We have gathered a number of articles related to strategic planning and business planning to make available on our own site. Some relate to the process of making strategic planning work, others relate to writing business plans, planning training and doing needs analysis.

Some of these articles have been written by Robert Bacal, author, consultant and trainer, while others have been made available from authors writing on planning issues, who have made their material available to us. We'll be adding new material regularly so check back. All articles will open in a new window. For a larger selection of summarized articles, check out our Planning Resource Center.

Strategic Planning Related

Strategic planning is one of the more commonly neglected business processes, particularly with smaller companies, and its also often botched by larger companies, resulting in a lot of effort put into creating planning reports that languish unread, and ignored in the backs of desk drawers. Here's some help specifically on the topic of strategic planning.

• Strategic Planning - Stop Wasting Your Time By Robert Bacal
• Our Dead Strategic Plan and How To Make It Come Alive By Robert Bacal
• Planning Communications To Optimize Strategic Plan Implementation by Robert Bacal
• What Is A Mission Statement
• Pave The Way To A Successful Strategic Plan
• SWOT Analysis - A Strategic Planning Tool (Identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
• SWOT Analysis Is No Magic 8 Ball
• Five Reasons Strategic Plans Fail
• Three Steps To Give Your Strategic Plan Traction

Business Planning Help

Business planning is one of those things that can go on forever, and that's one of the challenges. It's impossible to plan for every business eventuality into the future, so at some point, you need to say, "Enough is enough", and not get bogged down, so that you spend more time planning, than doing. Business planning is also very broad, and the actual plan you produce is going to be driven by the purpose of the plan. Some, for example, are intended for an investor audience, while others may never be read by anyone other than the person drafting the plan, say in a small business context. In the former, there are certain things investors look for, while in the latter, the plan itself becomes less important than the actual process and thinking that goes into it.

• Before You Start Working On Your Business Plan
• Fail to Plan... Or Plan To Fail
• Plan Your Way To Success
• Importance of a Focused Business Plan
• Dotcom Business Plans Archive (sample plans for the tech. sector)
• When Do I Need To Hire A Business Planning Consultant
• Ten Critical Facts To Put On The Cover of Your Business Plan
• The 7 Critical Steps to Formulating Your Annual Strategic Business Plan
• Top Ten Things About Creating a Business Vision
• You Need A Business Planning System, Not Just a Business Plan

Business Startup Planning

As with general business planning, your plan, and the process you use depends on who's needs you need to address. Is your startup plan for venture capitalists, to convince them to invest? Is it something you are developing solely to guide yourself as you consider and decide about starting a business? Below are some articles that cover a range of startup business planning scenarios.

• Ten Questions To Ask Before Starting A Business
• Starting a Home Business - How to Write a Business Plan that Guides Your Success!
• 21 Steps To Home Business Success
• The Secrets of Starting Business Successfully
• Business Failure, The 8 Traps Causing Failure And The One Attribute Which Ensures Business Survival
• My 7 Most Important Business Lessons

Financial Planning

It's an unfortunate fact that the people who should be doing financial planning so as to receive maximum benefit -- the young, are not often motivated to think down the road thirty or forty years. Of course, financial planning isn't limited to the young, and even those close to retirement need to do it well to ensure their financial security, but the truth is that most people don't really think about their financial security until they get closer to their senior years. Still, it's never too late. Even starting to plan financially at the ripe age of sixty can have critical and important benefits.

• Turbocharged Financial Planning
• "In a Time of Need"
• Wealth Management, Wealth Protection, and Tax Planning
• 7 Power Habits that Build Financial Independence
• Financial Planning For Singles
• Wealth Creation and Mortgage Planning - Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together
  
  

Estate Planning

Nobody wants to think of dying, and perhaps that's one reason why people tend to procrastinate on even the simple things associated with estate planning, even making a will. The consequences of NOT planning for the distribution of your wealth can be profound, however, not the least of which is that you may end up, through neglect, having the tax man benefit more than your relatives.

• *6 Reasons Why You Should Have a Living Trust
• *Estate Planning
• *Reasons for Estate Planning
• *Baby Boomers: Will They Be Able to Afford Their Parents?
• *Tenants in Common (TIC)
• *Why You Need a Durable Power of Attorney Now!
  

Sales & Marketing Plans and Planning

Most, if not all large companies do extensive sales and marketing plans, but smaller businesses tend to pay much less attention to developing both a strategy and marketing tactics for the long haul. This can result in squandering of scarce marketing money, because it ends up spent in bits and pieces, rather than as part of an overall, longer term strategy.

• Completing The Annual (Marketing) Plan
• Marketing Plans... A Simple Approach To Get Off The Marketing Roller Coaster
• The Process of Change in Marketing Approaches
• Marketing Planning Made Simple - Another Small Business Power Tool
• The 7 Areas of Marketing Waste - Are You Committing These Marketing Sins?
• Key Marketing Questions - Planning Your Marketing Campaign
• Ten Secrets of Super Successful Meeting Planners

Project Planning and Meeting Planning and Meeting Management

Meetings are the bane of many employees' lives. Badly run meetings can actually have an negative effect on employee engagement, not to mention lost productivity, and increases in frustration. Meeting planning, and then ensuring that meetings follow plans, with clear purpose, and process seem so trivial that many people don't bother. And it shows.

• Effective Meetings: Why Most Meetings Are A Waste of Time
• How To Make Meetings More Productive
• Knowledge Management - Lessons Learned and How To Identify Them
• Project Management: Land the Plane Stop "Doing" and Start Succeeding
• To Meet or Not to Meet - What are the Questions?
• Top Seven Questions for Starting Projects More Effectively
• Got A Meeting Planned? Ask This Question
• Meetings and Road Trips
• 10 Time Management Tips for Busy Professionals
• Project Management, A Forgotten Perspective

Succession Planning

• Art of Succession Planning
• Succession Planning for Your Business - 7 Key Benefits
• Getting Started With Succession Planning Part II
• *Succession Planning? ... Not on My Watch!
• *Succession Planning: Problems Getting Started
• *Nine Succession Planning Mistakes Small Businesses Should Avoid
• *Five Steps to Successful Business Succession
• Challenges And Best Practices In Succession Planning For Executives

Disaster, Crisis, Business Continuity and Recovery Related

• It's a Crisis If There's No Plan
• Do You Have The One Key Ingredient Necessary For Disaster Recovery?
• Lessons From Katrina - Does Your Business Have an Adequate Disaster Recovery Plan?
• Five Steps to Protect Your Business System from a Disaster
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Business Impact Analysis
• Protecting Data in Today’s Fast-Paced & Uncertain Environment
  
  

Human Resource Planning (HR Planning)

• New HR Planning Tools
• The Challenges of Human Resource Management
• Army Ranger Reveals How to Control Corporate Stress
• Using Employee Opinions Effectively When Designing HR Programs
• It's Spring - Time For A Compensation Program Tune Up
  

 

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