Strategic planning and business growth in youth-led startups
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Youth-led startups in Latin America face high levels of informality, financial constraints, limited managerial experience, and difficulties in consolidating sustainable businesses, making strategic planning a key capability for organizing decisions and reducing improvisation. The objective of the article was to analyze the relationship between strategic planning and business growth in youth-led startups, considering management practices, expansion indicators, and factors that strengthen or limit their development. The methodology consisted of an exploratory literature review based on scientific articles, books, technical reports, and empirical studies on strategy, entrepreneurship, small businesses, youth, and business performance. The results show that strategic planning contributes to defining objectives, analyzing markets, organizing resources, controlling costs, guiding the value proposition, and improving indicators such as sales, profitability, job creation, formalization, business continuity, and market expansion. The discussion indicates that its effect is not automatic, as it depends on strategic flexibility, entrepreneurial learning, innovation, access to financing, mentoring, and the quality of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is concluded that young entrepreneurs need not only to create businesses, but also to develop strategic capabilities that support their consolidation and sustainable growth.
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