How to Create a Strategic Business Plan Using PR Smith’s SOSTAC® Planning Framework

The next few months and beyond are going to be tough for businesses, sitting down and actually planning what you can do moving forward will be crucial.

A good planning framework I use and recommend is PR Smith’s SOSTAC®  Planning Framework – Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action, Control.

There is more information about the SOSTAC® Planning Framework here.

I’ve put together a short guide on what you need to do to create your plan of action below.

Situation

The first thing to do is take stock of what is actually going on, find out what has actually happened to the business, get the cash – flow figures, talk to creditors and debtors and find out what they are doing (are they going to be chasing you or not paying), find out what assistance is available to your business (check govt resources etc), speak to your staff – it’s impossible to plan anything unless you know what is happening.

The list above is not exhaustive, rather a indicator of things you should be finding out. Find out everything you can about your business and the figures around it.

Objectives

Once you have all the information to hand you can start to plan some objectives, don’t start with the objectives until you have the information as you will be using this to form them.

The objectives will need to be top level ones such as: keep the business going as it is, slow the business down to a lower level, diversify products/services, invest in expansion.

Again, you will only be able to form this once you know the ins and outs of the business and marketplace. For example, it may not be realistic to keep the business going in its current form if the marketplace has dried up.

You need to try to keep to one or two objectives (one preferably) and make sure they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound).

Strategy

Now you need to think about how are you going to reach the objective(s) you’ve just set – if you chose keep the business going a strategy may be to ensure cash flow is stabilised and there is enough money to pay staff etc.

If you think the best strategy would be to reduce the business operations until the situation is better you will need to look into furloughing staff, making sure there is enough cash to cover ongoing costs such as reserves or utilising any government backed loans or grants.

Your strategy is the way you are going to reach your objective(s).

Tactics

The tactics cover the specifics of carrying out the strategy – what assistance can you get from the government, e.g grants or the interest free loans, and apply for these, you could also look at delaying payments to creditors for  six months (or reducing them), chasing  your own debtors, reducing costs where possible, etc.

For the strategy mentioned above, ensuring there is enough cash flow to keep the business going, you could explore the tactics of applying for grants, loans, even invoice finance. You would probably also need to look at where savings can be made to reduce costs as much as possible.

Action

Now you get to the planning out of how you are going to put the tactics into action – include time scales and milestones of when the tactics are going to be implemented and who is going to carry them out.

A useful way of putting this into a written form is by using a GANTT chart but writing them down on paper on a word document will work as well.

Control

Record who has done what and when, has the tactic worked and been put in place and finally has the objective been reached? Does anything need to be done differently? Make sure you get feedback from all those involved.

Finally

Remember that this is a plan and plans can be fluid and reactive so keep referring back to it, for example what the government are doing and how, where the pandemic moves/affects next will change things.

If applicable you also need to be planning what you are going to do when the situation recovers.

The SOSTAC® planning system will work for this too. For the situation part you can use your best judgement as to what the case will be like and adjust it when needed, the rest of the sections should then follow from this just as you have done for this plan.

How we can help

Planning for the future of your business is hard, especially when there have been economic hits left, right, and centre. If you want some free advice on how you can plan for the future and get your business back on track please get in touch with us on 0800 975 0380 or email [email protected]

Further references

1. SOSTAC® Video (4 mins from PR Smith) www.PRSmith.org/SOSTAC (scroll to bottom)
2. SOSTAC® Guide to your Perfect Digital Marketing Plan (2020) book
3. SOSTAC® Blog (posts from PR Smith): www.PRSmith.org/blog
4. SOSTAC® Groups are also on Facebook & Linkedin
5. SOSTAC® Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sostac_planning/