How to Create Your Strategic Plan for 2021

Hey everyone!

I’m going to talk to you a little bit today about strategic planning. Yesterday I had a client come to me and say they wanted to increase their reputation in Washington D.C. 

My first question was: Why? What is your business goal? What’s your organizational goal? Why do you want to increase your reputation in Washington D.C.?

Whenever I think about strategic planning, I always start with the question:  Why? Why are you doing this and what is your goal?

At Curley Company, we create 2-3 strategic plans every week. We use them for our clients, our prospects, and even for the agency itself so we’re really immersed in this idea of strategic planning on a constant basis. 

I have 5 points I use as my cheat sheet as I am putting together my strategic plan:

• First is always: What is the goal? What is the objective you are trying to hit in your plan?

• Second, I always think about tactics. I want them to be measurable, actionable and very real. You want to think about that when you put together your tactics and how you’re actually going to deliver on your goals.

• Third thing is measurement. How you’re going to use data to actually measure your success?

• Always think about socializing. You want to socialize your plan with your keystakeholders – it’s your employees, your board, and your members and you want to be sure they are on board throughout the process. At the end of the day the other thing I like about socializing and talking about the plan is it keeps you as the leader accountable as well. It really helps you feel it, own it, and evangelize it internally as well. So it’s really important to do that. 

• The last thing I will say is that you don’t want to put your strategic plan in the drawer. You want to make sure it’s top of mind, eye over the course of the year and really think about: Is that working for us? Is this still the goal? Are we hitting the goal? What is our success looking like? Just making sure that you are constantly looking at your strategic plan and changing it when you need to

Those are my five points as you’re creating your strategic plan this year. I would leave you with one parting thought which is: What is the problem you’re trying to solve this year? What is your goal, and how can a strategic plan help you? If Curley Company can be helpful, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Thanks!