plan’s actions into job descriptions and personnel performance reviews.
7. Communicate the role of follow-ups to the plan. If people know the action plans will be regularly reviewed, implementers tend to do their jobs before they’re checked on.
8. Be sure to document and distribute the plan, including inviting review input from all.
9. Be sure that one internal person has ultimate responsibility that the plan is enacted in a timely fashion.
10. The chief executive’s support of the plan is a major driver to the plan’s implementation. Integrate the plan’s goals and objectives into the chief executive’s performance reviews.
11. Place huge emphasis on feedback to the board’s executive committee from the planning participants.
Consider all or some of the following to ensure the plan is implemented.
12. Have designated rotating “checkers” to verify, e.g., every quarter, if each implementer completed their assigned tasks.
13. Have pairs of people be responsible for tasks. Have each partner commit to helping the other to finish the other’s tasks on time.
Monitoring Implementation, Evaluating Implementation — and Deviating from Plan, If Necessary
As stated several times throughout this library topics (and in materials linked from it), too many strategic plans end up collecting dust on a shelf. Monitoring and evaluating the planning activities and status of implementation of the plan is — for many organizations — as important as identifying strategic issues and goals. One advantage of monitoring and evaluation is to ensure that the organization is following the direction established during strategic planning. That advantage is obvious.
However, another major advantage is that the management can learn a great deal about the organization and how to manage it by continuing to monitor and evaluate the planning activities and the status of the implementation of the plan. Note that plans are guidelines. They aren’t rules.
Changing the Plan As Necessary During Implementation
It’s OK to deviate from a plan. But planners should understand the reason for the deviations and update the plan to reflect the new direction. How to Change Your Strategic Plan
The following links are to major topics in the Library that are all about guiding change in your organization:
Guidelines to Manage Organizational Change While Implementing the Plan
As you are implementing your Plan, you will likely be making significant changes within your organization, whether changes to strategy, structure or policies. These should be done carefully. The following links are to resources to help you accomplish successful change.
It’s one thing to develop a plan. It’s another to actually implement the plan. Far too many plans sit untouched on shelves. A low-cost, straightforward approach to share ongoing support and accountabilities to implement a plan is to use peer coaching groups. That approach is brought to you by Authenticity Consulting, LLC — the same company that brings you this Free Management Library. Using Peer Coaching Groups(sm) to Ensure Accountability and Action
Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Strategic Planning
In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Strategic Planning. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
(The reader might best be served to first read the information in the topic Strategic Planning. This library topic explains basics of strategic planning, basic elements in the process, how to prepare for planning, conducting planning, writing and communicating the document, evaluating the strategic planning process.)
Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Evaluating the Strategic Plan
In addition to the information on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Evaluating the Strategic Plan. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.
As stated several times throughout this library topics (and in materials linked from it), too many strategic plans end up collecting dust on a shelf. Monitoring and evaluating the planning activities and status of implementation of the plan is — for many organizations — as important as identifying strategic issues and goals. One advantage of monitoring and evaluation is to ensure that the organization is following the direction established during strategic planning.
The above advantage is obvious. Adults tend to learn best when they’re actually doing something with new information and materials and then they’re continuing to reflect on their experiences. You can learn a great deal about your organization and how to manage it by continuing to monitor the implementation of strategic plans.
Note that plans are guidelines. They aren’t rules. It’s OK to deviate from a plan. But planners should understand the reason for the deviations and update the plan to reflect the new direction.
Responsibilities for Monitoring and Evaluation
The strategic plan document should specify who is responsible for the overall implementation of the plan, and also who is responsible for achieving each goal and objective.
The document should also specify who is responsible to monitor the implementation of the plan and made decisions based on the results. For example, the board might expect the chief executive to regularly report to the full board about the status of implementation, including progress toward each of the overall strategic goals. In turn, the chief executive might expect regular status reports from middle managers regarding the status toward their achieving the goals and objectives assigned to them.
Key Questions While Monitoring and Evaluating Status of Implementation of the Plan
1. Are goals and objectives being achieved or not? If they are, then acknowledge, reward and communicate the progress. If not, then consider the following questions.
2. Will the goals be achieved according to the timelines specified in the plan? If not, then why?
3. Should the deadlines for completion be changed (be careful about making these changes — know why efforts are behind schedule before times are changed)?
4. Do personnel have adequate resources (money, equipment, facilities, training, etc.) to achieve the goals?
5. Are the goals and objectives still realistic?
6. Should priorities be changed to put more focus on achieving the goals?
7. Should the goals be changed (be careful about making these changes — know why efforts are not achieving the goals before changing the goals)?
8. What can be learned from our monitoring and evaluation in order to improve future planning activities and also to improve future monitoring and evaluation efforts?
Frequency of Monitoring and Evaluation
The frequency of reviews depends on the nature of the organization and the environment in which it’s operating. Organizations experiencing rapid change from inside and/or outside the organization may want to monitor implementation of the plan at least on a monthly basis.
Boards of directors should see status of implementation at least on a quarterly basis.
Chief executives should see status at least on a monthly basis.
Reporting Results of Monitoring and Evaluation
Always write down the status reports. In the reports, describe:
1. Answers to the above key questions while monitoring implementation.
2. Trends regarding the progress (or lack thereof) toward goals, including which goals and objectives
3. Recommendations about the status
4. Any actions needed by management
Deviating from Plan
It’s OK do deviate from the plan. The plan is only a guideline, not a strict roadmap which must be followed.
Usually the organization ends up changing its direction somewhat as it proceeds through the coming years. Changes in the plan usually result from changes in the organization’s external environment and/or client needs result in different organizational goals, changes in the availability of resources to carry out the original plan, etc.
