Category: Business Planning

Simply put, strategic planning is about clarifying the purpose and most important priorities of an organization, and also about how the organization will address those priorities. Sometimes the priorities are about major issues and sometimes about exciting overall goals.

The strategic planning process has to suit the nature and needs of the organization in order to produce a useful strategic plan. Especially for small- to medium-sized organizations, the strategic planning process has to be realistic and flexible. Otherwise the plan ends up sitting on a shelf, collecting dust.

This blog is about doing strategic planning in a manner that is always relevant, realistic and flexible for the organization. We’ll discuss different models of planning, typical phases in a strategic planning process and some guidelines to conduct each phase. We’ll also touch on common pitfalls in planning and how to avoid those.

There are many books about the content that should end up being in a strategic plan, but there are few resources about actually facilitating strategic planning. So we’ll also cover some useful techniques in facilitating planning.

This detailed list of topics gives more detail about the types of topics we’ll be likely to cover and their likely order, as well. However, it’s not uncommon that the topics in a blog tend to follow the wishes of the readers — a blog should be about the readers at least as much as about the blogger’s opinions.

What topics would you like to read? What questions do you have about strategic planning?

If you’re running a business, you get asked this question often. It could come from your banker, your accountant, your business-savvy aunt, or your teenager taking that first business class. They want to know: what’s your business plan? And they all want different things. Some just want a sentence or two about customers, competitors and business models. Others want detailed financials. Still others wonder if you’ve done a thorough market and competitor analysis.

Welcome to the first edition of the Business Planning Blog of the Free Management Library. I’m Rolfe Larson, your guide in this quadrant of the blogosphere. Our goal is to help you figure out how to answer that persistent question. In a way that helps you succeed with your business.

Here are some of the other questions we’ll be addressing here:

• Do you really need a business plan?
• How much business planning do you need to do?
• Where to go to get business planning help?
• When to hire someone to do market research
• When to hire someone to write your plan
• What about all those unknowns every business faces?
• Will a business plan help you raise money?
• When should you revise your plan?

So I hope you can join us for the ride. Send in your reactions, comments, suggestions, and let’s make this fun. And we’ll help you answer that persistent question: what’s your business plan?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Business Planning.

I’m Carter McNamara and I’m the host of this blog. You can read more about me next to my picture in the sidebar. This blog will be about various aspects of strategic planning, will focus especially on practical tips and tools, and will include posts from guest writers. You can learn more about this blog by clicking on the About link just under the header.

• Before using the blog, please take a few minutes now to read about the policies. Go to Policies under the header.
• Feel free to share a comment about a post. Just click on the link “Leave a response” under the post in the body of the blog.
• You can use RSS or email to get copied on any new posts in the blog. Go to To Subscribe under the header to select RSS subscription or email subscription to get updates.
• You can also use email to get notified when there are new comments to a post. When you click on “Leave a response” under the post, check the box to be notified of any follow-up comments.
• You can get a lot of visibility to your work by being a guest writer. Many of the Library’s topics consistently rank in the top 10 of Google search results. Go to Guest Writer Submissions under the header.
• See the many Related Library Topics listed on the sidebar. They contain 100s of free online, articles related to the topic of this blog.
• Read the many other useful blogs in the Library. Go to Library’s Blogs in the sidebar.
• Search for any topics you’re interested in. Use the Search box at the top of the header.
• If larger text would be easier for you to read, just click on the 3 “A”s above the header until the text is large enough for you to easily read.

If you have any questions, just use the Contact Us form at the bottom of each page.

Welcome!

I’m Rolfe Larson and I’m the host of this blog. You can read more about me next to my picture in the sidebar. This blog will be about various aspects of business planning, will focus especially on practical tips and tools, and will include posts from guest writers. You can learn more about this blog by clicking on the About link just under the header.

• Before using the blog, please take a few minutes now to read about the policies. Go to Policies under the header.
• Feel free to share a comment about a post. Just click on the link “Leave a response” under the post in the body of the blog.
• You can use RSS or email to get copied on any new posts in the blog. Go to To Subscribe under the header to select RSS subscription or email subscription to get updates.
• You can also use email to get notified when there are new comments to a post. When you click on “Leave a response” under the post, check the box to be notified of any follow-up comments.
• You can get a lot of visibility to your work by being a guest writer. Many of the Library’s topics consistently rank in the top 10 of Google search results. Go to Guest Writer Submissions under the header.
• See the many Related Library Topics listed on the sidebar. They contain 100s of free online, articles related to the topic of this blog.
• Read the many other useful blogs in the Library. Go to Library’s Blogs in the sidebar.
• Search for any topics you’re interested in. Use the Search box at the top of the header.
• If larger text would be easier for you to read, just click on the 3 “A”s above the header until the text is large enough for you to easily read.

If you have any questions, just use the Contact Us form at the bottom of each page.

Welcome!

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For more resources, see our Library topic Business Planning.