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Writer's pictureElucidation Strategies
Oct 4, 2022

Nope, we're not (exclusively) a marketing agency

We’re not a marketing agency, but marketing planning is a major component of our work. Elucidation Strategies specializes in strategic planning.


So what is strategic planning?


The Kindful site provides a helpful strategic plan explanation.


“A strategic plan is a formal guide that describes how an organization will meet its goals and objectives in the upcoming year. It’s the overarching plan for the entire organization, and it acts as a flow chart. Each step of the plan leads to another step that ultimately leads to success if the steps are completed. A strategic plan starts with a series of goals and objectives that will guide an organization’s actions for the upcoming year.”


Okay, so, like, what is strategic planning?


It’s a process that produces a dynamic document that features carefully-selected goals and the most important, useful, specific-to-your-business ways (ways that you identify through the SP process) to achieve those goals.



Let’s say you wanted to make some home improvements. If you wanted an organized, thorough approach to those home repairs and renovations, then you might create a plan to help you stay on track (especially if you have limited time and resources). If you’re fixing up your home to sell it, your approach might be very different if you were fixing up your home because you’ve decided that you can see yourself living there for the rest of your life. Even though fixing up the house is the overall goal, the motivating reason and the desired results are different. The strategic planning process takes everything into account in a methodical, organized way and helps you stay on track, so you see progress and all of your efforts work towards the same thing, not independent of or, even worse, against each other.



If you were doing some work on your home to prepare it for sale, would you apply fresh paint to every room on the first floor and then proceed with knocking out two (freshly-painted) walls for the kitchen and dining room remodel? Would you go to Lowes once a day for a month to buy supplies or consolidate supplies into one or two big trips guided by a supply list? Would you create the house for sale flier and put it out on your Facebook and Instagram feeds before the improvements were underway?



You could paint, then rip the walls down. You could go to Lowes so often they know you by name. You could advertise something that’s nowhere near done. But, if you want to be effective and efficient, you plan from the start of the project. And if that’s not your strong suit, then you can find help. That experienced planning help can recommend contractors, create supply lists with you, identify deadlines to keep things on track, and bring years of invaluable planning experience to your home improvement project. At Elucidation Strategies, though, we’re not building a house. We’re helping cannabis businesses flourish and prosper. The concept remains the same.


Strategic planning is investing in envisioning the big picture early (and in perpetuity) to make life easier and more rewarding later on.



Both nonprofit and for profit organizations engage in strategic planning. Organizations most committed to harnessing all that the strategic planning process can provide bring in outside support to facilitate the process. External perspective can trigger questions and prompt the exploration of possibilities that might not be intuitive to an existing working group. Plus, it promotes neutrality and encourages convergent and divergent thinking during a process that requires honesty, decision-making, and envisioning by organizational representatives. This type of planning can be used in organization-wide envisioning or focused on a particular department or project.


Strategic planning work relies largely on asking the correct questions and really listening to responses as well as having a deep understanding of the company’s primary goal or mission and three essential components of assessing work - what has been done, what is being done, and what will be done. The benefits of planning are twofold - the process to create the plan and the final plan itself.



The legal cannabis industry in New Jersey is unprecedented and changing every day. While we can look to standard practices in business operations, marketing and advertising, and community engagement for direction, we know that there are challenges and opportunities specific to this budding industry. This is precisely why it’s worth it to invest in strategic planning.




Contact Elucidation Strategies for cannabis consulting services.



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