The most important aspect of deviating from the plan is knowing why you’re deviating from the plan, i.e., having a solid understanding of what’s going on and why.
Changing the Plan
Be sure some mechanism is identified for changing the plan, if necessary. For example, regarding changes, write down:
1. What is causing changes to be made.
2. Why the changes should be made (the “why” is often different than “what is causing” the changes).
3. The changes to made, including to goals, objectives, responsibilities and timelines.
Manage the various versions of the plan (including by putting a new date on each new version of the plan).
Always keep old copies of the plan.
Always discuss and write down what can be learned from recent planning activity to make the next strategic planning activity more efficient.
A Note About Celebration
I’ve been involved with many strategic planning activities. Rarely, when a plan is completed, do organizations really acknowledge the success they have achieved. Instead, planners are often so focused on “progress” and problem solving, that they’re too eager to move on to the next version of the plan.
Celebration is as important as accomplishing objectives — maybe more. Without a sense of closure, acknowledgement and fulfillment from a job well done, the next planning cycle becomes a grind.
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Basics of Strategic Planning
In addition to the information on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Basics of Strategic Planning. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.
Simply put, strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more and how it’s going to get there. Typically, the process is organization-wide, or focused on a major function such as a division, department or other major function. (The descriptions on this page assume that strategic planning is focused on the organization.)
How to Get a Feel for Strategic Planning — There’s No Perfect Way to Do It
Planning typically includes several major activities or steps in the process. Different people often have different names for these major activities. They might even conduct them in a different order. Strategic planning often includes use of several key terms. Different people might use apply different definitions for these terms, as well.
Don’t be concerned about finding the “perfect way” to conduct strategic planning. You’ll soon notice that each writer seems to have their own particularly interpretation of the activities in strategic planning. However, as you read the materials linked from the topic Strategic Planning in this library, you’ll begin to notice some information that is common to most writers.
Read the basic description described below on this page. Then review the various materials linked from the library in the topic Strategic Planning. Once you start strategic planning, you’ll soon find your own particular approach to carrying out the process.
One Way to Look at Strategic Planning
One interpretation of the major activities in strategic planning activities is that it includes:
1. Strategic Analysis
This activity can include conducting some sort of scan, or review, of the organization’s environment (for example, of the political, social, economic and technical environment). Planners carefully consider various driving forces in the environment, for example, increasing competition, changing demographics, etc. Planners also look at the various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (an acronym for this activity is SWOT) regarding the organization.
(Some people take this wide look around after they’ve identified or updated their mission statement, vision statement, values statement, etc. These statements are briefly described below. Other people conduct the analysis before reviewing the statements.)
(Note that in the past, organizations usually referred to the phrase “long-range planning“. More recently, planners use the phrase “strategic planning”. This new phrase is meant to capture the strategic (comprehensive, thoughtful, well-placed) nature of this type of planning.)
2. Setting Strategic Direction
Planners carefully come to conclusions about what the organization must do as a result of the major issues and opportunities facing the organization. These conclusions include what overall accomplishments (or strategic goals) the organization should achieve, and the overall methods (or strategies) to achieve the accomplishments. Goals should be designed and worded as much as possible to be specific, measurable, acceptable to those working to achieve the goals, realistic, timely, extending the capabilities of those working to achieve the goals, and rewarding to them, as well. (An acronym for these criteria is “SMARTER”.)
At some point in the strategic planning process (sometimes in the activity of setting the strategic direction), planners usually identify or update what might be called the strategic “philosophy”. This includes identifying or updating the organization’s mission, vision and/or values statements. Mission statements are brief written descriptions of the purpose of the organization. Mission statements vary in nature from very brief to quite comprehensive, and including having a specific purpose statement that is part of the overall mission statement. Many people consider the values statement and vision statement to be part of the mission statement. New businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) often work with a state agency to formally register their new business, for example, as a corporation, association, etc. This registration usually includes declaring a mission statement in their charter (or constitution, articles of incorporation, etc.).
It seems that vision and values statements are increasingly used. Vision statements are usually a compelling description of how the organization will or should operate at some point in the future and of how customers or clients are benefiting from the organization’s products and services. Values statements list the overall priorities in how the organization will operate. Some people focus the values statement on moral values. Moral values are values that suggest overall priorities in how people ought to act in the world, for example, integrity, honesty, respect, etc. Other people include operational values which suggest overall priorities for the organization, for example, to expand marketshare, increase efficiency, etc. (Some people would claim that these operational values are really strategic goals. Don’t get hung up on wording for now.)
3. Action Planning
Action planning is carefully laying out how the strategic goals will be accomplished. Action planning often includes specifying objectives, or specific results, with each strategic goal. Therefore, reaching a strategic goal typically involves accomplishing a set of objectives along the way — in that sense, an objective is still a goal, but on a smaller scale.
Often, each objective is associated with a tactic, which is one of the methods needed to reach an objective. Therefore, implementing a strategy typically involves implementing a set of tactics along the way — in that sense, a tactic is still a strategy, but on a smaller scale.
Action planning also includes specifying responsibilities and timelines with each objective, or who needs
to do what and by when. It should also include methods to monitor and evaluate the plan, which includes knowing how the organization will know who has done what and by when.
It’s common to develop an annual plan (sometimes called the operational plan or management plan), which includes the strategic goals, strategies, objectives, responsibilities and timelines that should be done in the coming year. Often, organizations will develop plans for each major function, division department, etc., and call these work plans.
Usually, budgets are included in the strategic and annual plan, and with work plans. Budgets specify the money needed for the resources that are necessary to implement the annual plan. Budgets also depict how the money will be spent, for example, for human resources, equipment, materials, etc.
