One-Page Strategic Plan

How to use this tool. This playbook is for owners and managing directors of Australian B2B small and medium businesses who want a plan they will actually use. Set aside 90 minutes, a printout or blank document, and your last 12 months of results. At the end you will have a one-page strategic plan: where you stand, what you are focusing on, the numbers you will track, and the actions that start this week.

Why a one-page plan matters

Most owners carry a plan in their head. It shifts with the latest enquiry, the loudest customer or the most urgent problem. A written plan limited to one page forces choices. If it does not fit on a page, you have not decided yet.

A short plan is also easier to share with your team, your accountant or your bank. People cannot act on a strategy they cannot remember. This tool is deliberately small: six stages, one page, one sitting.

The method: six stages

Work through the stages in order. Write short, specific answers. If you get stuck, write your best estimate and mark it with a question mark. A rough answer you can test beats a blank space.

Stage 1: Position (where you really stand)

Look at the last 12 months honestly. You are collecting facts, not opinions.

Prompts:

• Which three customers or customer types gave you the best profit, not just the most revenue?
• Which work do you wish you had never taken on?
• Where do jobs, projects or clients regularly go wrong?
• What do customers say they value about you, in their words?

Fill in the snapshot below. "Evidence" means a figure, a document or a specific example, not a feeling.

Stage 2: Direction (where you will focus)

Strategy is mostly about what you will not do. Answer these in one sentence each:

1. Who we serve best: the type of customer where we win and make money.
2. What we sell: the two or three services or products that matter most.
3. Why they choose us: the one reason, ideally something a customer would repeat.
4. What we will stop or avoid: the work, customers or habits we are saying no to.

A useful test: could a competitor read your answers and say the same about themselves? If yes, get more specific.

Stage 3: Targets (what you will measure)

Choose no more than five measures. Include at least one for money, one for customers or pipeline, and one for delivery or capacity. Set a 12-month target and a 90-day milestone that tells you whether you are on track.

Good measures are numbers you can pull without a research project: gross margin percentage, quotes sent, quote win rate, days to get paid, jobs delivered on time, repeat customer share. Use whatever your accounting system, your CRM or a simple spreadsheet already gives you.

Stage 4: Priorities (what you will do first)

List every initiative you have been thinking about, then score each from 1 to 5 on three questions:

• Impact: if this works, how much does it move your targets? (5 = a lot)
• Ease: how simple is it with your current time, money and people? (5 = very easy)
• Urgency: what does it cost you to wait three months? (5 = a lot)

Add the scores. Pick the top three. Everything else goes on a "later" list, written down so you can stop carrying it in your head.

Three priorities is a deliberate limit. A small business rarely has the capacity to run more than three meaningful changes at once while still serving customers.

Stage 5: Actions (who does what by when)

Break each priority into steps small enough to finish within 90 days. Every action needs one owner (one name, not "the team"), a due date and a clear "done when" statement.

If an action will take more than three weeks, split it. If you are the owner of every line, ask which ones can be delegated or dropped.

Stage 6: Rhythm (how you will keep it alive)

A plan fails in the gap between writing and reviewing. Set the rhythm now:

• Weekly (15 minutes): check the actions due this week. Done, stuck or moved?
• Monthly (45 minutes): update the measures from Stage 3. Are you on track for the 90-day milestone?
• Quarterly (90 minutes): review the whole page, retire what is finished and choose the next three priorities.

Book the first three sessions in your diary before you close this document.

Your one-page plan

Copy your answers into this template. Keep it to one page.

Business: ______ Plan period: ______ to ______

Where we stand: (two sentences from Stage 1)

Who we serve / what we sell / why they choose us: (from Stage 2)

We will say no to: (from Stage 2)

Our measures: (up to five, with 90-day milestone and 12-month target)

Our three priorities: 1. ______ 2. ______ 3. ______

Key actions this quarter: (owner, date, done when)

Review dates: weekly ______ monthly ______ quarterly ______

A short script helps when you introduce the plan to your team:

"Here is what we are focusing on for the next 90 days and why. There are three priorities. Here is what each one means for your work, and here is what we are deliberately not doing. I want your input on whether the actions are realistic. We will check progress together every week."

Worked example (fictional)

Swan Ridge Mechanical Services is a made-up Perth business with 14 staff, providing commercial air-conditioning installation and maintenance. The figures are illustrative only.

Position: The owner noticed that maintenance contracts with property managers delivered steady margin and repeat work, while one-off installation tenders for large builders were won on price and often ran late. Payment from builders regularly took well beyond terms.

Direction: Serve property managers and facility managers of mid-sized commercial buildings. Sell planned maintenance and upgrades first, installation second. Reason customers choose them: a named technician and fast response. Say no to tenders where price is the only criterion.

Measures: Share of revenue from maintenance contracts, gross margin by work type, days to get paid, and response time to urgent call-outs.

Priorities (scored): 1. Package three maintenance service levels (total 13). 2. Introduce a stricter tender go/no-go check (total 12). 3. Tighten invoicing and follow-up (total 11). A website redesign scored 7 and went on the "later" list.

Actions: The office manager drafts the invoice follow-up routine by week two. The operations manager writes the go/no-go checklist by week three. The owner calls the ten best current customers in weeks one to four to test the maintenance packages.

How to read your results

A good plan has these features:

• Your Stage 2 answers exclude something. A plan that says yes to everything is a wish list.
• Your measures can be updated in under 30 minutes a month.
• Each priority links to at least one measure. If it does not, question why you are doing it.
• Every action has a single owner and a date.
• You can say the plan aloud in under two minutes.

If your top three scores are very close to the rest, you probably have too many good ideas. Choose by asking which one removes the biggest constraint on profit or cash.

Common mistakes

• Writing aspirations, not decisions. "Grow the business" is not a priority. "Win four new property-manager contracts by 31 December" is.
• Too many priorities. Seven priorities means none get finished.
• Measures nobody can find. If the number takes a day to compile, you will stop tracking it.
• Owner-only actions. If everything depends on you, the plan stalls the first busy week.
• No review dates. Without a rhythm, the plan sits in a drawer.
• Skipping the "no" list. Dropping low-value work is what frees up the capacity for the priorities.

Final checklist

• Completed the Stage 1 snapshot using evidence, not impressions
• Wrote one-sentence answers for who, what, why and what we avoid
• Chose no more than five measures with 90-day and 12-month numbers
• Scored all initiatives and chose three priorities
• Put the rest on a written "later" list
• Gave every action an owner, a date and a "done when"
• Booked weekly, monthly and quarterly reviews
• Copied everything onto one page
• Planned how to share it with the team

Put it to work this week

1. Block 90 minutes in the next three days and complete Stages 1 to 5 in one sitting, even if some answers are rough.
2. Pull the figures for your chosen measures and record today's baseline in the Stage 3 table.
3. Share the one-page plan with your team or key advisers using the script above, and ask what is unrealistic.
4. Complete your first weekly 15-minute check, and book the monthly and quarterly sessions.
5. Choose one item from your "no" list and act on it, such as declining a poor-fit enquiry or stopping a low-margin service.

Where Lotus helps

Lotus Strategic Services works with Australian business owners to test their assumptions, build measures from the data they already hold, and turn priorities into a plan that gets followed. We can review your one-page plan with you, challenge the weak points and help you build the quarterly rhythm. Book a free 30-minute discovery call at lotusstrategic.com.au.