BUSINESS BASICS- STRATEGIC PLANNING: Ready, Set, Go!

Let me introduce you to the best strategist I have ever met. He is amazingly clear and focused in his desires. He knows exactly how and who to enroll in his many acquisition campaigns. He is both committed and flexible, replacing ineffective strategies with effective ones in a heartbeat. He is action oriented, an excellent communicator and persistent. Accomplishing his objective is all-important. He has one thought in mind and that is, "Winning!"

This winning strategist and visionary is my 2½-year-old son, Theo.

I offer this example about Theo because I think it is appropriate for the subject of strategic planning, and we all can learn from the simplicity of a child. I want to share with you not only lessons I have learned from Theo, but methods I used in setting up a strategic plan to help you with your 2005 planning process.

STRATEGIC PLANNING DEFINED. The word "strategy" is a bit of a fuzzy term – one of those words many of us use but, when asked, don’t really know the meaning. For our purposes, the word can be defined as "a course or plan of action to accomplish a specific goal." A strategic plan or action plan has real value when it helps you chart your course so you end up where you want to be. Having a plan gives you alignment in your thinking and actions. If this is what it’s like to have a plan, not having one is like a ship adrift at sea without a destination, allowing the tides and weather to chart the course.

The first step to setting up your strategic plan is figuring out your intention. Is your intention to be really successful, somewhat successful or not successful? What are you creating? Many new owners go into business for themselves to become "boss-free." Another may want a sizable and profitable business to support his or her lifestyle. A third type of owner wants to build a large valuable asset. Which one are you? Many owners want to grow their businesses between 10 to 15 percent each year – is that your goal? But first, ask yourself if your salary has grown that amount as well? Are you working harder but making less? Has the value of your business grown? Do you have more freedom now as an owner or less? These are good questions on which to reflect.

A strategic plan is all about creating what you want and being purposeful and intentional, and it doesn’t matter what stage of development your company is in. If you own or work in a landscape company, then your business will fall into one of four categories – forming, storming, norming or performing. Each of these business cycles will have their own set of strategies. For instance, in the forming and storming part of a business, most landscape owners work at least 2,500 hours a year. Doesn’t it make sense to invest at least 1 percent of that time in planning the next 2,500 hours. That’s just 25 hours of planning to ensure your financial future.

A STRATEGIC RETREAT. To set up a 2005 strategic plan, first you need to gather your key employees together for an off-site strategic retreat. An event like this will help you stop and take a step back so you can reflect on the past, assess the present and plan the future.

There are three things you need to address at this retreat first before setting a specific plan – your vision, your mission and your values.

A vision is what you want. I’ll use an example from my son, Theo, to describe this. He’ll say, "Daddy, take me to the park now, please." Simple, Clear, Direct, Honest. His vision, as yours should be, is stating only what you want.

Once you establish a vision, write it out. A vision is only a dream until it is written, so as part of your strategic retreat, think about and decide what type of business you want. Do you want a small, boutique company that gives you an excellent lifestyle with sufficient cash and independence? This might be a company of sales in the $1-million range. Or do you want to create a larger company – about $2 to $3 million – that affords you an excellent living, supports a retirement plan and has plenty of supervisory personnel so you don’t have to wear all of the hats and can take time off when you need to. A third example is the owner who wants to create a more substantial business asset. With this vision, you are independent both financially and operationally. You work on the business and not in it. This owner sees the potential of not only the present value but of the future – when the business will be sold for substantial dollars.

Once your vision is settled, determine your mission and values.

Your mission really has to do with your purpose. Why do you go to work every day? To decide my mission, I assembled my entire management team and a facilitator. We agreed that we didn’t just come to work for the money because we could do other things but we had all devoted our careers and our lives to "making great looking places." Your mission can be as simple as this.

The last area to consider is your values. What are you willing to do to accomplish your vision? The owner – the leader – sets these unbendable standards. What are the values you live by? Write them down and make them known. With these in place, you will be respected not only by your customers but, more importantly, by your team members.

PLAN COMPONENTS. Now that you more fully understand yourself and what you want, it’s time to move into the components of a strategic plan.

The trick is to keep the plan as simple as possible yet complete enough so it has meaning to move your company to fulfill your objectives and goals. With some preliminarily research, a pretty good plan can be put together in about two days for a medium-sized company. How far in advance should you try and look into the future? My advice is not more than three years because the future is changing so fast.

The following is the plan outline I like to use covering five major business areas:

To accomplish all of these tasks, consider bringing in a facilitator experienced in this type of planning process to help, especially if this is your first time. Next, prepare an agenda and review it carefully with your facilitator. A well thought out agenda is important so the meeting will flow smoothly and stay on time. In order for the meeting to be meaningful and productive there is work to be done prior to the session. Make a checklist of information that will be prepared in advance of the meeting. This would include information about your competitors, the general business outlook in your area, new equipment and technology, demographics, (the characteristics of your market segments), psychographics (why people in our area are buying what they buy), and the industry in general. It would be a good idea to give everyone three months or so in advance to research this information.

The most important part of your meeting will be toward the end where you create your "game plan." Make sure you don’t rush this part. Reserve all afternoon or a second day, if possible, for this segment.

As I illustrated with the example of Theo, make your plan simple, clear, focused and intentional – because it works.