(Note there are several different kinds of budgets. Operating budgets are usually budgets associated with major activities over the coming year. Project budgets are associated with major projects, for example, constructing a building, developing a new program or product line, etc. Cash budgets depict where cash will be spent over some near term, for example, over the next three months (this is very useful in order to know if you can afford bills that must be paid soon. Capital budgets are associated with operating some major asset, for example, a building, automobiles, furniture, computers, etc.
Basic Overview of Variety of Planning Models
Here’s a quick overview of a variety of strategic planning. This overview will help you get a feel for the variety of perspectives on strategic planning. Basic Overview of Various Models
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Evaluating the Strategic Plan
In addition to the information on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Evaluating the Strategic Plan. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.
(At this point in the strategic planning process, planners have usually already completed all or most of the strategic analysis, including the environmental scan, SWOT analysis, identifying strategic issues and goals. They’ve probably already developed/updated the mission statement (and a vision statement and values statement, if they choose to add these).
Action planning typically includes deciding who is going to do what and by when and in what order for the organization to reach its strategic goals. The design and implementation of the action planning depend on the nature and needs of the organization.
One of Biggest Problems in Strategic Planning: Plan Isn’t Implemented
At this point in planning, planners are sometimes fatigued from completing the earlier phases of planning. Action planning may seem detailed and tedious compared to earlier phases of strategic planning which often seem creative in nature. Therefore, action planning is too often ignored, leaving the results of earlier stages of planning much as “castles in the air” — useless philosophical statements with no grounding in the day-to-day realities of the organization. Meaningful stages of earlier planning become utterly useless.
The organization’s commitment to strategic planning is commensurate to the extent that a) the organization completes action plans to reach each strategic goal and b) includes numerous methods for verifying and evaluating the actual extent of implementation of the action plan.
Developing Action Plans (or Work Plans)
1. Actions plans specify the actions needed to address each of the top organizational issues and to reach each of the associated goals, who will complete each action and according to what timeline.
2. Develop an overall, top-level action plan that depicts how each strategic goal will be reached.
3. Develop an action plan for each major function in the organization, e.g., marketing, development, finance, personnel, and for each program/service, etc. These plans, in total, should depict how the overall action plan will be implemented. In each action plan, specify the relationship of the action plan to the organization’s overall, top-level action plan.
4. Ensure each manager (and, ideally each employee) has an action plan that contributes to the overall. These plans, in total, should depict how the action plans of the major functions will be implemented. Again, specify the relationship of these action plan to the organization’s overall, top-level action plan.
5. The format of the action plan depends on the nature and needs of the organization. The plan for the organization, each major function, each manager and each employee, might specify:
a) The goal(s) that are to be accomplished
b) How each goal contributes to the organization’s overall strategic goals
c) What specific results (or objectives) much be accomplished that, in total, reach the goal of the organization
d) How those results will be achieved
e) When the results will be achieved (or timelines for each objective)
Developing Objectives and Timelines
1. Objectives are specific, measurable results produced while implementing strategies.
2. While identifying objectives, keep asking “Are you sure you can do this?”
3. Integrate the current year’s objectives as performance criteria in each “implementer’s” job description and performance review.
4. Remember that objectives and their timelines are only guidelines, not rules set in stone. They can be deviated from, but deviations should be understood and explained.
5. Consider the following example format for action your plan.
Strategic Goal
Strategy
Objective
Responsibility
Timeline
1. (Goal #1)
1.1 (first strategy to reach Goal #1)
1.1.1 (first objective to reach while implementing Strategy #1.1)
(who’s going to accomplish that objective)
(when the implementer is going to accomplish that objective)
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
How to Start a Business: Complete Steps and Resources
Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD. This manual explains each step needed to start a successful business and provides useful online resources for each step.
Many people are so excited about starting a new business, that they forget about one of the biggest challenges — getting themselves ready first. So before undertaking the steps to start a new business, they first should think about:
There are certain traits of successful entrepreneurs. Am I really an entrepreneur?
What are my true passions? How can I retain those in my new venture?
What is my stress level now? Can I take much more?
What are my personal strengths and weaknesses. How can I use my strengths to strengthen my weaknesses?
Are there alternatives that I could do right now?
Are my personal finances in shape before I go to investors?
To be motivated enough to plan and build a business, it is important to know why you are doing it in the first place. There are many reasons, but you should know your own. Don’t look at others’ reasons for now. Just think about yourself. For example, is your primary reason to:
The most important part of your planning how to start your business is not the plan itself. The most important part is the planning itself — the thinking about your business, what you want to get from it, who it will serve and how.
The plan is only the “map”, the document. The planning is the real “journey.” That is why it is never a good idea to short-cut your planning by doing, for example, a “one-hour” or a “one-page” business
plan, or to have someone else do the planning and the writing for you.
Here are some guidelines to help you to get the most out of the journey of your planning.
Realize that you’ve already done a lot of planning in your life. Think about what worked before? What didn’t? What can you improve this time?
Do the planning one step at a time. It’s better to do high-quality planning than to rush to get a plan done. Your planning will take as long as it takes.
Start simple, but start. Don’t wait for the perfect time.
The planning does not have to be perfect the first time. You can change it as needed.
It’s your business you are planning. Start with your own ideas first, then polish them with someone else’s.
Do the first 20% of planning that produces the first 80% of results. First plan the big chunks. Add details in the next round.
Give yourself credit as you keep adding to your plan.
Remember that planning the start-up is different than operating it — but it’s just as important.
You probably had one or more good ideas for a product or service that you thought would be valuable to others. Otherwise, if you want to start a business, you should think of some ideas real soon. Ideas can come from many sources, but for now, it’s important for you to clarify your own idea. Is it a product or a service? A product is a tangible item of value that others are willing to purchase. A service is an intangible series of activities that others are willing to purchase. Regarding your idea, you might not know the answers to all of the necessary questions yet, but think about these initial questions:
Is it a product or a service?
