How to Implement a Business Plan
Even though you may have the best strategic business plan ever written, it’s nothing unless it’s implemented effectively. So how should you implement your business plan, and what key things should you avoid?
First, consider this all-too-common scenario:
A startup creates a strategic business plan for their imminent growth, and outlines all of the things they’re going to do in order to make this growth possible. They’re going to acquire ten new clients in the first year, secure a more cost-effective rental, define and document their core processes, invest in best practice human resources and payroll technology, and much more.
However, soon after finalising their plan, the business fails to secure a contract with a major client… and things go haywire. The strategic business plan is shelved, and everyone turns all of their attention to sales and client delivery. As a result, they continue paying far more in rent than they need to, and the business owners are bogged down with human resources and payroll administration. The business plan is, sadly, all but forgotten.
WHY KNOWING HOW TO IMPLEMENT A BUSINESS PLAN IS ESSENTIAL
Once you have written your strategic business plan and converted it into a plan on a page, you need to think very carefully about how to implement your business plan. In many ways, the implementation of your business plan is more important than creating the document itself.
Unless you take active steps to put your plan into action, it can run the risk of it being a wasted initiative. You can’t stick it in a drawer, or file it away, and expect results.
How do you implement a business plan? What key steps do you need to take? In this guide, we run you through it:
Break it down
Appoint champions
Engage the wider business
Measure against milestones
Know what success looks like
BREAK IT DOWN
Sometimes, a weighty strategic business plan runs the risk of being overwhelming. It can include so much detail, it’s hard to know where to start. This is where you need to break your plan down into very clear action items.
In our guide to annual business planning we talk about the importance of having 10 ‘must do’ action items in your plan. These items are typically drawn from any of the following executional pillars of excellence:
Marketing – the specific activities you need to do in order to achieve your objectives.
New business – the steps you will take to manage to reach new audiences and sell more to your current customers.
Operations – whether you need to make any changes to everyday systems and processes.
Product or service – whether you need to make any updates to your current products or services to keep them relevant and differentiated.
Customer relationships – how you will deliver an optimal customer experience.
Strategic partners – who you need to partner with in order to deliver an optimal product or service.
Talent – whether there are any changes you need to make in terms of people and culture, or training and education.
Ultimate financials – what financial success looks like in the short, medium and long-term, and how it will be achieved.
Identifying a strong list of action items – ideally less than 10 – can go a long way to improving the likelihood of a successful business plan implementation.
APPOINT CHAMPIONS TO HELP YOU IMPLEMENT YOUR PLAN
This is another very important factor when considering how to implement a business plan. For your business plan to succeed, it needs people driving it. Against each action item, indicate who within your business is responsible. You may even wish to tie this responsibility to an individual’s KPIs and overall performance review.
Also, be sure to celebrate every success. When a milestone is achieved, reward and recognise the achievements of the people concerned.
Conversely, if something hasn’t been achieved, it’s important to get to the heart of the problem. Why did this particular action item fail to come to fruition? Were there unforeseen circumstances? Was it not assigned to the right people? Was there insufficient budget or time allocated?
ENGAGE THE WIDER BUSINESS
A key part of implementing a business plan is to empower everyone within the business to bring it to life. A business plan shouldn’t sit solely within the realm of the executive team, or even departmental leaders. It should be applicable to everyone – from those manning the front desk, to people managing accounts or in charge of people management.
To make your business plan attractive and exciting, you’ll need to treat it like an asset at the heart of a marketing campaign. Identify how you are going to communicate it, when, and through which channels. You may wish to create posters or handouts, or write engaging posts on team social channels. Many businesses like to create posters of their plan on a page and stick them around the office space so they are always front of mind.
Also, when it comes to implementing your business plan, be sure to maintain your marketing efforts. Don’t simply promote the launch of your business plan, or your plan on a page, and leave it at that. Continue to educate and inform over time. And if a particular milestone has been achieved, celebrate it and let everyone know.
MEASURE AGAINST MILESTONES
For any business plan to succeed, it requires measurement and ongoing review. While it’s all very well to set your goals in the first place, you need to continually measure against them in order to evaluate your performance. Without measurement, you’ve no accurate way of knowing where you have succeeded or failed.
When it comes to the measurement aspect of implementing your business plan, answer the following questions:
What exactly are we measuring?
Where is the data going to come from? Can we collate it automatically, or will we need to rely on stakeholders and those with responsibility to provide it?
How will we visualise the data? Do we need a technology solution in place?
Who will be able to see this data? For instance, do we want everyone within the business to know if a particular initiative has failed?
It’s also very important to hold regular meetings with key stakeholders to discuss progress. While it can be tempting to postpone these meetings when things are busy, or when an effort needs to be made with new business, be sure to make them a priority.
Know what success looks like
Typically, a strategic business plan will include goals for anywhere between one and five years. This means that it can sometimes be hard to know what success looks like in the short term. This is why we encourage the development of long-term goals (a 3-5 year plan) and short term goals (an annual plan).
To enable the goals to be measured objectively, we encourage clients to have KRA's (key results areas) for the long term goals, and KPI's (key performance indicators) for the short term.
KRAs talk about the functions or the ‘what' that will enable the goals to be reached. KPIs (key performance indicators), are the specific measurements that quantify the achievement of a goal that’s been set.
As such, it’s important to agree with your stakeholders on what success looks like – and to plot predicted outcomes on some sort of matrix. If your goal is to secure ten new client wins in the first year of business, what does securing just two in the first six months look like? Does it depend on the nature of the clients and their size? What if you secure one unexpectedly large piece of new business, or you lose an existing customer at the same time as securing a new one? How does this influence your overall understanding of success?
We recommend that clients celebrate any wins, regardless of how small they are. There’s nothing like positive momentum to make your people feel rewarded and encouraged in achieving your overall goals.
How to implement a business plan: Next steps
At 24 Hour Business Plan, we’re often asked how to implement a business plan. This is an area in which we can provide sound advice for businesses of all sizes.
As each of our facilitators has been at the helm of significant businesses, from startups to multinationals, we’re able to contribute extensive business planning and implementation experience from almost every significant industry and vertical.
In just four intensive workshops of six hours each, our team will guide yours in determining a set of clear, actionable plans for strategic growth. We can also provide detailed plans and advice regarding how to best implement your strategic business plan for success.
If you are feeling overwhelmed with your business planning and would like us to help you make it as effective and straightforward as possible, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
