What Is the Difference Between a Business Plan and a Strategic Plan?
Writing plans for the future of your business is an essential step if you want to succeed, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. You may, however, need more than one kind of plan: a business plan and a strategic plan. Both kinds of plans map out the future of your business, but you will use them in different ways and at different points in your career.
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Function
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Businesses draw up strategic plans to improve the company's performance and make it more successful, according to the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning. Business plans, on the other hand, serve mostly as a blueprint for starting your company, including your vision of the company's role and your financial goals. The two kinds of plans are distinct, although they will contain much of the same information.
Business Plan
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A business plan states the purpose of your company and a detailed description of how it works, according to the Nolo legal website. The descriptions includes your staff, your suppliers, your location and the product or service you will sell. It should also include an analysis of your market, how you will compete in the market and your financial projections for the first year or so. If you are looking for financing, the business plan is an essential part of your presentation to potential lenders.
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Strategic Plan
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The features of a strategic plan, the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning state, include the products and services the company will offer and what type of customers it will target. A typical plan will also identify what the company needs to compete and how it will attain any ingredients for the competition that it does not have; trends in the market; a detailed marketing plan; and the project costs and profits for the next fiscal year or two. The emphasis is on improvement and growth, rather than starting from scratch.
Outcomes
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Any business plan you draw up will invariably turn out to be wrong, "Entrepreneur" magazine states. Nobody's predictions are 100 percent accurate, so you need to track your progress, notice where your projections were off and figure out why. The knowledge you gain will help you refine your efforts and make later strategic planning more effective.
Assistance
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If drawing up a plan from scratch seems challenging, there are plenty of resources to help. Consultants will assist you in drawing up business or strategic plans, for a fee. You can also use government sources such as the U.S. Small Business Administration, which offers advice online for how to draft a business plan.
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