Roadmap To Success
Last week, in the first post of the business planning series, I asked you to write down your goals. Now it’s time to start putting them into a plan because goals without actions aren’t going to get you anywhere.
Think of your business plan is a road map or GPS. A path to follow to get somewhere complete with construction, re-routing, and often HUGE obstacles.
Being an entrepreneur isn’t a linear path and it is easy to get off track you’re your core purpose. Personally, I’ve found it at times to be a life vest. When I’m paralyzed with fear or frustration that maybe what I’m doing isn’t going to work, my plan helps me to put one foot in front of another so I can keep working toward the goal until my mojo comes back.
We all have those bad days, and when you lose ground because of them it makes you feel worse, and that can be a slippery slope. Your plan should be simple. You don’t want to spend so much time writing, re-writing, and tweaking your business plan that you never get around to implementing it and don’t get so married to your business plan that you refuse to alter it.
Even if it’s obviously not working. I know that behavior might sound crazy, but I’ve seen it happen time and time again.
The plan doesn’t need to be perfect, and it’s not set in stone. It’s a working document, one that will give you guidance and direction, but will also need to be adjusted from time to time.
Some common elements to include in your plan are as follows:
Vision – your global goal.
Mission – how you will attain that goal.
Target market – Who is your audience and what do they want?
Products and Services – Are you just going to have eBooks or will you add paperbacks and audio books? You might even think about other products to complement your books. Coffee mugs, t-shirts, swag type things.
Market and Marketing Strategy – Do you have a strategy for getting the word out there? How will you market? What is your budget? What is the best way to reach your audience?
Financial Plan – How much will all this cost? The great ideas, the implementation, marketing, fancy business cards. What’s your expected return? When will you break even and when will you be profitable? If you don’t have any money to invest, that’s OK. Most of us don’t. There are many free tools out there and bootstrapping, building a company with personal finances and revenues from new business – not outside money – is all the rage these days.
While that list might seem overwhelming, it’s not if you break it down in pieces and don’t over-think it. That would be my key advice. Don’t overthink it.
If you’re a blogger, it would be easy to put off writing a business plan until you feel your blog is gaining traction. If you’re an author, you might be thinking you haven’t finished your first book yet. Or you only have a couple of books out, and it’s not yet a business. I have news for you. Yes, it is. You want things moving in the right direction from day one so do it now.
Create that solid foundation before you build your empire, and things will be smoother sailing. It will also help your mindset if you treat what you do as a business and not as “this thing I do.”
You ARE a BUSINESSWOMAN!
Your goal this week is to take those awesome goals from last week and start to write down your framework on how to get there.
It’s the HOW.
HOW are you going to reach those goals?
If my goal is to make $10,000 this year from blogging HOW am I going to do that? How does my vision connect with that goal? What is my target market? I need to know in order to decide what actions are going to get me to connect with that audience and therefore earn money through a revenue stream.
If my goal is to make $10,000 this year from my fictions books it’s the same process. How does my vision connect and keep me inspired and engaged? Who am I trying to connect with as readers? What do they want?
Download this worksheet and get started. Hop on over to the Facebook group if you need help or send me an email.
If you’re ready to start on your business plan you can get my full ebook and companion workbook for $5. But hurry. It won’t stay this low forever.
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