¶ … small business, strategic planning is still an important process. Pirraglia (2013) notes that strategic planning describes where the business is going to go, which helps define the terms of the business and provides guidance for the business' actions. Strategy, he points out, defines action. By laying out a strategic plan, the owner of the business takes the opportunity to understand the business and think about the objectives that are to be achieved. Our company is a marketing consulting firm. It is important that the strategic plan must begin with the mission and vision statement that helps to define what the business is and what it intends to contribute to the world. The mission statement is created by identifying the organization's winning idea (MindTools, 2013). Our winning idea is that we will be the best marketing consulting firm in the area, catering to only the finest clientele. In that respect, our vision is to be the industry leader in marketing consulting. The vision statement is intended...

Our vision is a world with better marketing, where our clients are able to effectively communicate with their clients and meet their objectives.
The mission and vision are essential to the success of the company because they provide a framework for the strategy. The statements lack strength on their own, but as a framework for strategy they provide the backbone of what the company does. These statements, when taken as a whole, signal a lot of things to the world. They signal that the company is a marketing services company, that works with contract clients. The objectives of the company are going to be guided by the objectives of the client. In addition, these statements highlight that the company is going to have premium positioning in the marketplace. Thus, the company is guided towards a specific strategy, a specific approach to doing business and a specific niche in the marketplace. Knowing these things will make it a lot easier to create…