8.3 Designing a Startup Operational Plan
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Identify the major areas of operations management (money, methods, machines, people, and leadership)
- Develop a checklist of operational needs
From the start, every entrepreneur needs a business plan. Your business plan will keep you focused on the very early stages of the business, when it is easy to be distracted. A written business plan can help redirect you back to your original idea.
Business plans can be divided into four different types: operational, strategic, tactical, and contingency. In this section, the focus will be on the operational plan, the activities that an entrepreneur-owner absolutely needs to do. The core business activities and how those activities interface with customers are key to a business’s long-term success. Business plans are discussed in more detail in Business Model and Plan.
Operational Business Plan
In the early 1900s, the mechanical engineer and management consultant Frederick Taylor introduced scientific management techniques into manufacturing industries. Since then, operational planning has evolved into a major component of successfully managing a business. An operational business plan details the what, when, who, how long, with what, and how much of company activities. This type of plan may list specific functions: What the activities of the business are, when those activities occur, who is responsible for various tasks, how long each activity will occur, what tools or equipment are required, and how much time and funding are needed.
Operational business plans should be flexible enough to allow for challenges that will occur. Some changes must be made on a daily or even an hourly basis. Other changes may be necessary only occasionally throughout the year. However, the purpose of the operational plan is to provide direction and guidance. This way, everyone in the business knows their specific assignments, who is responsible for individual tasks, and when major events occur.
Creating a table or chart in an Excel or other spreadsheet format can help your planning and scheduling. Figure 8.9 illustrates how work station scheduling for a grocery store can be displayed in an Excel spreadsheet. Functional activities, specific job tasks, work shifts, or work stations are listed as column headings. Hours of operations are listed as row headings. Employees’ names are entered into individual cells, showing who is assigned to each specific task or station. The table doesn’t show every position, but enough positions are listed to give you an idea of how to use the same format for your own business.
This type of schedule displays every functional position, the hours that each position has to be covered, and which employee is assigned to that function at what time. The manager can look at this schedule and know that each function has been assigned to an employee during a definite time period. If the work is not