How to Write an Action Plan With Owners and Dates

The Short Answer

What Is an Action Plan?

Textbook Definition

An action plan is a short, written schedule of the specific tasks needed to carry out a strategy, assigning each task a responsible person, a deadline, and the resources it requires, with a set review point.

In Plain English

It is the page that says who is doing what, by when, and for how much. A good action plan is short enough to pin on the wall and clear enough that anyone on the team can tell what happens next.

Why It Matters

Why Do Good Decisions Stall?

Owners rarely fail for lack of ideas. They stall because a decision sits on a to-do list where every line belongs to everyone. In a small company, that really means the owner, and the owner is busy serving customers. Each morning the list gets read, and each morning the rush wins.

An action plan breaks that loop. It forces three answers for every step: who, when, and how much. It also sets the check date, a regular day when someone reads every line and asks whether it is done. Without that day, even a good plan quietly turns back into a list.

Signs you have this problem:

You have made the same decision more than once and it still has not happened.
Your to-do list keeps getting longer, with the same item written in different words.
Lines on your list say "we" or "soon" instead of a name and a date.
You do not know what the next step costs because you have not asked.
The plan lives in your head or in a drawer where nobody else can see it.
Nobody checks progress until something goes wrong.

A list tells you what needs doing. It never tells you who is doing it, so it waits for you.

What It Looks Like

What It Looks Like When a Good Decision Never Starts

From the Fabled Forest · Chapter 17

Louie runs a busy waffle shop. A competitor is about to open across the square, and he has decided to add a take-away window so his morning regulars do not walk over to her. That was five weeks ago. Since then he has added to a list tucked under the sugar jar until it runs to thirty-one lines on both sides, and nothing on it has moved.

Doctor Owl goes through it one line at a time. Each item turns out to be a step, part of a step, a worry, or something that can wait. Thirty-one lines shrink to six real steps: cut the window, fit a griddle, buy sleeves and cups, practice, test with ten regulars, and open. Eleven items move to an after-opening list. Then Louie fills in a name, a date, and a price for each, walking over to ask the builder himself.

The whole job comes to about sixty coins up front and roughly fifty a month after, against hundreds in weekly sales at risk. He pins the six lines under his six-month goal and sets a Monday check. The window opens on the first of the month, a month before the competitor, and twenty-two customers use it that first morning.

Louie's story is Chapter 17 of Strategy for Small Businesses, Book 6 of Dr. Paul's Fabled Forest Business School Series.

The Fix

How to Write an Action Plan in 4 Steps

You do not need software. You need one sheet of paper and the honesty to put a name on every line.

Dump everything onto one page.
Write every task the decision seems to need, including the worries and the half questions. Getting it all out is how you find out how little of it is really separate work.
Group and trim to a short list of real steps.
Many lines are pieces of the same step. Fold them together. Anything that would be nice but is not needed to launch goes on an "after" list. Louie went from thirty-one lines to six.
Put a name, a due date, and a price on every step.
One name, not "we." One day, not "soon." If you do not know the date or the price, the first task is to ask the person who would do it. For more on handing steps off well, see how to execute a plan.
Pin it under the goal it serves and set the check date.
Put the plan where the team can see it, right under the objective it is for, so every line visibly points upward. That is strategic alignment on a single wall. Then pick a weekly day to read each line and ask: done, and if not, why not? When the season ends, carry the results into a strategy review.

Dr. Paul's Insight

The most common mistake Dr. Paul sees is a plan that only the owner can see. If it lives in your head or under the sugar jar, nobody else can help, and nobody else can notice when a date slips. Writing it down and pinning it up turns the team into partners in the plan instead of spectators.

Sample: Louie's Six-Line Action Plan

Here is the plan Louie pinned on the wall, set out as a template you can copy. Each line has a step, an owner, a date, and a cost.

Objective: Take-away window open before the competitorOwner: Louie

1. Window cut in the side wall	Owner: the builder's crew. Due: the 10th. Cost: 30 coins.
2. Extra griddle with a warmer	Owner: Alton. Due: the 15th. Cost: 25 coins.
3. Paper sleeves and cups with lids	Owner: Louie. Due: the 15th. Cost: 5 coins now, 5 each month.
4. Practice until each order takes about 90 seconds	Owner: Louie, plus a new counter helper. Due: week of the 15th. Cost: helper at 12 coins weekly.
5. Trial run with ten regulars	Owner: Louie. Due: the 20th. Cost: none.
6. Open the window	Owner: Louie. Due: the 1st. Cost: covered above.
Check date	Mondays, before the first customer.

Illustration from the book, in coins. After the test, Louie added a seventh line (tighter lids, 1 coin), bringing the one-time total to 61.

Watch

Watch: The Plan of Action in a Business Plan

Two short tips from Dr. Paul's business plan writer series: one on writing the plan of action section, and one on strategic mapping, which links the steps back to the bigger strategy.

Business Plan Writer's Tip #85 for Scottsdale, AZ.: Plan of Action in a Business Plan

Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA. (3:53)

Business Plan Writer's Tip #81 for Buffalo, NY.: Strategic Mapping and Business Plan

Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA. (3:27)

From the Book

Read a Passage From Chapter 17

Chapter 17 · Action Plan

A Label Under the Sugar Jar, Six Lines on the Wall: A Labrador’s Hatch

“By when?”

Louie blinked. “I don’t know. Soon.”

“What does soon cost?”

“I don’t know that either. I haven’t asked.”

Doctor Owl wrote Window on the clean sheet and left three spaces after it.

“Then that is why it has not been done,” he said, not unkindly. “Not because it is hard. Because it has no owner, no date, and no price, and so it has been waiting five weeks for someone to give it one. Let us give it one now, and then do the same to the rest.”

Read how thirty-one lines became six in Strategy for Small Businesses, Book 6 of Dr. Paul's Fabled Forest Business School Series.

Get the Book on Amazon →

FAQ

Action Plan Questions Owners Ask

What should an action plan include?

Each step needs one owner, one due date, and a cost. The plan also needs a check date, a regular day when someone reads every line and asks whether it is done. Keep it short enough to fit on one sheet.

How is an action plan different from a to-do list?

A to-do list says what needs doing. An action plan also says who will do it, by when, and what it costs. That small difference is usually what gets the work started.

How often should I check my action plan?

Weekly works for most small businesses. Pick a fixed day and time, such as Monday before opening, and read every line. If a step slipped, find out why and set a new date.

What if I do not know what a step will cost?

Then the first step is to ask. Call the contractor, the supplier, or the employee who will do it and get a number and a date. Most of the time it costs less than the worry suggested.

Keep Going

Related Foundations

An action plan is the seventeenth of twenty strategy foundations. These pages build on it. New to a term on this page? Every one is in the strategy glossary.

What Is Strategic Alignment?

Every step pointing at the goal above it.

How to Review Your Business Strategy

Keep, change, or drop each part on a set date.

What Is Operational Planning?

Turning goals into monthly targets the team owns.

What Is Functional Strategy?

How operations, sales, and finance each serve the plan.

Written by Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA, business consultant and author of Dr. Paul's Fabled Forest Business School Series. Want help turning your decisions into a plan your team can actually carry out? See growth plan and consulting options.

This page is for general educational purposes only. It is not legal, financial, or other professional advice. Dollar figures are illustrations. The Fabled Forest and its characters are fictional. For decisions about your own business, consult a qualified professional.