We just finished our operational business plan for our next fiscal year. Our philosophy is lets create a business plan that actually has strategies and tasks that we want to check off and complete and if we do these tasks we will be moving closer to achieving our main strategies. Certainly “Money Raising” business plans have a use when you are trying to raise money but if you are using a business plan for internal improvements I suggest using an operating business plan. The key is to stick to the tasks that you have laid out in the business plan and try not to get distracted by ideas that come up during the year. Ideally each employee in your company should receive a task document that should be completed by the end of the fiscal year. If everyone does their best to complete these tasks and this is monitored throughout the year the company should be getting closer to acheiving their main strategies.
Another key to the operational business plan is documenting your ideas throughout the year so at the end of year you can review all your ideas and decide if they are still good ideas or just a crazy notion that you got caught up with. I like this system, sure certain ideas have to be implemented right away, but most ideas its good to sit on for a while and if they are real good ideas now they should be good ideas by the end of the year as well.
Documenting your ideas wherever you go is key, I just got back from PubCon 2009 in Las Vegas, largest Online Marketing Conference in North America and there were tons of ideas to consider for our company. Document them and decide if they fit into your overall strategy, if so implement them.
Remember business plan is not just a buzz word, if used properly and made task oriented it is an excellent way to keep you on track to achieving your company objectives and moving your company forward.
