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BLOG: Develop a simple, pragmatic strategic plan for your practice in five easy steps, part 3
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Let’s continue the discussion of strategic planning with the last two steps.
Step four: Edit the plan 2 weeks later
Of course, in today’s fluid world, most “strategic plans” are really “contingency plans.” Put the first draft of your plan off to the side, and pick it up again in a couple of weeks. Hand out copies to your administrator or office manager, your colleagues in the practice, and your key managers and advisers. Unless your document is for external consumption, such as your banker, don’t get hung up on format, length or grammar. This document is principally meant for your internal use, and particularly your personal use as an owner. Most importantly, let it reflect the balance you’re trying to strike between your practice as a “business,” in which success is measured in profit dollars, and your practice as a professional calling and your life’s chief work irrespective of profitability.
Step five: Reread, refine and use the plan once a month
Once you’ve bothered to prepare a strategic plan, by all means do use it. Here’s just a partial list of potential applications:
- Use the plan to reaffirm and secure the endorsement of partners and partner-track associates.
- Distribute the plan — or a sanitized version — to managers and perhaps all practice staff. Hold a special meeting to discuss your goals, and get everyone’s input. Label the distributed copy prominently as a “DRAFT,” and make sure your staff knows that it’s a work in progress and that their supplemental ideas are valued.
- Share a copy of your plan with potential employee providers. A cogent document will vastly increase their sense of your direction and will help to assure that their ambitions and risk tolerance are a fit with your own.
- Show your experts the plan. Your accountants should be drawn in to develop a 12- to 24-month budget forecast based on any special initiatives in the plan. Chances are that partner-admission, new facility development, succession planning and related issues will draw helpful comments from your attorney, and at the very least will increase the odds that advice given in other areas will be germane to your interests. If you have a management consultant, they should help you craft the plan and help you match your aspirations with available strategic resources.
- Show the plan to your banker as part of any loan applications. For surgeons with low credit ratings or high leverage, a cogent plan may help to tilt both funding availability and terms in your favor.
- Show your spouse the plan. He or she is likely to be a valuable sounding board and help you balance your business ambitions with your other responsibilities.