Strategic Planning Tools We Love
Strategic planning is an important part of your business. Without it you will not truly know how to get where you are going. Winston Churchill once said “He who fails to plan is planning to fail” which I do not believe is any business owner's goal, however, many times business owners do not know how to get started in strategic planning.
To help you get started here are some tools we love to use:
EOS Vision/Traction Organizer
The Vision Traction Organizer (V/To) comes from the Traction Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and is designed to help businesses clarify and achieve their vision. It encompasses core values, focus, long-term goals, and marketing strategies, broken down into actionable short-term objectives. We love this tool for the clarity it brings to your business visions and aligns your team toward the common goal. You can learn more about this tool by reading the book Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business. You can also download the tool here.
Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management template we love for developing new or documenting existing business models. It visually outlines nine key components: value propositions, customer segments, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure. Use this tool to ensure you are completely thinking through a business idea or to align your activities by illustrating potential trade-offs and providing a clear overview of how you create, deliver, and capture value.
SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is used to identify and analyze the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to business competition or project planning. This method involves specifying the objective of the business or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are supportive or unfavorable to achieving that objective. It will help you make decisions by providing a clear framework to evaluate where you stand and how to capitalize on opportunities or mitigate challenges.
EOS Organizational Checkup
The EOS Organizational Checkup is a diagnostic tool designed to assess a company's strength in six key components: Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, and Traction. It will help you identify areas of improvement and alignment within your organization, ensuring all team members are working effectively towards common goals. This checkup is a crucial part of the EOS, guiding leaders in optimizing their business operations for better performance and growth. You can complete this checkup for free from EOS here.
Prototype Model for Growth
The Prototype Model for Growth was created by Blumer CPA’s for service based organizations. In this you evaluate 10 different components split between your Service and Market components and these balance one another out so that you can run your business in a balanced and scalable way. The components are Client Focused, Client Alignment, Value Propositions, Vision and Value, Service Offerings, Market Rhythms, Revenue Structure, Team Structure, Service Rhythms, and Accountable Processes. As you work through each of these components you will identify the areas of improvement that are needed in your organization for it to continue to run well. If you are interested in this model we recommend starting with this video.
One Page Strategic Plan
The one page strategic plan comes from the book Scaling Up. We feel this is very similar to the EOS V/To model above but adds in some additional components that the EOS system would not incorporate in the vision/traction organizer step. We love Scaling Up as a system and have worked with several clients who are using it.
These are only a few of the many strategic planning tools that we use but hopefully this summary allows you to get started on your planning journey.
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