• Vision is a determination of occupational image and the expected outcome in the future. In the other words, it involves foreseeing the business target in the future with certain boundary and timeframe; for example, a bakery in Chonburi set its vision as “To be the top bread seller in eastern region within 3 years”. Determining a vision carefully needs taking the result of community and occupation analysis into consideration in order to increase the possibility of business success.

• Mission is the task that the entrepreneur has to achieve according to the specific vision. The entrepreneur will have to develop a team and clearly determine business mission that covers both production and marketing aspects.

• Analyzing the Mission is the process to examine which mission should be achieved before or after, or which mission should be remained or changed. The entrepreneur and team should mutually set the business missions and prioritize them.

• Target and Goal the target of occupational development is to identify what business can do and how long it will take. This can be set as a short-term or long-term goal of 3 or 5 years. Target of occupational development should be clearly set and measurable. It is better to set the target as a number since it helps improve the planning quality which will result in a better operation.

• Strategy in Occupational Development Planning. This related to a strategic planning to develop the occupation or business in order to achieve the target. Such planning requires a clear vision, target, and timeframe, needs an analysis of events that are expected to occur in the future, and requires a high systematic work to create flexibility against a changing situation, all of which aims will let the entrepreneur and team be able to effectively develop the business in the future.

Importance of Planning

The importance of community business planning is outlined below.

1. It reduces the risk from uncertainty in carrying a job since the plan is already involved all the preparation matters.

2. It makes the business operation achieve according to the target from the beginning to the end.

3. It is the acceptance of new idea and method in business since the change can always be witnessed.

4. It reduces the time used in operation since planning shows the overall working procedure.

5. Using the plan as a working tool, it let the member of the business understand and see an overview of coordination.

6. It enhances good coordination in the business since members are able to know the direction beforehand.

7. It is a good working motivation for members in the business.

Planning Process

The procedure of community business planning can be outlined as follows.

1. The objective must clearly be determined to be the direction for business operation or activity.

2. The objective must clearly be identified in terms of purpose, possibility, and must be measurable.

3. Target setting is a process to determine how many targets are needed. It must be measurable in a short timeframe.

4. Determining the working procedure is the process to consider what activity should be done immediately or afterward. Such process will effectively help operation achieves the business objective.

5. Operating activity according to the plan, which must be done consecutively to achieve the expected outcome.

6. Adjusting the action plan: sometimes an execution of the plan may change the situation, so the entrepreneur will have to adjust the plan according to the fact. Then such execution will be more effective.

There are various forms of action plan. The planner can choose any of them depending on the objective and the characteristic of work.

Strategic planning will create good corporation or business image and will increase leadership image since the process involves an illustration of business strengths and its plan in the future. The importance of a strategic plan is outlined below.

1. It helps the business in developing itself to catch up with economic and social changes since the strategic planning is related to an analysis of business conditions and its environment.

2. It helps the business to operate freely and account for its own success or failure since the business is operated according to the determined plan; not by the need of person in authority.

3. Planning must be in line with the distribution of authority which will help in determining the practical standard for the executor. Such standard is, therefore, a tool of executing the plan.

4. Strategic planning is one of the conditions in budgeting that emphasizes on the result.

5. Strategic plan is a plan that challenges the executor in the sense that it helps initiate creativities and alternated options for business, so a strategic plan is also considered as a development plan.