Leadership is something most people need, but very few understand.
The main ingredient to a successful business before it even commences is a thorough and carefully thought out business plan. WDC & Associates, LLP has extensive experience in assisting business owners with creating a strong business plan and implementing the plan to meet their goals each year.
The planning process goes through a series of stages. Our aim is to complete each of the following steps with the future business owner:
- Analyze the external environment
- Analyze the internal environment
- Define the business and mission
- Set corporate objectives
- Formulate strategies
- Make tactical plans
- Build in procedures for monitoring and controlling
Effective business planning has to exist with an honest and realistic appraisal of the current position of the business. The formal term for this is “situational analysis” and there are several planning tools and methods which are helpful in putting the analysis together. The true purpose of situational analysis is to determine which opportunities to pursue:
- Analyze trends in the environment
- Competitor analysis: understand and, if possible, predict the behavior of competitors
- Audit of internal resources
- SWOT analysis: build on strengths; resolve weaknesses; exploit opportunities; confront threats
Having determined the current position and/or defined the goals, the next step is to determine the direction of the business – by answering the question “where are we going”?
The outputs from asking this question are:
- Vision: the non-specific directional and motivational guidance for the entire business. What will the business be like in five years time?
- Mission statement: a statement of the business’s reason for being. The mission statement is concerned with the scope of the business and what distinguishes it from similar businesses
- Objectives: SMART objectives set out what the business aims to achieve
- Goals: specific statements of anticipated results
We take the business planning phase a step further with the business owner and implement strong internal and operational controls while implementing the plan. The team member at WDC & Associates that assisted in the design and creation of your business plan will continue to assist your business as new needs arise.