Who is most likely to benefit from it? How do you know?
What will it take for you to produce that product or service?
What will it take to convince others to buy it?
If sales isn’t a skill of yours, how likely can you convince others to sell it?
Do those activities touch your passions? If not, how can you remain enthusiastic?
How likely is the idea to be useful enough to build a business around?
If you do not yet have an idea, then think about:
What types of complaints do you or others often talk about?
What kinds of suggestions do you often hear?
What kinds of products or services do you especially appreciate? Do enough of them exist?
What kinds of skills do you or others have that could be used even more to help others?
A viable business idea is an idea for a product or service that is very likely to:
Be in high enough demand by potential customers
That they are willing to pay enough money for it,
That the revenue from those sales will consistently
Exceed what it costs to develop and provide the product or service.
Far too many businesses fail because the entrepreneur is firmly convinced that the idea is viable only because he or she so strongly believes in it. Few entrepreneurs are like Steve Jobs who can create a product or service that is in such strong demand that it creates its own market. The vast majority of successful business ideas were verified first before they were transformed into successful products and services.
How to Test If Your Idea is a Viable Business Idea
When thinking about your product or service, Rolfe Larson suggests:
Go online to find similar businesses and interview them. You’ll be surprised how open they are.
Your online research should also guide you to some “experts” in this field: could be retired managers, consultants, state employees, even academics.
If this is a business idea you already know something about, you probably already know some other folks who can offer some insights. Talk to them.
If there’s an industry association that covers that area, contact them.
“Secret shop” potential competitors to learn how they do things.
Identify your target customers and then find ways to interview some of them. A dozen interviews can yield great results. Evaluate their willingness to pay. What do they currently purchase that’s more or less similar?
Is your idea a viable business idea?
Consider Alternatives to Starting a Business?
How About Buying a Franchise? A Business?
Rather than starting a new business, perhaps you could implement your idea by buying a franchise that offers a similar product or service? Or, how about buying a current business? If you have, or if you could get, the funding, then those approaches could save you a great deal of time and effort.
How About Starting a Nonprofit Organization? Social Enterprise?
The amount of time to start and operate a nonprofit would very likely be similar to doing that with a business. Just like a business needs to make a profit, a nonprofit needs to satisfy a strong unmet need in the community. If you could prove that situation exists in your community, then you might start a nonprofit. If you would want to get donations and avoid certain types of taxes, then you would need to start a nonprofit corporation. That would require developing and reporting to a Board of Directors.
Or, you might start a social enterprise, which is a nonprofit corporation in which you generate a profit that is spent on working toward your mission. Social enterprises and social entrepreneurship are increasing among nonprofits around the world. A social enterprise would need a business plan, much like a for-profit business does.
Business industries are based on the nature of the products and services that they offer and how they offer them. It helps to know which type of industry your business will be in because:
There are many resources available for each type of industry. Knowing your type will guide you to quickly finding the right type of resources, for example, in industry associations and publications.
Investors and other personnel often use the type of industry to quickly understand the type of product or service offered by a business and the context in which the organization operates.
Knowing your type of industry will help you to efficiently identify the most likely types of competitors, suppliers and collaborators of your type of business.
Examples of types of business industries include transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, mining, information technology, education, construction, health care and education.
Basically, your business model is how you plan to make a profit. For a nonprofit, your business model is how you plan to meet an unmet social need. To consistently make a profit, a business needs to sell a product or service for more money than it costs to develop and provide it.
But that goal requires, for example, always knowing who is best to sell to, what their needs are, what they are willing to pay for it, how you stand out from your competitors. That knowledge comes from carefully developing your business plan — an upcoming step in starting your business.
Now you are ready to go on to the rest of your startup planning and to draft your business plan. There are many benefits of business planning including:
To identify any problems in your plans before you implement those plans.
To get the commitment and participation of those who will implement the plans, which leads to better results.
To establish a roadmap to compare results as the venture proceeds from paper to reality.
To achieve greater profitability in your organization, products and services — all with less work.
To obtain financing from investors and funders.
To minimize your risk of failure.
To update your plans and operations in a rapidly changing world.
To clarify and synchronize your business goals and strategies.
Investors will want to see your business plan. The contents and format of your business plan document depend on what you believe will most effectively convey the highlights of your planning. It also depends on the amount of detail that you want to include. You might even approach some potential investors and ask if they have a preferred format for the business plans that they review.
(The same guidelines for enjoying the journey of your startup planning that were itemized above, should be remembered when doing your business planning.)
Your business plan will have included financial projections of your expected revenue, expenses and any resulting profits or deficits, usually for each of the business’s first 12 months and then a total for each of the next two years. Those numbers will suggest how much funding you will need to produce the product or service until your expenses are met or exceeded by your sales.
There is a wide variety of sources of funding for a typical business start-up, including, for example, your own money, family and friends, individual investors (“angels”), banks that are bearable for startups, finance companies, state agencies, loans and venture capitalists.
Most new businesses are funded by your own money or money from your family and friends.
If you haven’t yet looked at the vast sources of free assistance, then do so now because experts at starting businesses can be extremely useful, especially when attending to the legal aspects of starting your business. Free Useful Resources
You might decide at this point to hire an attorney to assist you in making the various legal decisions and making the necessary legal filings. (However, you also might consider how many of the kinds of activities in this guide that you could do yourself, by following the advice in the articles throughout this topic.)
Your first decision is about what legal form of a business organization is best for you, for example, a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation (C or S), limited liability company, etc.? Here is an overview of each type of structure.
