Components of an Operations Plan
An operations plan is a part of the overall logistical plan of a company. An operations plan is a written document created to organize, plan, and coordinate activities across business functions.
Intended use of an operations plan is to organize and prioritize work and streamline work processes. An operations plan can be created using several templates. Common components of an operational plan:
List of work tasks
Performance expectations
Allocation of responsibility
Set timelines
Budget summary.
Finance
In order for a business to sustain, it must have a strong financial plan. This entails creating a budget and managing that budget. A budget is an estimation of what will be spent versus money that is earned. Businesses need to establish the way in which they track expenses (money spent) and revenue (money earned). A budget is also a goal of what you are aiming to make in profit (expenses - revenue = profit).
Finance is an area that falls under operational planning because it is someone’s responsibility to manage the finances in order for the business to operate.
Management
Management is responsible for overseeing and controlling all aspects of a business. They are responsible for ensuring that workers under their management get done. They establish goals, hire employees, evaluate employee performance, train employees, determine the work that needs to get done, assign tasks, create and oversee business processes, and make decisions.
Managers and owners are responsible for creating the businesses culture and how it operates. They create the operations plan and how it is implemented within the company.
Productions
Production within a business is essentially all of the components of running, operating, producing, and distributing goods or services.
All of the logistics of production that takes to run a business:
Land (rent, utilities, building)
Labor (staff needed to complete tasks)
Capital (money needed to produce goods and services)
Entrepreneurship (production stems from a business idea. A business is born from solving a problem)
Marketing
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
Applying Operations Planning to your Spirit Box
Think through each task of your Spirit Box:
Stocking the machine with products your customers want.
Pulling cash from the machine
Tracking expenses/revenue through Simplifi
Establishing day to day marketing/advertising for your Spirit Box (morning announcements, fliers, social media, etc.)
Someone will need to be responsible for the overall operation of your Spirit Box business. This could be the adviser or a responsible student who can be trusted to lead the efforts required to run a business.
Marketing
Establish all the ways in which you will spread the word about your Spirit Box. Figure out where your customers are and the best ways to reach them.
Stocking your Spirit Box
What you put in your Spirit Box should be chosen with your customer in mind. Your goal as a business should be to be a solution for your customers.