The four non-negotiables needed for a successful business plan

This article was written by Chris Dastoor and first published in September 2025 by Professional Planner in partnership with Netwealth.

Outlining the strategy, establishing cultural alignment, executing the plan and how the plan is structured are the four non-negotiables businesses need for growth, the Netwealth Accelerate Summit heard.

Jarther Taylor, a Senior Advisor at 24HR Business Plan and Adjunct Professor at UNSW, told the Netwealth Accelerate Summit that this starts with strategy – what the business does, as well as why and how it does it.

Senior Advisor, Jarther Taylor, presenting at the NetWealth conference on the Power of Business Planning

“The why and how can really unlock the value that you bring,” Taylor said, adding that the strategy also needs to factor in the overall market context.

“You guys are dealing with a lot of challenges here – increasing cost to serve of your customers, aging client base… and tapping into that next generation of clients who want to be engaged with in a different way.

“Shortage of skilled people you can bring into your business and how that might work, the wealth transfer risk we talked about as well. Regulatory change and the technological change as well.”

Cultural alignment plays a key role and Taylor said overlooking this is where a lot of businesses fail.

He said the mistake often made is that business leaders assume the culture is automatically set by whatever they do, say or want.

“Which may work great for you in your life and it’s your life and you’re running it but if you’re dealing with a couple of other people, being really clear and intentional around what your culture is and how that works is important,” Taylor said.

Once a strategy is in place and there’s a cultural alignment, there also needs to be execution which, if done poorly, can undermine the strategy that has been put in place.

“The issue is business plans quite often start at a strategic level but don’t drop down to an operational level,” Taylor said.

“We’re trying to connect both of those things and do that with real intention. Marketing is a key point. Often people in professional service don’t like marketing and feel they have everything they need to drive their business.”

The final piece is structure, and Taylor said this comes last because the picture comes clearer once the first three steps are completed.

“In summary, story tell your strategy – less is more – tie the long term to the short term, make it practical and accountable for your action plans and importantly align and focus your team,” Taylor said.

“Spending time together working together and having these discussions is stuff that really builds it through and makes it work.”

Taylor acknowledged the overall process is easier said than done and the biggest issue practice principals have is finding the time to step away from their daily business operations to focus on business planning.

“Why you need to find that time is that most businesses don’t have a plan but those that do have a plan are much more likely to grow, so around 71 per cent,” Taylor said.

“You increase your chances of growth – basically double it – by having a business plan. Building that and working on that is super important.”

Taylor said the business planning process has become too complicated.

“It’s time consuming for leaders, it’s a really heavy lift to try and step out away from the operational work with clients to actually think holistically around your business,” Taylor said.

“If you’re doing that without any support that’s difficult. Quite often we find people have too much detail. That’s where this whole actionable business plan came from and that’s kind of what we’re trying to focus on.”