The name of your business is often the first impression that others get about your organization. There is an entire aspect of marketing that is all about choosing of an organization’s name — branding. Be careful to review the advice of experts when choosing a name.
The best source of free information about all of the activities in federal business registration, including your federal tax ID number, is the Small Business Administration. They provide information about whether you need to register your business and where.
The best sources of free information about all of the activities in state registration, permits and licensing, including the state tax ID number, is in each state’s Secretary of State office. This article links to the information for each state. State-Specific Startup Guides
Get a Website Domain Name
Your website will very likely be one of your primary means of promoting your business. The critical part of your website is its name (domain name). You need a domain name that matches your branding (the logo and personality) of your business. However, many domain names have already been taken by other people, which means you need to find a domain name soon, especially so no one else takes it.
Think about the types of services that you want when managing your funds for your business. Do you want personalized service where you are talking to a person who will get to know you? Do you want advice about managing finances? Do you want a bank that lends to small businesses?
Intellectual Property — Legally Protect Your Assets
You don’t want someone else using your business name, stealing your writings to publish elsewhere, or copying your products and services. That could be crippling, especially to a new small business. Fortunately, there are strategies for how you can work to protect these assets of yours. The time to get that protection is now when you are starting your business.
Risk Management – Operationally Protect Your Assets
A sudden interruption in the operations of your business can cause a significant loss, not only to your revenue, but to your reputation as you struggle to serve your customers and maintain your cash flow. Strategies to avoid that kind of situation includes having suitable business insurance and contingency plans about how to respond to the most common types of surprises to the operations of a business.
Your most important asset in your business is you and your fellow employees, especially as your business and its products and services expand. When you wrote your business plan, you probably thought about what kinds of expertise are required to develop and provide your products and services. Now is the time to think about what that means in terms of employees, their roles and how they should be organized.
Small-business planning often overlooks the critical importance of clarifying what facilities are needed to support the development and provision of a product or service, and then to plan how to get those facilities. That is true especially if you are providing a product rather than a service because a product often requires space to store the necessary materials and supplies to produce the product.
Now that you’ve thought about your staffing needs, think about what facilities it will take to support them. You also might jump ahead to Develop Your Product or Service and Develop Your Ongoing Supply Chain to think about what facilities you will need to do those activities.
Important decisions about facilities include, for example: How much space do I need for storage? Production? Personnel? How should the facility represent my brand, my colors and tone? What about parking? What about expected future growth? Should I rent or buy?
After answering the above questions and considering the guidelines in the following articles, write down your requirements for facilities. You, or any others who are helping you, can continually reference your requirements to ensure that your facilities meet your requirements.
Having thought about your needs and preferences for facilities, you are ready to think about where to locate your business. Decisions include, for example: Do I want proximity to my customers? Proximity to my suppliers? Distance from my competitors? What municipalities might grant you some tax breaks if you locate near them? What about parking?
Before you select a location, your answers to these questions and those in the following articles should be written in a specification that you can reference when searching for a location or that you can bring to a real-estate agent. That way, you will be making the best choice based on your actual needs, rather than on your personal preferences.
Earlier in this topic, you planned some of the activities in product or service development, including identifying and testing your business idea. During your business planning, you identified who your likely customers will be, who your competitors are, what you will charge for your product or service, and how you might sell it to your customers.
Select the best suppliers and vendors to meet those specifications.
Develop the best contracts and purchasing agreements with those suppliers and vendors.
Get the necessary materials into your facility (called inbound logistics).
Develop the first versions of your product or service to sell to your customers.
Later on below, you will begin regularly producing, selling and providing your product or service to your customers.
(To understand the overall activities in product or service development, scan the topics in this article Product or Service Development. To understand the sequence, or chain, of regular activities to continue building and providing the product or service, scan the topics in this article Supply Chain Management.)
After having done the initial activities in developing your product or service, you need to develop the chain of activities to regularly produce and provide the product or service in the most cost-effective way. That means:
Making sure there will be sufficient resources (materials planning) to produce and provide the product or service to your customers.
Supplying those resources (including identifying who will be the suppliers).
Getting the product or service delivered to your customer, for example, sell directly or through a retailer (these are matters of distribution and outbound logistics).
You probably thought about these matters when you wrote your business plan. Now is the time to begin implementing those activities. It will take as long as it needs to take, so don’t rush things.
You already gave some thought to your marketing, including who your customers are likely to be, and what you will communicate to them. But marketing is much broader and even more important than that.
Marketing is the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you’re continuing to meet the needs of your customers and are getting appropriate value in return. So now is a good time to develop a marketing plan that specifies:
Each of the different groups of customers (target markets) that are likely to buy your product or service.
What you want each target market to believe about your organization and the relevant product or service.
The messages that you plan to communicate to each target market.
How each target market prefers to communicate with its stakeholders, and how you plan to convey those messages.
Who will convey what message and when.
The plan also should specify how you plan to use public relations, or the media, to promote your product, service and your entire organization.
Sales involves cultivating prospective buyers (or leads) in a certain target market; conveying the features and benefits of a product or service to the lead; and closing the sale (or coming to an agreement on the pricing and any follow-up services). A sales plan for one product might be very different than that for another product.
During your business planning, you probably gave some initial thoughts as to how you plan to sell (your sales strategy) your product or service. Now is the time to add another level of details to those thoughts and to document them in a plan that you can articulate to yourself and to others.
At its most basic, the activities of selling are the recurring activities to implement your sales plan. That means ensuring there are sufficient personnel, training, communications and supervision to ensure the sales plan is effectively implemented, monitored and adjusted as necessary.
Customer service includes the activities you provide to customers before, during and after they buy from you in order to ensure they are fully satisfied with your product or service and their experience in working with you.
