An Easy Guide to Action Plans for Business
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Looking to take your business to the next level? Searching for a tool that will help you stay on track with your business goals? Look no further than an action plan, a simple tool that outlines the steps you will take to meet an objective or goal.
WHAT IS AN ACTION PLAN?
An action plan is a strategic checklist of tasks to meet your goal(s). Think of an action plan as the roadmap to your goals. With a roadmap, you can easily spot potential pitfalls and recognize opportunities for improvement as well as identify milestones for celebration along your journey.
Most action plans will include these key components:
A clear description of the desired goal
Well-defined tasks to take as steps toward reaching that goal including who is responsible for completing each task, deadlines, and resources needed
Measurements of success and milestones
Though these are the common key components, keep in mind you can add whatever you’d like to support the way you and your business work. For example, some folks might want to include information on their ‘why’ to maintain integrity as the business strives toward its goals. Action plans can also change over time as you learn through experience.
Why do you need an action plan?
Having an action plan helps to reduce the constant noise in the business ownership space. Everyone has their own goals, perspectives, and beliefs about how to be a business owner and what’s important to succeed. The thing is, our unique perspectives give us each a chance to succeed through methods others might not understand by seeing opportunities they couldn’t. Having an action plan keeps you and your business focused on what is important to you and your business.
Odds are, if you’re reading this, then you’re likely a creative business owner and maybe a solopreneur as well. Having an action plan helps keep your efforts focused and limits distractions, helping you stay motivated toward reaching your goal. Sometimes others’ innovation can be your distraction, and you can get caught up in trying to measure up to goals and visions that weren’t made for you. An action plan limits your competition to yourself, giving you a system to improve while reducing overwhelm.
Here at You Belong Here, we know business isn’t one size fits all (and that’s why we provide a diverse range of tools and opportunities for our members). Why should action plans or even your goals, for that matter, be any different? You deserve a system that works with you and for you, not the other way around.
Aside from the mental peace and clarity you can find from an action plan, there are more strategic reasons as well.
Here are some additional benefits of creating and using action plans:
Eases your ability to report on your business’ success and growth, particularly to grantmakers or potential community collaborators
Ensures the important tasks don’t fall through the cracks
Increases your understanding of what’s possible and informs future plans
Makes tackling big projects efficient, simplifying to step-by-step action
Keeps you and your team accountable to your vision
When is an action plan necessary?
Ideally, you’ll want to understand the vision, mission, and objectives of your business before creating an action plan. Once you have determined your business goals based on your vision, mission, and objectives, an action plan is the next best step to help you make that goal a reality. Remember that action plans can change as circumstances change, and for this reason it’s important to keep your action plan visible and to revise it as your business changes over time.
HOW TO WRITE AN ACTION PLAN
It is fairly simple to write an action plan, and to get the most out of it you’ll need to follow these 4 simple steps:
Define your goal.
The most well-defined goals usually satisfy the SMART criteria:
Specific - a clearly defined or identified outcome
Measurable - determines measurable evidence to indicate you are on the right track and helps you set milestones
Actionable - a reasonable goal within your business’ capability of accomplishing
Relevant - a goal that contributes to your broader objectives and is worthy of prioritization
Time-Based - provides a timeline and helps you set deadlines
If you’re having trouble deciding on a goal, then brainstorm the challenges you’d like to overcome and what goals could help in eliminating those challenges. When determining your goal, you will likely feel motivated to achieve this goal as a means to uphold your values or to overcome a challenge or both.
2. Determine the tasks necessary to reach that goal.
To determine tasks, you can brainstorm by reverse engineering from your goal or by starting with the low-hanging fruit you can accomplish today to build up to your future goal. However you choose to brainstorm, be sure each task has a definitive quality and outlines who is responsible, the resources allocated, and the deadline(s).
3. Set milestones.
Milestones are the markers that indicate a significant change or stage along your journey toward your ultimate goal. By creating milestones, you’ll find it’s easier to stay motivated along the way by simplifying the tasks at hand, rather than rushing to the finish line and burning out in the process. To set your milestones, first prioritize your tasks and look for themes. By accomplishing a group of tasks, do you accomplish a milestone toward your ultimate goal? If you find that by defining your milestones that you’d like to add tasks to better track your progress, then go right ahead so long as you do not lose sight of the overarching goal.
4. Implement using a project management tool, such as ClickUp*
To set your action plan in motion, consider using a project management tool to help you monitor, track, and manage your tasks. Many project management tools, such as ClickUp, provide templates to help you implement your action plan.
TLDR; if you want to accomplish your goals, action plans are your friend.
Though a somewhat simple tool, action plans help to simplify your goals into actionable steps while helping you keep focus on what’s most important to you and your business. In short, action plans communicate what action is needed, who will carry it out, when it will take place and for how long, and what resources are needed to make this possible. Action plans are a work in progress, and they require constant revision and review. Remember that writing an action plan is only step one, and implementing your action plan is where the real change happens.
If you’d like support in developing your action plan, consider joining You Belong Here as a member for business development consulting and discounts on our events! OR book a 20 minute consult with You Belong Here Program Director and Business Strategist, Nic Roc, to get insight on where and how to start.
*YOU BELONG HERE is an affiliate of ClickUp. Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We try our best to keep things fair and balanced, in order to help you make the best choice for you.