Developing a business plan can be a daunting task, so breaking it down and understanding the link between each component can make it easier to accomplish. Here's how you can develop and tailor your company's business plan that will help serve as a roadmap to success.

The Strategic Planning Component

The strategic plan encompasses the big picture parts of the company. It tells a reader who you are, what you do and how you will do it. Two important pieces of the strategic plan are the mission statement and vision statement.

You could say a vision statement is a company’s dream and a mission statement is the goal of that dream. Mission statements are short declarations of purpose used to align stakeholders to the vision, while the vision statement is used to motivate employees. From these two statements, the strategic planning process flows naturally, resulting in a slew of goals and their associated outcomes.

Creating Departments With Tactical Planning

The next level down begins with the creation of departments, or business divisions, which assign tasks as they are developed.

The tactical plan serves three functions, including:

• Letting each division know how it will support the company as a whole.
• Allowing the department to develop its own key mission and vision statements.
• Identifying clear goals and objectives for each department.
• By the end of the tactical planning process, you should have the bones of your organizational structure.

Bring It Together With the Operational Plan

The operational planning process ties together the strategic and tactical plans into a specific analysis of the delivery process for your service or product. It should detail the entire process, from design to customer service, including working with vendors, delivery options and establishing marketing channels. This is where you should perform a SWOT analysis to identify the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

The SWOT analysis is the cornerstone of the business plan since it identifies what each employee, department and the company has a whole is bringing to the table and what it is lacking. It also focuses the company of the overall market that will be entered.

Keep It Going With a Sustainability Plan

Every business is susceptible to disasters. These can be as personal as an illness for a sole proprietorship or a hurricane for a large factory.

A quarter of all businesses do not reopen following a disaster. To avoid this trend, incorporate a sustainability plan in your business plan. This plan should include off-site backups of data, alternative vendors in case your normal supply chain is disrupted and a secondary temporary office if your space is destroyed. In addition, you will want to throw some restart money into the bank as an insurance policy.

Analyze Your Plan With Financial Reports, Ratios

Financial statements include the income statement, balance sheet, statement of cash flow and owner equity statement. In simple terms, financial statements show the dollar value of all of the other planning you just finished. It tells you how much profit will be generated if you actually do what you plan to do in the operational plan.

Everything is linked, and the health of the company can be assessed with financial ratios. Take a look at the list of ratios and see which ones are useful for your company.