Today, that is changing dramatically. Customers have a much wider range of organizations, products and services to choose from, and they can access them instantly. Customers can also access numerous sources of useful opinions or reviews about the product or service even before they buy them.
Thus, it is more important than ever that organizations remain very good at attracting, satisfying and retaining customers. Customer service has moved beyond being merely transactional to being highly relational.
The activities of managing broadly include those of planning, organizing, leading and coordinating. The way that the activities are done depends on the life stage of the organization. Features of small businesses usually include having very limited resources, focusing primarily on cash flow, limited time for comprehensive and proactive planning, and decision-making primarily from the personalities of the leaders in the business.
So the activities of managing a small business must be done in the most cost-effective and real-time approaches, always based on highly practical tools and techniques. The following document can be very useful to leaders in a small business. Free Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision
As your customers demand more of your products and services, and as you notice more opportunities to serve more of your current and new customers, you will begin thinking about how to grow your business. There are many ways to grow.
However, growth has to be done very carefully. Otherwise, you can end up worse off than before you starting trying to grow. Fortunately, there has been a lot of research about how best to grow — and change — organizations.
State-Specific Startup Guides – Each state provides very useful and specific information and resources about starting a business in that state. Small Business Development Centers – Offer free advice and materials as well as loan guarantees, materials and counseling. SCORE – Works with the Small Business Administration to provide free counseling and materials. Small Business Administration – Offers free online courses and materials, as well as regional workshops. BUZgate.Org – Offers a directory of free services for start-up and small businesses, as well as a vast array of resources and tools.
Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Starting a Business
In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Starting a Business. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.
For the Category of Entrepreneurship (For-Profit):
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
This topic in the Library provides comprehensive advice and materials for anyone who is considering starting a nonprofit organization. The reader can use the free information in this Library topic, along with other Library topics that are referenced later on below. If you need more help, see our coaching services.
Sections of This Topic Include
Each of the links listed immediately below is a link to a section later on, farther down below, in this Web page.
Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Starting a Nonprofit
In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Starting a Nonprofit. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.
There is a great deal of misunderstanding about the benefits of starting a nonprofit. Particularly in times of a poor or rough economy, people think they can start a nonprofit to quickly generate income. Or, when people see a strong, unmet need in the community, they often focus only on the singular solution to start a new nonprofit. The following article gives a very useful description of the realities of starting yet another new nonprofit.
Before starting a nonprofit business, there is some preliminary “business” thinking that you really should do. Doing this thinking now can save you — and maybe your employees and clients — a great deal of anguish. Entrepreneurs — Are You Really Ready to Start a New Venture?
What Do You Mean by “Starting a Nonprofit”?
Get Clear About the Purpose (the Mission) for Your New Organization
Perhaps the best way to really clarify to yourself what you intend to accomplish by starting a new nonprofit is to write a basic mission statement for your organization. You’ll soon need this mission statement anyway if you plan to incorporate your nonprofit (more about incorporation a little later on). The following guidelines may be helpful to you when writing your first, basic mission statement.
1. At is most basic, the mission statement describes the overall purpose of the organization. It addresses the question “Why does the organization exist?”
2. The statement can be in a wide variety of formats and lengths, ranging from a few sentences to a few pages. At this stage in the development of your nonprofit, it might be best to keep your mission statement to at most about half a page.
3. When writing the mission statement, try include description of what you think will be the new nonprofit’s
a) primary benefits and services to clients
b) groups of clients who will benefit from those services
c) values that will guide how your nonprofit will operate
d) how you’d like others to view your nonprofit
4. It’s often useful to refine the first, basic mission statement by adding or deleting a sentence or a word from the mission statement until you feel the remaining wording accurately describes the purpose of the new nonprofit organization.
Now Think About What Kind of Nonprofit You Want to Start
The phrase “starting a nonprofit” can mean several things. Read the following very basic information to begin thinking about what you mean when you set out to “start a nonprofit”. Keep your mission statement in mind when thinking about each of the following. (There will be more specific guidance later on when you read the next subsection Variety of Checklists to Reference When Formalizing Your New Nonprofit.)
You can be a nonprofit organization just by getting together with some friends, eg, to form a self-help group. In this case, you’re an informal nonprofit organization.
You can incorporate your nonprofit so it exists as a separate legal organization in order to a) own its own property and its own bank account; b) ensure that the nonprofit can continue on its own (even after you’re gone); and c) protect yourself personally from liability from operations of the nonprofit. You incorporate your nonprofit by filing articles of incorporation (or other charter documents) with the appropriate local state office. (An incorporated nonprofit requires a board of directors.) In Canada, you can file for incorporation at the provincial or Federal levels.
If you want your nonprofit (and if you think your nonprofit deserves) to be exempt from federal taxes (and maybe some other taxes, too), you should file with the IRS to be a “tax-exempt” organization. (The IRS states that you must be a corporation, community chest, fund, or foundation to receive tax-exempt status. Articles of association may also be used in place of incorporation.) (Probably the most well known type of nonprofit is a the IRS classification of 501(c)(3), a “charitable nonprofit’.) (Being tax-exempt is not the same as being tax-deductible.) In Canada, you can file for tax-exemption at the provincial and Federal levels.
Depending on the nature of your organization, you may also granted tax-deductible status from the IRS. Publication 526 lists the types of organizations to which donations are deductible. In Canada, the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) grants charitable status, and you must be incorporated to achieve charitable status.
So, for example, you could start a nonprofit that is incorporated, tax-exempt and eligible to receive tax deductible donations.
The particular steps you take when starting your nonprofit depend on your plans for your organization, including the nature of its services. They also depend on how the IRS interprets the nature of your organization, including its services. Again, in Canada, you can file for incorporation and tax-exempt status at the provincial or Federal levels.
