Having a plan to a growing business

A Strategic Plan for Growth

A strategic plan for growth is essential for any company as it serves as a road map and feeling of direction. It outlines both the current state of the company and where it expects to be in a specific time frame. The expansion risks can be minimized according to the strategy, which offers guidance to the business owner. The plan explains who does what when, making mistakes like not allocating duties to someone easy to avoid. Such a plan necessitates that the company owner take it seriously and be dedicated to it. (Buzza, John, and Joseph B. Mosca) list the following as elements of a business strategy among others. It should display a clear picture of the business highlighting its strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities at present. This means that it should how when the business is including the sources available and the challenges that it may have to face when reaching out for new opportunities. Secondly, the plan must contain a vision for where the business aspires to be in the next defined period. Lastly a plan that strategically outlines how the business plans to get there. This plan includes who is expected to do what at what time. The plan is a step by step outline that illustrates how the business will get there eventually through accomplishing smaller tasks progressively.

Milestones for Project Completion

Despite being stepping stones on a critical path to completion of a project, milestones are an important tool for management of the business through project planning, evaluation of performances and regarding team players. Milestones lead to the ultimate achievement of the main goal (Kasinath Sastry, K., and Dilip H. R.). They act as the building blocks for the schedule of a project and often create the momentum to keep the project going until it reaches completion. Implementation of milestones requires a schedule. In the implementation, the frequency and the descriptions of project phases should be included. Project phases refer to the smaller workloads that are easily manageable. These workloads can be clearly defined and measurable using the deliverable and time taken for achievement. The target that was set in each milestone needs to be met before a milestone can be said to be achieved. For each milestone completed, the results or deliverables should be produced.

Implementation Process and Dependency

The Implementation process should have major activities for each milestone defined. When implementing each phase, there should be an emphasis on the major activities that are required to achieve the set deliverables. An implementation plan should have a defined list of key milestones (Berman, Barry). From time to time, it is important to check on the key check-points/ key milestones. The audit should be done regularly to discover and curb shortcomings on time. Responsibilities and assignments should be shared among the team. Each person should be well-informed of the contribution they are expected to make towards achieving the main goal/target. However, the team members should be notified of the dependency of the different milestone projects. Individuals need to work as a team on the same projects and not as independent persons with independent projects. All workers need to know that they can depend on other role players in the project for help and support. At the same time, they can offer support to other people who are working on different milestones. It is important to ensure that dependencies are well-defined to ensure that some workers do not struggle while there is help readily available and also that some workers do not avoid their responsibilities and become over-dependence on others.

Work cited

Berman, Barry. “Planning And Implementing Effective Mobile Marketing Programs”. Business Horizons, vol 59, no. 4, 2016, pp. 431-439. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2016.03.006.

Buzza, John, and Joseph B. Mosca. “Create The Plan, Work The Plan: A Look At Why The Independent Business Owner Has Trouble Calling A Franchisee A True Entrepreneur”. American Journal Of Business Education (AJBE), vol 2, no. 7, 2011, p. 113. Clute Institute, doi:10.19030/ajbe.v2i7.4590.

Kasinath Sastry, K., and Dilip H. R. “Making Your Business Plan A Real One By Establishing Milestones”. Prabandhan: Indian Journal Of Management, vol 5, no. 2, 2012, p. 4. Associated Management Consultants, PVT., Ltd., doi:10.17010//2012/v5i2/60121.