In larger organisations, a communications plan is usually based on a business plan. In smaller enterprises, however, there may not be a written business plan. The owner carries it around in their head or jots down actions on a to-do list.

Mid last year I was invited in by two quite different small enterprises to write a narrative for promotional purposes. They both were established enterprises with strong stories. The owners knew intuitively they needed a writer to capture it. When I sat down with them to discuss it, I could see they would also benefit from a more formal business plan.

I suggested to both that we could have a whiteboard session and they jumped at the opportunity. They had been so busy handling day-to-day tasks that they had not been able to focus on planning. They needed someone to ask them questions, talk through priorities and identify where and when resources were needed.

I took the pen for the whiteboard session and used approaches I would take in an interview and in developing a communications plan. Together, we created a more formal business plan than a to-do list, and one that had an ongoing life afterwards as a whiteboard photograph that could be referred to again.

The feedback from the two people in their separate sessions was positive. They had been re-energised. They had seen other options to how they were thinking. And they realised that some of the things they had been devoting mental energy to didn’t need to be focused on at the moment.

The process gave them a clearer way forward. The plan and the narrative also affirmed the vision they each had for their enterprise.