How to Build a Strategic Business Plan: The 5-Step Process
Updated October 2026 · By Leslie Hassler, Founder of Your Biz Rules
A strategic business plan sets where your business is going over the next 1–3 years and the priorities, owners and KPIs that get you there. You build it in five steps: align your team, review last year, choose your strategy, prioritize the next 90 days, then track and re-plan every quarter.
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What Is the Strategic Planning Process?
The strategic planning process is how a leadership team decides where the business is going and what it will do first to get there. It runs in five steps: align the team, review where you've been, choose your strategy, prioritize on a timeline, and track results in 90-day cycles.
Why Do You Need a Strategic Planning Process?
The strategic planning process gives entrepreneurs the choice to succeed down a path of their own choosing.
By its very nature, strategic planning feels hard. That’s why entrepreneurs and business owners avoid it. The purpose of a process is to make things easier to do because you don’t get stuck in trying to figure out what to do next.
It is easy to get swept up in the day-to-day activities of a growing business. When you do, you find yourself reacting, instead of proactively choosing to succeed down a path of your own desires. As the saying goes, most people don't plan to fail, they just fail to plan.
What Can a Strategic Plan Do for You?
A lack of a strategic plan will waste your time, your money, and your motivation to keep going. Having a strategic plan will do three things:
Which Strategic Planning Model Should You Use?
There are several models of strategic planning. The key is finding which strategic planning model fits the best for you and your team. Try one this year and if it doesn’t feel like the best fit, try another one next year. Here are just a few types of strategic planning models.
Model | Best for | How it works | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
Teams that need balance across finance, customers, operations and people | Goals and measures in four perspectives on one page | Can turn into a metrics list without priorities | |
OGSM (Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Measures) | Teams new to planning | Cascades one objective into goals, strategies and measures | Teams argue about definitions instead of planning |
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) | Fast-moving teams that review quarterly | 3–5 objectives, each with measurable key results | Too many OKRs dilute focus |
EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) | Owner-led companies of roughly 10–250 people that want one operating system for the whole business | A one-page Vision/Traction Organizer, quarterly "Rocks," a weekly scorecard and weekly leadership meetings | Works best when fully adopted, often with a certified implementer; can feel heavy if you only want a planning tool |
Theory of Change | Innovation or mission-driven goals | Works backward from a long-term outcome | Slow for day-to-day operational planning |
Hoshin Kanri | Established businesses aligning several departments | Breakthrough objectives cascaded through "catchball" reviews | Heavy for teams under 10 people |
Scenario planning | Uncertain markets | Builds plans for 2–4 possible futures | Needs good data to be useful |
Issue-based planning | Teams with urgent problems | Plans around the 3–5 issues blocking growth | Can miss longer-term opportunities |
Our take
Structure matters less than strategy. More structure doesn't always produce a better result. We're framework agnostic: we work within whichever system works best for each client, whether that's EOS, OKRs or a simple one-page plan.
Where we add value is in the quality of the strategy and the support to implement it.
Strategic Planning Tools
Once you have your framework, there are a few tools and techniques that can make the process easy and consistent. I find that when I lead teams in strategic planning, we tend to use a combination of these strategic planning tools (we also teach them in our strategic planning workshop):
SMART Goals
A way of defining what you want to achieve in a manner that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timeline driven
SWOT Analysis
A way of giving framework to the strategic planning process by evaluating the company's' Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Porter's 5 Forces
A framework of assessing the industry in terms of competition (1), new entrants (2), suppliers (3) customers (4) and threat of substitute products (5)
Visioning
A way of imagining where will you be in 10 years, five years, or one year? Visioning is valuable because it can define the why behind your business.
Who Should You Involve in the Strategic Planning Process?
Many hands make light work. You're more likely to gain buy-in and momentum behind your goals when you involve people in the strategic planning process.
For my clients with 15 or fewer employees, the answer to ‘who’ is everyone. However, in some businesses, it is logistically impossible to involve everyone. If you're a sole proprietor, include the partners or subcontractors who help you get the work done.
Also, think outside the box when you consider who you want to bring to the table. People who think differently, challenge the status quo, and balance out your team (or your own personality) can add value to the process.
For your team, set a few house rules about the planning process and expectations. These rules should let the team ask questions, challenge assumptions, and feel free to offer innovative solutions to your business challenges. If you would rather have an outside team guide it, our strategic planning retreat takes your leadership team through this process.
Want the Your Biz Rules team to lead your plan?
Our Strategic Planning Leadership Retreat takes your leadership team through these five steps in one or two days, and you leave with priorities, owners and a 90-day plan.
The 5 Steps to Build Your Strategic Business Plan
Every step below uses a tool our team uses with leadership teams to build a strategic business plan. You'll see what each one covers and an example filled in for a fictional company, so you can run your own version.
