There is no one way to go about developing your plan, but one of the most important aspects of the process is how you involve people in it. You need to make sure that everyone concerned (staff, volunteers, committee members, service users, local residents, key supporters) has the chance to contribute. Everyone needs to feel committed to achieving the plan and this will only be the case if everyone agrees that the plan is taking your organisation in the right direction and is about achieving goals that everyone is signed up to. Think of business planning not as a bureaucratic nuisance, but a useful tool in planning the future.
There are many ways of achieving this, and ideally you need to provide a variety of ways for different groups of people to contribute. Methods you might employ include:
- holding an ‘away day’ to kick start a three or five year plan
- holding consultation events and meetings
- gathering ideas and views from service users or local residents through questionnaires. This is important – a business plan needs to demonstrate that people will actually want and use what you are planning to provide, in the way that you are planning to provide it.
- carrying out some research into particular needs or problems
- doing a ‘SWOT’ analysis to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats affecting your organisation and using this is to guide your priorities for the next few years.
Whatever activities and techniques you choose, allow plenty of time to plan and carry out this part of the process.
Once you have gathered information on what people feel are the main priorities, needs and problems and on what kinds of activities or services you should be aiming to deliver you can start working on more detailed plans for how you will achieve this and how you will find the resources needed.
