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William E Rothschild once said, “What do you want to achieve or avoid? The answers to this question are objectives. How will you go about achieving your desired results? The answer to this, you can call strategy.” These words provide a nearly exact description of the differences between the business plan and the strategic plan.
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Business Plan
The business plan provides a written tour of your business’ operations. This plan identifies the business’ models, missions and objectives. It then takes the reader through the staffing, location, marketing and financing requirements that are needed to meet those objectives. The business plan examines the business’ potential for success, the competing industry and the business’ competitive advantages. In a detailed and organized manner, it reviews and explains every area of the business.
Strategic Plan
The strategic plan identifies the steps, or strategies, that the business will use to meet, if not exceed, its objectives. The strategic plan can focus on the entire business or specific areas of the business, such as consumer marketing, customer retention and product introduction. As a result, businesses can have many strategic plans to address various areas of business.
Misconceptions
Business traditionalists often explain that business plans are used for new companies and strategic plans are used for experienced and established companies. This is untrue. Business plans can be used by companies of all ages. Mature businesses often review their business plans annually to benchmark progress and verify that the business is on course to success. Business plans are used, at every business-maturity level, to obtain loans, secure partnerships and attract the interest of corporate executives. Similarly, strategic plans can be used by young businesses to develop competitive advantages, solidify operations and secure customer satisfaction. These plans are also beneficial in securing investors because they clearly define the steps and procedures that will be taken to achieve the defined results.
Dependency
The boundaries of the strategic plan are defined by the contents of the business plan. The missions and objectives within the business plan not only define the desired results, but the time frame in which the results should be achieved. It tells the amount of resources, staff and finances that are available. The strategies are developed around those criteria while introducing new areas and information that is needed to attain the desired results.
Considerations
It is important that you review and update your business plan at least once each year. Regular review of your business plan will help you to judge your business success, identify necessary changes and resolve issues before they develop into disasters. A regular business plan review will also help you to develop strong business forecasts for your business, especially when the information is updated monthly. As you adjust your business plan, you must also make the necessary adjustments to your strategic plan. While a complete overhaul of strategies is unnecessary, it may be necessary to refine certain areas so that they remain in the scope of the business plan. For instance, if you change the financial structure within the business plan to include a decrease in marketing expenses, the marketing strategies may require expenditure adjustments to remain within the new budget.
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