Step 1: Get Your Team on the Same Page
Your Strategic Pyramid is a planning framework developed by the Your Biz Rules team for growing businesses. It stacks six questions, from the most lasting (your values) down to this quarter's to-dos.
1. Values
How do we show up? Who are we?
2. Vision
Why do we exist?
3. Mission
What do we do?
4. BHAG
What do we want to achieve? (direction)
5. Strategies
How will we get there, and in what order?
6. Action plans
What will we do this quarter? (to-dos)
Your Strategic Pyramid, developed by Your Biz Rules
The top three levels rarely change. If you don't have them written down, don't stall the plan to write them. Add "define our vision, mission and values" as an action item and keep going.
The bottom three levels are what this plan builds. Each one should trace back up the pyramid. If a strategy doesn't serve the BHAG, it waits.
Step 2: Review Where You've Been
Next, look back before you look forward. The Your Biz Rules Year-End Review covers four areas. For each one, the team answers four questions: what should we start, stop, continue and change?
Financial
Is the math of the business working?
Sample KPIs: Gross margin · Net margin · Days cash on hand
Clients
Are we winning and keeping the right clients?
Sample KPIs: Leads · Conversion rate · Lifetime value
Operations
How easily does the work get done?
Sample KPIs: Revenue per employee · Capacity used · Bottlenecks
Team
Do we have the people to grow?
Sample KPIs: Turnover · Next 3 hires · Time to hire
Start · Stop · Continue · Change
The four review areas, with a few sample KPIs for each
Financial: Good Business Is Good Math
Look past revenue to gross and net margin, and profitability by service and client. Then check your cash. This is what a fractional CFO tracks with you every month.
Quick check: your Days Cash on Hand
Last year's total expenses ÷ 365 = daily burn
Cash in the bank ÷ daily burn = Days Cash on Hand
Most owners we meet run on 9–12 days of cash. A healthy target is 90–120. If you're short of that, improving cash belongs on your plan.
Clients: Marketing, Sales and Delivery
Review the whole path: leads, conversion, average sale, how often clients buy again and what each client is worth over time. Then grade your clients A, B or C. The goal is more A clients, not just more clients.
Operations: How Easily the Work Gets Done
Ask where you're reinventing the wheel, where work gets stuck and which tools are holding you back. Then ask the big one: if we doubled next year, where would we break? A fractional COO can work through these with your team.
Team: People Are How You Scale
Payroll is usually a service business's largest cost, yet owners rarely plan for it. Name your next three key hires, what the team needs to look like to move the owner out of day-to-day work, and what's stopping you from finding good people.
The Business Audit is the homework we have teams complete before this review. At the retreat, we work through it together.
Step 3: Choose Your Strategy
Now you have the raw material. Start by setting one BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) for the year. Make it measurable, tied to growth, and about 50% nervous, 50% excited.
Then turn your review findings into strategies that make the BHAG possible. We run each candidate strategy through the Your Biz Rules Strategy Brainstorm, a one-page check.
What each strategy needs to answer
1. What's the objective, in specific, measurable, time-bound terms?
2. Which part of the business does it move: financial, growth, team and systems, partners and clients, or community?
3. What needs to be in place to make it possible?
4. How will we measure success?
5. What will it take, in money, people, tech and time?
6. What are the first three steps?
A strategy you can't answer all six for isn't ready. Park it on a "good ideas" list and revisit it next quarter.
Step 4: Prioritize the Next 90 Days
You can't do it all at once, and you shouldn't plan the whole year in detail. Growing businesses move faster than big companies, so plan the year at a high level and the next 90 days in detail.
How Many Goals Should You Set Each Quarter?
Start with 3–5 company priorities for the quarter. Those are the few things the whole team rallies around. Then break each one into goals the team owns.
How many goals depends on two things: how big your team is and how stable your cash is. A solo owner who's tight on cash should take on far less than a team of 15 with money in the bank. We use the Strategic Plan Mix to set the total number of goals and the balance of short-, medium- and long-term ones.
Cash position | Solo owner (team of 1): 4 goals | Micro-team (up to 5 people): 6–8 goals | Growing team (up to 15 people): 8–12 goals |
|---|---|---|---|
Cash imperative: cash is tight | 3 short, 1 medium | 3 short, 2 medium, 1 long | 3–4 short, 2–3 medium, 1 long |
Cash stable: bills are covered | 1–2 short, 1–2 medium, 1 long | 2 short, 4 medium, 2 long | 2–3 short, 4 medium, 2–3 long |
Scaling: cash to invest | 1 short, 1–2 medium, 1–2 long | 1 short, 4 medium, 2 long | 1–2 short, 4–5 medium, 3 long |
The Strategic Plan Mix. Short-term goals pay off this quarter, medium-term within the year, long-term beyond it.