Consider Fiscal Sponsorship to Jump Start Your Organization
In some cases, you might find and work with another nonprofit organization that will act as your fiscal sponsor. A fiscal sponsor might be useful to you if your nonprofit:
1) Does not have sufficient resources to handle startup costs and fees
2) Does not have sufficient skills initially to manage your finances
3) Will address a community need and then no longer need to exist.
See Fiscal Sponsorship — Help You Get Started?
Do You Need a Lawyer to Start Your Nonprofit?
You Can Do Much of the Work Yourself — But Get Legal Advice and Guidance
You can do much of the work yourself to get incorporated and/or tax-exemption and/or tax-deductibility, but you should have some basic guidance and advice from a lawyer who understands nonprofit matters. For example, in the USA, it’s very important how you characterize your plans when filing for incorporation with your state and/or for tax-exemption and/or tax-deductibility with the IRS — otherwise, your new organization may be deemed a for-profit or you may have to pay federal taxes (among other taxes) on your income. In addition, there are various reports and filings you may have to submit. A nonprofit-knowledgeable lawyer can help you a great deal. Ask other nonprofits for references to good
lawyers. Ask a local funder. Call the local bar association. The following link might also help you. See
Business incubators are usually facilities that help businesses share resources as low-cost means to getting started. You may have a nonprofit incubator in your community. Contact the local office of the National Council of Nonprofit Associations to find out. The following links will give you an overview of business incubators. Business Incubation FAQ
Checklists to Help You Register Your New Nonprofit in U.S.
The following are a variety of checklists to help you proceed through the various steps to formally start your nonprofit. It’ll help a great deal if you’ve done some preliminary planning — if you haven’t, the above link Preparation for Planning a Business Venture will help you.
You might glance through a variety of the checklists to get an impression of what needs to be done and to select the checklist that you believe is most useful to you. The topic Nonprofit Taxes will be useful reading after you’ve reviewed the following checklists.
Table of Reminders for Registering Your New Nonprofit in the U.S.
The following table depicts the important steps required to register your new nonprofit. These steps are also mentioned across many of the checklists referenced above. These steps also assume that you chose not to seek Fiscal Sponsorship.
activity
comment
for help
draft mission statement
draft a brief mission statement that describes the charitable purpose of your new organization; your board should soon review it during strategic planning and authorize the statement
(if you plan to incorporate in your state) recruit at least enough board members to meet state requirements for a corporate board (contact state attorney’s office); if you don’t plan to incorporate, consider an informal advisory board to help guide you
to help you file articles of incorporation (if you plan to incorporate), application to IRS for tax-exemption (if you plan to seek exemption from federal taxes); you can do most of the work yourself, but at least have a lawyer review the materials before submission; will eventually need special expertise to review personnel policies
get an accountant or other finance expert to help you set up basic bookkeeping system; when you get a board treasurer, then he/she can be very helpful in this regard
draft articles of incorporation and get board approval
these specify legal description of your organization and power to the board; you’ll need to draft these only if you plan to file for incorporation with your state; the Board should approve the Articles before submission
these specify how the board will operate and configure the staff; some states require these; some of this information will be in the Articles if you file Articles; the board should approve the bylaws
register for incorporation including submitting your drafted and approved Articles (if you plan to incorporate); may need to submit bylaws, too; also find out what various reports the state wants from nonprofits
secretary of state or secretary of commerce
file for federal tax-exempt with IRS
apply for tax-exempt status (to be exempt from paying federal
taxes); board should approve this filing before submission;
once you get IRS exemption, file for any state tax exemptions
state attorney, attorney general or secretary of commerce
get property tax exemption from city
once you get IRS exemption, file for any state tax exemptions
local city tax assessor
get solicitation license
if you plan to solicit funds, your city may require a solicitation
license
local city offices
get mail permit
this permit gives you a discount on bulk mailings
local post office
get federal employer number
(do this once you start to hire employees) get federal employer
number to withhold income and FICA (once you hire employees)
secretary of state, secretary of commerce
get unemployment insurance req’s
do this once you start to hire employees
secretary of state, secretary of commerce
Something to Avoid: Founder’s Syndrome
Founder’s Syndrome occurs when an organization operates according to the personality of someone in the organization (usually the founder) more than it operates according to the mission of the organization. The Syndrome is not uncommon. To learn how to “diagnose” and recover from the syndrome, including to just stay away from it in the first place, read: Founder’s Syndrome — How Organizations Suffer — and Can Recover
FREE RESOURCES
Free Booklets — Guides to Management and to Program Design and Marketing
(The following booklets are geared to new managers and supervisors of new nonprofits. The reader might be best served to print the booklets for ongoing reference.)
Basic Guide to Management and Supervision provides complete guidelines to accomplish basic skills in management and supervision, including to staff the organization, train employees, manage performance of employees and develop personnel policies associated with these supervisory practices.
Free, Online Nonprofit Organization Development Program
This free, self-paced program will guide you through starting your new nonprofit, building your board, training about basic skills in management and leadership, conducting strategic planning, developing a program and marketing plan, developing a fundraising plan, understanding basic financial and tax management practices, staffing and supervising, and more. The program includes 12 online, self-directed learning modules. Learners progress through each module at their own pace. Learners complete each learning module when it’s appropriate to the particular stage of their organization’s development. Learners are highly encouraged to complete and share assignments with their board members. See Free, Online, Self-Paced Program to Completely Build/Strengthen Your Nonprofit
Sources of Assistance to Help You Develop Your Nonprofit
Organizations, Websites, Newsletters, etc.
