How to Create a Simple Business Plan

In this blog, I’m sharing something from behind the scenes at THC Primary Care - a tool that, I think can deliver real value for you and your organisation. Our company dashboard is a bit like a business plan. We share it internally and it forms part of our induction to support the whole team being on the same page. It’s also used as an aid in embedding contractors and external service providers supporting in our growth with critical insight.

I’m going to summarise the contents of our dashboard. This blog accompanies The Business of Healthcare episode #109 if you’re looking for further detail.

The Contents of Your Simple Business Plan

1. Who we are – in a sentence or two. This is your elevator pitch that you want everyone to be able to recite if asked, “So what does your organisation do?”

2. Accolades – Include key highlights such as, clients you’ve worked with, how you’ve supported client’s or a standout testimonial.

3. Team structure & services – You would likely include your major projects and your initiatives and an org chart.

4. Annual goals – In our dashboard, I share where we are at currently so that our achievements can be seen and where priorities need to be in order to reach our goals. This is a fluid document that is updated on a monthly/bi-monthly or quarterly basis.

5. 3 Year Vision – This is expressed financially alongside our new operating structure that we are aiming towards.

6. Tactical plan (team version) – on this slide, we detail the services, resource or training the business needs to help achieve our goals and 3 year vision.

7. Tactical plan (your version) – this version goes into more detail, breaking down the vision into individual years. For example, I include what I want the team salaries to look like.

Set aside time to put this together. There are some areas that you’ll have to spend time thinking about. It’s a very powerful exercise in thinking, how you're going to go about growing your business or function within your organisation. It can be a challenging exercise but once you've run through it, you'll have the framework to keep coming back to it.

I really believe in the power of the mind and the ability to manifest or attract goals. There is of course a strategy to this to make it physically happen, but it has to start with an initial idea. I mentioned that there are some slides in our dashboard I don’t share with the team right away. On this slide, I write the achievements for the next 3 years using present tense e.g. “ I will” and “THC Primary Care will.”

After you’ve worked through your financial model, what the team resource and structure will look like, the product and service portfolio you’ll get to laying out your 90 day goals which are aligned to your 3 year goals.

The Marketing Plan

The next area to include in your dashboard or simple business plan is your marketing strategy. We centre ours around a word. This year our word is ‘Engagement.’ We are checking each marketing activity against this word and where our audience can be found.

Identify where your audiences can be found and which channels you'll use to reach them. How frequently will you be communicating? What are the key messages or services you'll share? Identify your cornerstone content and finally, track and monitor how each channel and which content is performing. We run a monthly internal marketing report to understand how best to serve our audience.

Get it Down on Paper

When you’re starting out, your vision and business strategy is held in your head. I would encourage you to write it down and share it with others. Questions to help you get your thoughts out on paper might be;

• What are you going to do for the next 12 months? What are your 90 day goals?

• How will we go about achieving X?

• What expertise are we missing?

• If we want to move into the world of having a physical product, what do we need to start doing now?

• What do I need to start educating myself on?

This blog is accompanied by Podcast episode #109 if you’d like further ideas and context to creating your dashboard or business plan.

Never miss a blog again!

We promise not to spam you!

Find out more about THC Primary Care at www.thcprimarycare.co.uk

And follow Tara on Twitter @THCPrimarycare

About the Author

I'm Tara; I am the founder of THC Primary Care, an award-winning healthcare consultancy specialising in Primary Care Network Management and the host of the Business of Healthcare Podcast, where we have now published over 250 episodes.

I have over 20 years of project management and business development experience across the private and public sectors, and I have supported over 120 PCNs by providing interim management, training and consultancy.

I have managed teams across multiple sites and countries; I have an MBA in Leadership and Management in Healthcare, I'm published in the London Journal of Primary Care, and I am the author of over 250 blogs.

I have 3 children. My eldest has Asthma, my middle child has a kidney condition called Nephrotic Syndrome, and my youngest daughter has Type 1 Diabetes, so outside of work, healthcare plays a huge role in my life.