Many people think that business planning and strategic planning are same, but when we look at both the plans closely, we observe that there is a big difference between these two. One writes business plan when they are starting a new business, while strategic planning tells you where you want to go and what will be your strategy to expand your business. In short, we can say that business planning is for beginner, while strategic planning is for growth.

There is a difference between the two, so one should not confuse business plan with strategic plan. In this article, we will discuss the difference between a strategic plan and a professional business plan in detail.

A strategic plan is not more than one or two pages and it can be circulated throughout the organization. Strategic plan is signed by board of directors and it is one of the major parts of the corporate governance process. It is not only for big businesses, but small businesses can also make strategic plan in order to grow their business.

The basic format of strategic plan is usually as follows:

• Vision statement
• Mission statement
• Goals
• Objectives
• Action plans
• Risk analysis & contingency plans
• Competitive analysis
• Financials

A business plan, on the other hand, is a detailed and substantial document that is used to for generating funds from investors and lenders. Business plan writing is not an easy task; it requires years of experience for writing a customized business plan. A business plan can take your business towards success; on the other hand, it can also take your business towards failure. So, for getting success in business world, it is necessary to have a successful business plan. It is necessary that your business plan must be in proper format, without any errors. You can easily buy business plan from business plan service providers and can make necessary changes, according to your requirements; but make sure that your business plan must be error and plagiarism free.

The basic format of business plan is:
• Cover sheet
• Table of contents
• Executive summary
• The company
• The market
• Production, engineering and/or technology
• Sales and marketing
• Management
• Financials

So, in last, we can say that business planning and strategic planning both are entirely different. One focuses on the growth of business, while the other focuses on starting a new business.