Thanks to everyone for all your wonderfully supportive comments on all the growth week posts! A little later today I’ll be posting this week’s business buzz with a focus on more articles about helping you grow your business. (Plus a few links to peoples’ responses to growth week – so if you were inspired to share your thoughts on growth on your blog, feel free to post the link in the comments so I can include it.)
But this morning, I wanted to share one more post that answers the question, where do you go from here?
Hopefully you’ve been completely inspired by growth week and are ready to build your business. If that’s the case, then it’s time to make a plan. A business plan can be a powerful tool – it can serve as a roadmap for your business and help clarify what you’re really trying to do.
One of the reasons that business’s create a plan is to secure funding, but that’s probably not the case for most of you. Instead, you should view your business plan as your personal guidebook. It doesn’t have to be formal or fancy. You can handwrite it in a notebook, or type it and have it professionally bound. (Or bind it yourself if you’re so inclined.) The most important thing is the act of putting your plan on paper and making the commitment to think about the future of your business.
So what should your business plan include?
- Your vision and mission statement. This should be more than just your tag-line. It should be your core purpose, your reason for being in business.
- Your goals. This isn’t typically included in the seeking financing type of business plan, but if you’re writing your own plan for growth, it’s critical. Where do you want your business to be in one year? In two years? In five? Having a clear understanding of this will help when it comes to making decisions about market and business strategy.
- Your market strategy. This includes the types of products you make, what methods you’ll use to produce them, and what venues you’ll sell them in. Even if this part seems obvious, it’s still a good idea to get it on paper. You might see connections you missed otherwise. You might also pursue different market strategies for different groups of products, so it’s good to have an understanding of that.
- Your business strategy. How will your business actually make money? What kind of business model are you actually using? This is also the area where you’ll dive into how your business is structured, if you need employees, and other details along those line.
- Your financials. If you’ve never taken a look at your numbers before, this section is critical. Don’t skip it because it seems scary to you. Without a thorough understanding of your finances, your business can’t grow. Start by calculating your business expenses, and how much money you’d like to make in a year. Take a hard look at the profit margins and pricing of your products. Then figure out how many products you need to sell each month. Is this realistic? If you’re not selling that many products a month, what can you do to get there? And how will it change your bottom line and your previous calculations?
If you’ve never taken the time to write a plan for your business, now is the time. Carve out a few hours this weekend or over the next week and put your thoughts on paper. If you think you don’t have time, keep this in mind – if you just keep doing the daily tasks for your business, without ever stopping to think about the big picture, it’s unlikely to grow. Take the time to develop a realistic strategy for business growth and it will pay off in the long run.
You can read more about growth in this week’s posts on CMBA and over at Scoutie Girl.
I’m always shocked when I realize I’ve been doing this for 6 years, and have never written a business plan. It’s been on the To-Do List in my brain for years, but I’ve never pushed myself, because I always figured, hey, my business is doing fine as is. But you’re so right, without knowing what the big picture is, and knowing where I want to go, I will never get there.
I did write a list of goals out once while I was at a conference, and then forgot about it in the back of some notebook. I found it a few years later, and it turned out, I had hit a lot of those goals already, like getting some national press. But there were others I had completely forgotten about, and I can only imagine how much I would have grown if I had been consciously working towards them all the time.
Thanks for giving us all a kick in the pants to keep us moving and growing!
I am so glad I found this site. After reading just a few of the articles I’ve discovered I have A LOT of work to do!! Thank you for laying out a simple way to write a business plan, I was looking online at sample plans and got overwhelmed. And I really need a plan because I’m just throwing things up in my etsy shop, tweeting, flickring, and that’s sort of it. How is that going to get me anywhere?! I love etsy, do not get me wrong, but it’s so easy to list and get people on the site to look at your stuff that I think the easiness is a little detrimental to running a successful online business.
Enough rambling, I’ve even confused myself!
-Rachel
Another great post !
I used my local Small Business Enterprise Centre (Toronto, Ontario) to help me with my business plan. ..and best of all their consultation services are free for people starting a business. They also hold regular workshops, and I can email my contact with any questions.
It really helped to take the mystery out of writing a business plan, and it helps when you have someone pushing you to stay on track and meet your goals.
Check your local government services to see what’s offered.
Thank you for this, it couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m just starting out and have this information will get me started in the right direction.
Hi Megan, thanks for your sharing. Actually, I have a business on my mind. Now, I am thinking do I need to create a personal website first or go to etsy. I don’t want to spend too much money to test my water as I am indie business. I read your blog before talking about etsy online selling products which is not expensive because there are not competitor.
Thanks
ricka
I’m so glad I found your blog through Piddix! This is a wonderful resource, and I’ve added it to my Google Reader so I can check in often. Thanks for the great information!
I am so glad that I found this website through the Etsy newletter! I am copying and pasting articles and comments into MSWord so that I have “outlines” to follow. I have a jumbled-business-idea-plan-sort-of-you-know going on, but haven’t seriously penned anything. It’s been on my “to-do” list for ages. This article and the comments following have inspired me to actually BEGIN my business plan. Like many other artists/designers….my ideas flow and I itch to begin a new pattern or prototype before I’ve fully completed a previous design or story line. Thank you so much for the knowledge I can gather here; I feel fortunate to have these resources (along with an automatic group forum through the comments, questions, and answers found here) at hand. Such inspiration! And…always wonderful to know I’m not alone.
Lizzie
There’s definately a great deal to know about this subject.
I really like all the points you’ve made.
It shows your customer how they will save money, get skinny,
or live longer with your product. This is the importance of having a good mailing
list. Well, one viable option could be presented but
sending an interactive pop-up mailer.