“Albert Einstein was on a train. He could not find his train ticket after searching through all his pockets and bags. The conductor approached him and said something to the effect of, ‘Dr. Einstein, everyone knows who you are. We know that Princeton can afford to buy you another train ticket.’ To which Einstein replied, ‘I’m not worried about the money. I need to find the ticket to figure out where I’m going’.”

– Guy Kawasaki

A short-term strategic business plan

Now that you have solidified the founding team and fine-tuned your idea, stalked your customer and detailed the product, tested and defined your value proposition and business model, explored the competitive environment, checked your financial plan and decided on the go-to-market strategy, you need to take a step back for a quick road check as to where you are going and how you will get there. This is a short-term strategic business plan; your train ticket to a successful launch!

What is a short-term strategic business plan? This is a 90-day strategic plan that outlines the major milestones and smaller action steps that you want to achieve. It should consist of a 90-day timeline where you map 3-5 milestones. Each milestone should then be broken into 3 detailed key activities that will ensure its successful achievement through the daily/weekly tracking of 1-2 defined key performance indicators.

Why do you need a short-term strategic business plan? Because no matter how proactive and motivated you are, execution is a sneaky but severe pain. A strategic plan guarantees a constant focus for each team member in the earliest days of getting started, when everything will seem like a never-ending impossible endeavor.

How to create your short-term strategic business plan?

A helicopter review on all your completed stages and assignments – Idea & Team, Customer & Product, Value Proposition & Business Model, Strategy  & Financing, Business Plan & Pitch –, coupled with a deep reflection on your venture’s vision (your essence), mission (your core), values (your soul) is key to creating an effective short term strategic plan to launch your innovative venture.

• Vision: what is the impact you want your innovation to have? Don’t be afraid of seeming crazy for dreaming too big; be ashamed of dreaming too small! In 10 years, when your innovation has achieved all its strategic goals, what will it look like? What impact will it have in the industry and in society?
• Mission: what is the key purpose of your innovation’s existence? Why do you exist and why should anyone care?
• Values: what core beliefs guide the way you and your team behave and make decisions?

First steps. There is no single list or template to exhaustively detail where to start, but keep in mind these 4 key steps when drafting your 90-days train journey:

• Get paid! Find your first customer and find a way to get paid, even if not for the official first version of your product. Consider offering a demo consulting service of what your product will soon be offering. This is an exclusive opportunity to a) get intimate with your customer, b) gain precious insights on customer needs, pains, and expectations and feature preference, c) generate cash flow to re-invest in your product!
• Push a [controlled] first version to market to start testing and improving. Find a safe environment where you can test and improve your product without damaging your product’s credibility and positioning.
• Create a marketing strategy to reach your beachhead target end users.
• Reach out to your close heavyweight contacts to ensure that you are respectfully introduced to investors and partners and get prospects talking and testing your product.

1. Designing, executing and focusing on your 90-day game plan will not only prevent you from getting caught up in the excitement and making foolish unfocused mistakes, but also significantly increase your chances of building a truly impactful organization from day one.

1. Enjoy every step, “energy flows where the mind goes”!

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