How to Prepare a Long-Range Plan

Business owners who look to the future increase the likelihood their business will not only survive but also thrive. Long-range plans covering up to 10 years bring a business plan to life and enable the business to respond rather than react to changing conditions. While understanding the significance of long-range planning is a crucial first step, knowing how to prepare long-range plans that serve as a framework for how you conduct business is even more important.

Gather and Analyze Information

Long-range plans incorporate both qualitative and quantitative data. Start by gathering information such as your business plan, mission and vision statement, annual budget and sales projections, market and consumer research data. Analyze the information you gather to ensure everyone involved in the planning process fully understands the business’s current position and long-term business goals. A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis, for example, can help you assess where the business currently stands and evaluate your operating environment. Consumer research data can help you identify target markets and better understand purchasing behaviors. Market research can help you better understand business competition.

Identify Long-Range Planning Options

Identify long-range planning options that correspond to long-term business goals and help the business capitalize on strengths, minimize risks and create a competitive advantage. Identifying options typically requires careful thought and multiple brainstorming sessions. Assume, for example, you set a long-term market penetration goal of 90 percent; current data shows you’re presently at 30 percent, and consumer research shows your target market is more concerned about how your products fit into their lifestyles and make life easier than they are with price. Potential long-range planning options can include a focus on providing cutting-edge products, lifestyle-oriented marketing campaigns and profit-driven pricing strategies.

Narrow the List

Brainstorming sessions can create a multitude of options and directions in which your business can turn. It is time to prioritize planning options and narrow the list to create manageable and achievable goals. It’s important to remember that while long-range goals remain constant, as time progresses and business conditions change, it may become necessary to modify the steps your business takes to achieve these goals. Never discard an option that -- for now, at least -- might not work, because you don’t know what the future will bring. Focus on arriving at a list of long-range goals and three to four options for achieving each goal.

Create an Action Plan

Everything comes together in the final step of creating a long-range plan. You know the ultimate goals. You’ve identified objectives for achieving these goals and now it’s time to think like a project manager. Start at the end and work your way back until you reach a starting point. Set milestones and then identify action steps and deliverables required to achieve each milestone in a long-range plan. Milestones serve as good stopping points for assessing whether you’re making satisfactory progress or whether you need to modify the action plan.