Team bigger than 15? Once a business grows past 15 people, we break the team into its natural groups: departments, units or locations. The leadership team still sets 3–5 company priorities. Each group then uses the column that matches its own size to set its goals under those priorities. We use this approach with clients of 40+ people.
Notice the pattern: when cash is tight, most goals are short-term wins that bring cash in. As cash stabilizes, the mix shifts toward medium- and long-term goals that build the business.
Which Goals Go First?
Within that number, mix four kinds of strategy:
Then put your strategic business plan on one page. The Your Biz Rules 90-Day Plan has three parts:
90-Day Plan: Northline Advisory (example) · Quarter 2 · 18-person professional services firm
Growth drivers: the job of the quarter
KPI | Year goal: below | Year goal: at | Year goal: great | Year to date | Quarter goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Leads | 420 | 480 | 540 | 110 | 130 |
Conversion | 22% | 25% | 28% | 22% | 25% |
New clients | 100 | 120 | 140 | 24 | 32 |
Average sale | $25,000 | $26,500 | $28,000 | $25,800 | $26,000 |
Revenue | $2.6M | $3.2M | $3.8M | $620K | $830K |
Net profit | 12% | 15% | 18% | 11% | 13% |
Days cash on hand | 60 | 90 | 120 | 41 | 60 |
Priorities: owner, KPI, due
People
Hire an operations manager
Owner: CEO · KPI: owner in delivery under 10 hrs/wk · Week 10
Systems & technology
One onboarding checklist for every client
Owner: Ops lead · KPI: onboarding 10 → 5 days · Week 6
Productivity
Weekly capacity report
Owner: Finance · KPI: 75% billable utilization · Week 4
Growth & scaling
Launch a monthly retainer package
Owner: Sales lead · KPI: 5 retainer clients · Week 12
Quarterly theme
"Clear the runway"
Quarterly reward
Below goal: team lunch · At goal: offsite day · Great goal: offsite day plus a bonus
Example one-page 90-day plan for a fictional company (the quarter's four company priorities, one per area)
The two most common mistakes are choosing more priorities than your team and cash can carry, and choosing only long-term projects with no quick wins.
Step 5: Track, Review and Re-Plan Every 90 Days
Track your KPIs monthly. You'll learn faster, pivot sooner and know when to stop backing something that isn't working.
Two weeks before each quarter ends, bring the team back to the table. Report on progress, celebrate the wins (and pay out the reward), then build the next 90-day plan. Each cycle gets faster.
Once a year, go back to the top of the pyramid and rebuild your strategic business plan from there.
Go deeper on the quarterly rhythm in Mastering the 90-Day Business Plan.
Strategic Planning Process FAQ
Align your team using Your Strategic Pyramid; review last year across financial, client, operations and team results; choose your strategy and set one big goal; prioritize the next 90 days with owners and KPIs; then track monthly and re-plan every quarter.
There isn't one best model. OKRs, EOS, OGSM and a Balanced Scorecard can all work. Pick the one your team will actually use: the quality of the strategy and the follow-through matter more than the framework.
No. EOS, OKRs and a Balanced Scorecard can all work, but more structure doesn't always produce a better result. Use whichever system your team will actually run, and put your energy into the quality of the strategy and following through on it.
A single page that shows the year's goals and the KPIs that measure them, this quarter's 3–5 company priorities with owners and due dates, and a quarterly theme and reward, so everyone on the team can see the plan.
Start with 3–5 company priorities, then size the team goals underneath to your team and your cash: about 4 goals for a solo owner, 6–8 for a team of up to 5, and 8–12 for a team of up to 15. When cash is tight, favor short-term goals that bring cash in.
Three Ways to Put This Plan to Work
Pick the level of help that fits where your business is today.
Do it yourself: the Ultimate Strategic Planning Workshop
Work through these five steps on your own with our guided strategic planning workshop.
Have us lead it: the Strategic Planning Leadership Retreat
One or two days with your leadership team. You leave with 3-5 priorities, owners, KPIs and a 90-day plan.
Work with us all year: Fractional C-suite support
Our fractional CFO and COO team works inside your business to turn the plan into results, quarter after quarter.
Leslie Hassler
Leslie Hassler is a dynamic author, speaker, and business strategist guiding women owned, service-based businesses into more profits, cash flow, and success. Business owners come to Leslie seeking a way to strategically scale their businesses richly, stop the money leaks, and get back in control with confidence.
Using her more than 12 years of experience in business, finance, mindset, and more, Leslie takes multiple 6 and 7 figure businesses from cash-strapped and struggling to profitable and thriving with her unique Scaling Richâ„¢ Method.
Her genius has also been featured on stages around the United States such as the National Association of Women Business Owners, the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, and more.