If you are at all like me and have ever thought about developing a strategic plan for your business, you know what a hassle it is to get the ball rolling. I have had my primary consulting practice operating for almost 12 years and I have not developed a written plan. That is unfortunate.

I know I have many excuses: Who is going to use the plan except me so why bother; I have too many other things to do and I don’t have time; A formal strategic plan is complicated and even if I wanted to write one, some things called for in the plan are just too complicated. My list goes on but you get the idea.

Anyway, about 5 years ago, I started a non-profit organization with a colleague. Our issue was focused around campaign finance reform. We had a great idea and we moved forward quickly. Early on, we talked with somebody who I respect and he gave us some advice: “Develop a “Plan” that you can share with potential donors. Don’t make it too long - 5 or 6 pages - no more.” He tossed out some suggestions for the elements of the “Plan” and left.

My colleague and I thought about it, agreed it was a good idea and got started. We talked about several things in the “Plan”:

• A Brief Overview of our Organization
• Our Mission Statement
• Our Goals and Objectives
• Our Accomplishments to Date
• A Budget
• A Biography of the Founders and our Board of Directors

It took some time but each of these items are bite sized, so to speak, so we were able to get it done in a couple of weeks of back and forth writing and editing.

When we started out, I didn’t think of this as a strategic plan, so to speak. But as time passed, it became obvious what we had done. Even more remarkable was how truly valuable this document became for us. In our first 18 months of operation, we raised for than $500,000. We did it using this document as a presentation document for our potential funders. We found that they were impressed with the document because it laid out both what we had done and what we intended to do. Our budget was simple and realistic and we had a clear vision of where we were going.

The Plan gave us our focus for getting us going. Since then, we drafted an annual strategic plan, which served as a road map for our continuing operations.

If you have similar experiences, post your comments below.