Don’t forget that if you need help, there are plenty of resources available to help you, including organizations, information on Websites, online newsletters, etc. See
For the Category of Capacity Building (Nonprofit):
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
A new venture can be starting an organization or buying one, as well as significantly expanding the current organization. Far too often, people are so eager to start a venture that they end up skipping some very important personal considerations. This topic will help you ensure that you are really personally ready to start your new venture. Near the end of this topic, there are links to topics with instructions and resources for starting a new business, buying a business, buying a franchise or significantly expanding one.
Everyone who thinks about starting a new venture believes that they are truly entrepreneurs — but many of them actually aren’t. So before you start your new venture, start taking a close look at yourself. Read these articles about the traits of a successful entrepreneur and then decide how well you have those traits.
The following short self-assessments ask you a range of questions to help you to further decide for yourself if you are indeed an entrepreneur and, if so, what kind? Answer the questions as honestly as you can. You are the only one who will see the answers.
A passion for starting a new venture should be one of your primary motivators when doing it. Different people are passionate about different things. It’s important for you to know what your true passions are, so you can ensure that they somehow remain in your activities of planning, building and operating your new venture. Your passions could be different than your primary reason for starting a business. For example, your primary reason might be to make money, but you might want that money primarily to pay for your passion of doing photography. Take any of these short self-assessments to determine what your true passions are.
Before you undertake the challenges and stresses of starting a new venture, you should recognize the level of your stress now. Take one or two of the following self-assessments to identify how stressed you are now.
The planning to start a new venture involves skills in reviewing documentation, observing and interviewing others, organizing and analyzing information, prioritizing, making decisions, communicating with others and writing reports. It can also require patience, self-confidence, setting goals, and time and stress management. What skills do you have that you can benefit from during your planning? What weaknesses, or areas to improve, might you get help with during your planning?
One of the best ways to make a significant decision about yourself is to do what’s called a personal SWOT analysis. The acronym stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The analysis asks you to use your strengths to build up or compensate for your weaknesses, and to ward off threats in order to take advantage of opportunities.
Sometimes people try start or buy an organization (for-profit or nonprofit) because they’re frustrated with their lives or current jobs. These are valid reasons. But starting or buying an organization can cause even more frustration! There are alternatives that should be considered before you start a new organization.
How about working to improve your attitude toward your life or work? The frustrations of starting a new venture might make your attitude even worse for you — and those around you.
How about working to get promoted in your current job? This option lets you work from current strengths to shore up areas where you might need growth, and you can usually keep your current benefits and level of income, as well.
How about finding a new job? This can be much easier than starting a new organization. You might even consider getting a part-time job to phase yourself into the full-time role of running your new organization. Sometimes just the activity of interviewing with other companies can remind you of your value, and improve your attitude in your current job.
Here are some other resources to help you think about alternatives to starting a new venture.
Employee Performance Management – Materials in this topic can help you identify performance goals and get help from your supervisor to reach those goals.
Personal Development — This topics includes assessments to help you identify areas where you might want to grow. The topic also has materials to help you set goals and reach them, as well, including by going back to school.
Personal Productivity — This topic includes materials to help you become more effective in your life and work.
Personal Wellness — Materials in this topic can help you to focus more attention on your attitude, personal motivation and overall sense of well being.
Are Your Personal Finances in Shape?
It’s likely that your personal income will be affected if you start a new venture, particularly if you have to invest any of your personal finances. You should consider where your money will come from while you’re getting your new venture off the ground. Where will you get benefits, such as health insurance, auto insurance, life insurance, etc?
Also, potential investors and funders may want to understand your personal financial situation — and will be impressed if you’ve done thorough planning and documentation. You should take stock of your finances now. Introduction to Personal Financial Planning
How Will You Manage the Stresses Involved?
Most people assume that there are many stresses involved in getting a new venture off the ground. Few people really prepare for them. They’re too eager to get the new organization going. You very likely won’t be able successfully to manage the new organization for the long term if you can’t successfully manage yourself as well.
What Are Your Stress Levels Now?
Take the following tests to discern how stressed you might be now.
Stress Management (including Physical Fitness) — There are several basic things you can do that go a long way toward managing yourself. The following articles provide a variety of perspectives and advice.
Time management — Managing cash is usually the biggest challenge in starting and managing a new venture. Getting funding is usually one of the biggest challenges in a small nonprofit. Time management is usually one of the biggest challenges in managing yourself!
Mentoring — Find someone who is willing to help you with ongoing advice. You’re not the first person to start a new venture.
Work-Life Balance — The best way to manage time and stress is to have a life other than just your new venture.
The planning involved in starts a new venture is an extremely important element in the success of your new venture. It forces you to slow down and think about what’s truly most important to do and by when. It helps you to avoid the sudden crises that are so prevalent in the new ventures that fail. Here are some guidelines to keep you in the kind of patient and thoughtful mindset to do your best kind of planning.
Realize that you’ve already done a lot of planning in your life. Think about what worked before? What didn’t? What can you improve this time?
Do the planning one step at a time. It’s better to do high-quality planning than to rush to get a plan done. Your planning will take as long as it takes.
Start simple, but start. Don’t wait for the perfect time.
The planning does not have to be perfect the first time. You can change it as needed.
It’s your business you are planning. Start with your own ideas first, then polish them with someone else’s.
Do the first 20% of planning that produces the first 80% of results. First plan the big chunks. Add details in the next round.
Give yourself credit as you keep adding to your plan.
Remember that planning the start-up is different than operating it — but it’s just as important.
If You’re Still Going to Start a New Venture
You Don’t Have to Do This Alone
If, at this point, you have carefully answered the above critical questions, then congratulations! You are indeed very serious about starting a new venture — and you’re that much more likely to succeed! There is a vast range of free resources to help you. Find some help now.
For the Category of Entrepreneurship (For-Profit):
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
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