By Sylvia Luneau

When you Google, “one-page business plan template”, the internet is more than ready to come to your aid with a multitude of options to help develop and execute a fast and focused business plan. In fact, there are some amazing resources here. However, if you are short on time, this summarized, to-the-point model may be the one for you.

Nearly all one-pagers start with the mission and the vision. To construct a useful plan for your business, it is naturally helpful to have a firm grasp on the current mission of your company and where you would like to see it go. This seems obvious but is often something that people neglect to coherently articulate. There are even three-day conferences, which exist solely to help people to develop a pivotal vision and mission statement. With a one-page business plan, the goal is not to beleaguer the point but to develop a quick way to focus on short-term change.

I am going to oversimplify here. A mission statement defines what an organization does/is currently doing. A vision statement is the ultimate goal or what they would like to accomplish. To put it another way: the mission is what people do in order to achieve the company vision. As with anything, you can (and should) tweak your vision statement to address particular, current situations.

To take PsiNapse for example, we are a staffing firm, and we are looking for more sales.

Mission Statement:

To deliver dependable and skilled temporary talent for administrative and technical positions so that our clients can fulfill their own missions, continue their strategies, and become the best at what they do. In tandem, to help people (contractors) achieve and exceed their career goals and sustain their livelihood.

Given our current world, we created a vision statement that addresses COVID-19. Our business plan can then focus on short-term solutions to generate confidence and empower the team towards a common goal.

Vision Statement:

To provide staffing services to organizations that have experienced a surge in business due to COVID-19, and/or who are attempting to cover open positions due to medical leaves of absence and assist with locating appropriate and skilled remote professionals.

The rest of the business plan should be sectioned out into areas such as locating appropriate targets and strategies to move toward the company vision. In each section, include specific bullet points with actionable items.

Perhaps your firm’s current vision is more focused on developing a successful hybrid workforce model or re-asserting the core company values. Perhaps you are interested in developing a leadership academy, learning how to incorporate more disabled workers into your workforce, or developing an advocacy group. Any, and all, of these above topics can be easily addressed in the one-page business plan model.

Learning to develop and implement a one-page business plan is an incredibly useful tool for growth. One-page business plans are fast to develop, give your company direction, and can easily be tweaked as needed. If you want to ignite a brilliant streak, perhaps ask each team member to develop a one-page business plan that targets an area of the business that they are directly involved with. This type of brainstorming can truly create solutions and help grow businesses. Sometimes this helps to elucidate
disparities between what you think/hope the company is doing and how others view the current company mission. Tap into your team and experience the miracle of brainstorming!

Here’s to a successful and strong 2021! (Current state of the world, notwithstanding…)